Sleeping Secrets!

With the amount of mosquitoes in my part of Chennai, my sleep cycle is largely determined by the amount of mosquitoes choosing to visit that night. I had the whole house netted, and the rats ended up, biting the net and create a gaping hole. I close all the doors and still the mosquitoes have found their way inside. I have a few devices(Good Night) that claim to kill mosquitoes, but I see the law of "survival of the fittest" and the mosquitoues are still around.

The only thing that temporarily works, is switching the AC on 16 degrees for the night. Not the right cost to pay, just to battle the damn mosquitoes.

Ok. I wanted to type more, but between this post, I have hit 7 mosquitoes, and there is enough work for my maid, to clear the mess on the floor.

Its that time of the Year- L'Attitude 13 05

A year and a half back, the sequence of numbers 1305 made no sense to me until somebody pointed out that 13 o5 was the latitudinal location of Chennai, and that was how the name stuck for Great Lakes annual B school fest. Preparations started 4 months before towards end of July, and that's when things were looking really hazy. The man core committee was chosen on the basis of how people had contributed to some of the intra event that had taken place in the first three months at B school. Obviously some were happy, some were peeved that their name didn't figure, but guessed right that irrespective of whose name is there or not there, the ones wanting to contribute always would.


It was remarkable seeing the way things unfolded on the day of the event, which underlies the hard work that went into making an event like this. Commitment, they say is when you work when no one is watching and that was imminent all over the campus, as you saw a bunch of people in one corner deciding on how could we make the poster, what theme should we go about with, who would fix the venue, what size of backdrop do we want? A thousand questions spread across a motley crowd of 20 odd people, and the challenge wasn't to just cut through the chaos, but to preserve the quality of work, even as chaos surrounds.


Just as the pace of work increased, came September and October, where internships took a month of our time, and to come back after that and start was the feeling of starting from 0, after scoring a hundred in the first innings. Though it was tough to resume work all over again, thanks to some amazing teamwork, we were able to put in double the amount of effort.But as D-day neared, people who were no where connected with the event started helping out, and the events committee started to make internal events to drive the festive mood home. It was tough playing jekyll and hyde, with one part of your mind is on the festive mood, and the other part of your mind trying to meet deadlines with subjects and assignments. As the proverb goes, cometh the hour, cometh the man, we had enough adrenalin to cope up with the barrage of educational rigour thrown at us, to emerge victors. I guess words can only sum up little of the times then. Even though I was not somebody who worked tirelessly all though, I do know the core team that worked its heart out to put together a great show.

I'd suggest you have a look at a video that we made, which would aptly summarise "The Making of L'attitude 07". L'attitude 08 , the Annual B-School fest of Great Lakes Institute of Management is happening in Chennai on the 20th of December 2008. To know more click here and read the L'attitude blog here

SCMHRD- Insecurity?

Me-too-Branding- Symbiosis-Pune

I happened to see this advertisement in Outlook, when they carried a story on B schools and their unexplainable rankings. I always thought SCMHRD was a decent B school, but it looks like they seem to have dug themselves in a hole with their name, which has positioned them as a HR B-school. They are trying to reverse that by spending a few lakhs on re-branding themselves, but what is tough to swallow is the way they are doing it. Showcasing that their students won some random case study contest, and thus saying that their B school is intelligent in other aspects also, is a bad case of I-want-attention- syndrome that lower rung B schools like IIPM resort to. I once saw a B school advertise that their school won 3rd prize in debate and 2nd prize in Rangoli at some local college and that was advertised as one of the USP's. Schools like XLRI are also largely percieved as HR B schools but the brand is so strong tha despite that, their grads get placed in other functions to(especially people who've taken the BM discipline instead of PM&IR). Private B school positioning is an interesting aspect in a largely cluttered market. How do u decide which B school is right for you. IIPM and its likes tries to show boys and girls in a self important pose and usually plug a long message from its dean, and puts some attention grabbing techniques like "IIPM-dares to challenge IIMs". Now that SCMHRD has done such an advert, I hope these guys get serious about their Brand equity and get an ad/branding/PR agency to manage their brand, else the serious Snap aspirants may give it a miss, as the ad sounds pretty IIPM like. ( Nothing against IIPM, just that their advertising makes me fall from my seat every time). I am sure SCMHRD is a decent B school, and they just dont need this insecurity feeling, to go splurge on print media advertising in such a manner.

Chanced on This

Found this piece on my Professor who taught us International Entrepreneurship at Great Lakes. His classes were phenomenal in the sense that it taught us how business plans change in reviews and presentations to VC's and how an idea and can be pruned over and over again to make it look sellable!

IIPM Best B-School in India-Did You Know That?

Can't believe CNBC actually published this story on IIPM !

In the age of news reporting, where every news is Breaking news, I am sure this story finds its place. IIPM's recent ads talks about 2 students who made it big with some big international company. One says that IIPM was instrumental in getting her an admission abroad. So it means that the foreign degree helped them to get where they are. Cant IIPM's thinktank even figure this when they place the ad spending crores on print media?

Man, I get my daily dose of laughter when I look at their ads. Now they have gone overboard with this news. I am sure the folks at IIPM will now buy more premium print space to announce this. Where IIPM really offers unmatched value, is as a 'valued advertiser' willing to burn money, and the amount of hype it generates in the media(print/web/tv). The media will love talking about them, as IIPM always raises eyeballs with saner folks, who create bad blood, and with the rest who see them as the messiah for the one's who didn't make it past even a basic grade in CAT.

IIPM is not yet there, and they need to stop making an ass of themselves. It would be great if such an institute really challenges the TOP 10 B schools, as that would mean more quality students passing out. As on today, I dont quite think IIPM is anywhere close to it(dont ask how, gut feel, seeing their ads)


Ok, I stop here. Cant take so much laughter for an evening!
Publish Post
Thanks Vipul Singhal, for pointing this link, and making my evening memorable

The Last one Year!

Life in the past year has been a roller coaster ride at Great Lakes. Life has seen the joys, the moments of exhilaration, the darker moments and disappointments also. When one comes to a B school, every body comes with the aim of becoming a transformed person who then goes on to make his mark later in life. Transformation- The English dictionary defines it as , especially extreme psychological or character change, as in the context and vocabulary, but a B schooler wants something more. Well to get an idea, how’s this for that something more? Financial transformations on the paycheque from being software engineer to a strategy consultant/investment banker. A Bschoolers life ideally revolves around first getting subscribed to the fact that this one year is going to be a no-pay year, and they would have to keep costs low, and manage accounts well. They are into the second month at B school and their accounts seemed to be managed well so far, until Financial/Management Accounting comes and reminds them that there is lot more to accounting than what meets the eye. They start to pay closer attention to terminologies like CREDIT and DEBIT, by looking hard at their online bank accounts, and figuring out that life could be so much more easier without so much complex accounting. If those were the first instances of troubling your normal life, here comes the killer whale in the dreaded Stats. Statistics, made us realise how important was it to stay afloat on the sea of numbers and formulae, and we all started paying serious attention to that ubiquitous software called Microsoft Excel that you borrowed from your friend. Apart from all this was to wait in Eastern Philosophy for the noose to be hung around your neck when your chance came to answer, and it was in those moments that I discovered my strengths of predicting my probability of answering a question right was far closer to what Aryabhatta called zero, and depended on arbit and desperate participation to get some points against your name.

B school life is not all that dull and boring, with exams and pre reads. It depends on how you want to make use of the time post dinner. Dinner at the nearby dhabas became a good networking ground for most folks and conversations frequently hovered upon how one got good North Indian food in Chennai, which would unanimously turn out as the next mass networking joint. When folks were too tired after dinner, and didn’t want to devote their attention to the pre reads that were outstanding from the previous information transaction called Class, a bunch of intelligent folks found out how to form a movie club and play movies in the classrooms that were deserted at night. The MNMC(Mid Night Movie club) had movies of all genres and at times even was the host of many stress breakers like the all night carrom tournament and the Counter Strike networking sessions.While some saw strategy in Kotler and Porter, others swore by Age of Empires. In between the din and chaos of the gamers, were silent souls who in other classrooms would be holding a joint meeting to analyse the case given the previous day even as sleep would threaten their logic and resolve.

3 months into B school, one is used to snooze sessions in between classes (for 15-30 minutes) to catch up on those divine moments of peace, extra snooze sessions in classes, and crazy expectation of profs to accomadate pre reads and case study analyses. We learnt the importance of qualititative multitasking and forming strategic joint ventures, so that the group did well in the next days presentations. We still pride ourselves for becoming detectives at night, solving cases all night, to discover that 10 other groups have done much better than your so-called-solution. I for one started hating the word competition for a while, competition in class rooms, cases, pre reads, and even competition to eat lunch beating the queues. Nirvana for a B schooler is snooze, and some like minded friends to step away into a utopian world for a while, as it relieves the stress of the previous day. Life at Great Lakes has helped us to bond better and fight better, keeping the larger objective in mind.All these interactions have helped us see the corporate world and the possible problems that may arise, and the attitude required to take firm decisions.

6 months into Great Lakes, we braved ourselves for the first monetary and functional competition in the race for internship slots. The internship was a peek into the big bad corporate world and just a reflection to remind you that the world out there is not as linear and utopian as a B schooler starts to think after what he calls his “best strategy” in the cases he used to solve.

9 months into Great Lakes, the Pressure and tension was at a all time high, with heavy courses and assessments, competing with monetary dreams, as placement season looms large. Placement season saw a battle that each one was fighting as an individual and as a team, for that was the most tangible take away from the course apart from the eye opening interactions during the courses. Placement season rained jobs and offers, and once that was over, you hardly have the inclination to put even half the effort into the courses scheduled after placement season. The challenge now is to come to college, and not about offering your 2 paisa worth arbit and desperate class participation.

Now as 15 days remain for the program to end, you realise that all that buzz and activity has now settled down in fine dust, that would leave behind traces of an era that just got over. The Junior Crusaders are passing out... and its time for some new wine in the bottle called B school. Long Live the B Schooler’s Life!

Life's Good!

Had been to Women's Christian College for their business fest. Happened to win prizes in Biz quiz, Adzap,Best Manager and Debate. Our team from Great Lakes happened to sweep the awards winning it in every event. We are also awarded the best overall team, and won a trophy for that. The trophy was given to us by Radhika Sarathkumar, who happened to be the chief guest for their event at WCC. Finally the WCC girls were really accomadative and made sure that we were able to participate across events. They have a very good and down to earth event management team, and this is what you expect when you get to a fest. I remember so many colleges displaying a cocky attitude and feigning self importance, but the WCC hospitality was really good. The team from Great Lakes was Myself and my usual quiz partner Sunil Krishna Prasad and we also had Shriram Bharathan, another avid quizzer joining us. 2 group events victories and 2 individual event victories made our day :-)





Brough me back memories to the good old days of engineering when I spent most of my semesters in other engineering colleges, whiling away my time at symposiums and fests. Felt young all over again... :-)





Here are some picures from WCC

The Overall Winners Trophy

Three of us recieving the award from Radhika Sarathkumar at Women's Christian College.

Holi Hain- Images from Great Lakes Campus!

Pooran has just returned after being sprayed with colours and slushy water

I look like an alien with my vest and shirt ripped apart in Holi madness. Thats the first time I celebrated Holi

It makes quite a difference when a corpulent guy like Neeraj is made to remove his shirt. Neeraj seemed to give quite a complex to some of the girls with his build :-)

We could have easily been mistaken for colourful beggars, but standing outside a business school with a Strategic Profitability Management book and talks on Financial Statement probably gave it away that we were B schoolers

Its the last month at B school, and its these moments that make life lighter. Here I am at 4 am, sitting and typing my term paper case on Strategic profitability Management, even as 2 other cases stare at me. Its actually fun, when you slog on a case and you have presented your points well at the end. Felt it with so many presentations over the year.

When did some one say Sunday's were resting? Whoever said it did not have a B schoolers life on his mind at all.

Life is Better!

Right now, am relaxing at home. Placement season is still on, though Placement day is over. The rest of the batch unhappy with profiles or money are busy attending more interview at Campus for the rest of the companies, that couldnt fly down on Placements day. Being a part of placement team was a good experience, especially the nitty gritties in organising it at a Beach resort. Have been hung up on time, so didnt write anything on my blog.

My offers reads like this: Business Analyst at a popular IT company that has the same three letters as TCS, when jumbled(Media Vertical) and a pre placement offer from the place where I interned, for nearly 1 and a half times the salary and a better profile, than company 1. This is probably the best time, to catch up on some snooze and relax to my hearts content, as none of the subjects that had taken, are scheduled this week. I havent been to college for a couple of days, but a couple of assignments and reports are due, which makes my face frown. You seem to have a mirage of relaxation, and the coco shoots a mail talking about pending reports submissions, which we had extended on mercenary reasons of placement.

I feel like taking a holiday, but where to go? Andamans, Goa or Ooty... or some Homestay option rovided by Outlook traveller. Life is starting to look interesting after the mercenary part of the MBA.

40 Hours to Placement Week

Its been a busy week, which has seen a lot of activity, and we are now down to the final stages of preparation. The Placement committe met yesterday and had a final jotting down on companies that were coming to campus. One or 2 last minute pull outs, some last minute insertions, managing the schedule of slotting companies, and sending resumes. I see people who are tense, people who are cool, and some who dont know how to react, to the enormity of the task at hand, as the tangible benefit of the PGPM course is all set to be had in some 40 odd hours. I myself havent prepared on any subject, and have been trying to figure out, how do i distract the interviewer to ask questions only that I like. I should be trying to jot down some notes from saturday night for some key subjects that I have flaunted as my area of interest in the resume. Its a little easier going into placement week, as I observe that having one pre placement offer, from the company I have interned, largely makes you feel, as this is just another event.

I am all set to attend my engineering college Alumni meet today and also attend the Lucky Ali and Karthik music show at Saarang, later this evening.

Cribbing me? Never Again

How much ever I crib against the lack of time for doing all my actvities properly, I seem to have fallen in love with the fast paced life at B school. I was home today for a grand sunday brunch, and fell asleep for 5 hours after that. After I got up, I felt guilty... never had I slept so much continously in a day.(Though I still seem to doze off during class, without much effort).

I seem to feel unchallenged if I am sitting empty, just vegetating. I have a few plans starting tommorow to be more mentally agile at B school and also be more efficient in managing goals and plans. Lets see how the week kicks off. Its back to the all night slog week, with placement season nearing at Great Lakes.

Back to work...

Loosen Up!

Midnight binges of finance books and discussions on derivatives, seem to dominate one set of classrooms, while the other class rooms have smaller group giving the last minute touches for the assignments in ERP, while the HR students seem to be involved in some activity, as the class room floor is strewn with straws and origami designs. It seems like a battlefield that is active at all times, except between 6 am and 7 am, when silence prevails as students use this time to head back to the rooms and get some rest. The last few days have been tense, running from one assignment to the other, burning the midnight oil for the finishing touches to the CGPA's before the placement season starts. Hunger and sleep seem to be my main issues, as too many cases and promises stack up. I feel like a over worked battery that has lost the enjoyment in the MBA program.

I just rewound life over the past 3 years . I was dyslexic to coding at Infy, and after 14 months of confidence taking a beating, I decided to quit Infy and join a job that allowed me to breathe. Sulekha seemed the right panacea, but at as time wore on, the enjoyment in the job was slowly getting lesser, due to some politics played by some higher mandarins of power. I battled on challenging myself parallely with CAT and GMAT preparation and finally reached a stage when I again reached a stage where I wanted to breathe again. CAT and GMAT didnt go as well as I wanted it.

I got a new lease of life with an employment in Delhi, but that was shortlived as the Great Lakes MBA call came along after the Otto Beishem admit fell through due to visa delays in a student schengen visa. April to January, I have run this race and discovered some great friends, some free loaders, some brainy nuts and in the process have observed like a passenger observes for hours at a station, with trains one by one passing him, to the extent that he doesnt even remember which train passes, but just remembers that the chillness of the air, when the train passed was an experience to cherish.

Now Cases and assignments dont really get me started all up. I have taken in too many things and am just waiting for a break, but as soon as I get a one day break, the feeling of guilt breakes through, as some case/assignment would lie staring at me. Nor have I got peace nor have the assignments got my attention fully.

There is a sense of tension in the air, as the mind is mentally prepared to adjust to the workload that the excel file instructs to complete, and sometimes a sense of resignation too. For the past 2 days, I had taken some long walks around the campus area into saidapet, with the music on, and that seemed to have cooled my frayed nerves. Frankly that's the best part of the 24 hours that I look forward to thinking about a make believe world, with the songs buzzing in the ear, as I walk along.... thinking about what I want to do about my life.

Life poses many questions with many unfinished ambitions and desires, all of which takes a back seat, during the mad-helter-skelter life at B school. Am I working more hard to get more of this in the years to come? Sometimes when I ask myself this question, I go numb, as the more I work at things that dont exactly give me time to breathe, I go claustrophobic and the small break becomes the whole object of reward for the work, which ultimately affects the work and the break. I spend the whole day wondering why some crazy bunch of CEO's took some path breaking decisions, and suggest ways to break the problem, by some obscure imaginative reasoning, but when the same applies to decisions in my life I just freeze.

What decisions you may ask? Its like a fight between ego, fame, ambitions and the risk factors and the monetary factors. Newer factors get added....to add to the confusion, when life presents with you with too many options. Strange isnt it? You come to the MBA program to have more options and when you have more options in life, it leads to even more chaos when it comes to choosing. I anyway take decisions based on gut feel in the end, after worrying days over it, so I guess nothing new this time around.

Just feel better penning my frustrations. I guess all this would be laughed at when I take a look at this post 2 years later. Thats life... you keep progressing from one state to another, but the catch is that the problems increase in magnitude too :-). So that pretty much means I have to loosen up for the final leg of this 1 year race. I am 75% complete with the MBA....

Crossing The Ball of Fire!

The Placement season is nearing, 20 odd days remain for me to salvage some lost pride over the MBA I have slept over. In these 20 days, I will also solve irrelevant cases, do some crazy assignments, make B plans, do pre reading wherever possible, do my consulting assignment for the place where I interned, type and co author a research report with a Harvard pass out and an MD of a US firm, attend Pre Placement Talks, assist in the placecom activities and in between all this also make my fundamentals slightly better to get a job. I see the next 20 days and literally stare at the multitude of tasks remaining and the consistent quality of output that is required to make every activity worthwile. It should remain the ball of fire, for me, as I have fundamentally remained a lazy bum, all through my life, with weekends devoted to hedonistic activities like lying on bed, reading magazines, and watching Television.

After some interaction with alumni, during our alum meet last saturday, I have realised that my analysis of employment has not been well thought of, and it requires far greater understanding of the subject as well as the market. It looks as if I have suddenly woken up to the magnitude of things piling up, and this will actually be an acid test for me to go beyond just planning. Its about execution in these few days that will decide the course of life for the next few years. So even as I jot my tasks down on outlook with reminders, hunger pangs reminds me that I havent had proper food through the day...which was littered between a quick noodles in the morning, to some awful lunch at college and some not so good Vadas at the nearby Tea shop.

Time for dinner....

Guilt

I feel guilty for not posting too often. Its not that I dont have time, but when I have time, I usually prefer a nap, or some magazine to peruse. Tommorow is a holiday at College, may be I would have time for posting some pending travellogues and posts, which have been penned on paper, but not typed.

January 2008-The Month of Fests and Racing Pulse

The month of January seems a packed fun filled month

, and I want to make the most of it. There's Saarang, Intaglio(IIM C), Backwaters(IIM K) and Kurukshetra(Anna University,CEG) happening, and I should be going to all of them, unless something drastic happens at college. I havent spared the time for managemen fests for the first 6 months of my 1 y ear MBA, which makes the last 6 months, all the more worth enlivining. Also making the month very critical is placement season at Great Lakes, which happens towards end of January. Basically summed up, its the month of adrenalin.

What a fortnight!

The last 2 weeks have seen me sleeping very less, averaging between 3-4 hours every day due to heavy workload and actually not-so-good efficiency of working. A tiring mind, always takes that much longer to charge up and work full throttle. All the hardwork for Latitude, in making the videos, finally paid some dividends, no goof ups. What was really impressive was to find the unbridled enthusiasm that batchmates had in conducting L'ATTITUDE. I enjoyed evry inch of the sessions except for the times when the auditorium was empty as the other events were conducted in the conference halls. Its been a hectic weekend, at the venue...running helter skelter to put up a good show, and the madness continues. Pending assignments, cases, and readings have piled up. I promised myself that I would be a better student this term and try and learn things better(placement season is round the corner), and right now, I foresee a lot of effort that may be needed to sell myself to employers.

Read more about press releases about L'ATTITUDE right here

Would write in detail about L'ATTITUDE, in a day or 2, along with a travellogue long pending(My Goa sojourn in November, My Dream Job experience at ESPN).



Till then, its back to B school life

Great Lakes Management Fest

The Online quiz for Latitude 13 05 is up. Do check it here.

Guilt vs Indulgence

I seem to feel like I have been left over in a race, as I ponder over feelings of guilt. Guilt, You may ask why? Guilt because I gave indulgence priority over some basic must-do. Once there is a respite in a B school from classes and case studies for a day or 2, I seem to madly look for peace(by closing my eyes and sleeping) and indulgence.

Here's my crime record for my indulgence last week

Immideately after my Subject FMCG marketing was over... went over to a quiet classroom and laid myself flat with my music player on. Then booked a ticket at INOX for the night show of Dus Kahaniyan. Spent the evening-night at CITICENTRE hogging a double cheese pizza and Bhelpuri, while my comrades in crime belched away at the prospects of eating Non-Veg. Spent some outh watering moments at Inox before ordering butter pop corn.

The Next day, I borrowed some movies from my assamese friend, and watched Caligula, Mouna Ragam and Agni Nakshatram on my Home Theatre system. Admired the Chennai of the early 80's in those 2 tamil movies. The next day, I made some time for a morning trip to Raja Muthiah hall and went for an AVMAX expo on Home Theatre systems. I thought of buying another set of home theatre system with a digital projection tv in a few months. Thats the effect of getting a little over a million Pre Placement Offer :-)

The tiring journey in the Chennai hot sun, made me retire for a few moments into Landmark in Spencers, and my eyes fell on a few "dirt cheap" movies for 69. I ended up buying "Lakshya", "Yuva" and" Passion of the Christ", and burnt a big hole in my purse. It was so tiring that I spent the rest of the day sleeping without any worry about the impending manic monday that was to strike at 3 am on Monday when I got up frustrated after a few repeated mosquito attacks. The prospect of having underestimated my priorities, for the few endless moments of indulgence made me feel guilty, and to add insult to injury, I get chided by parents on how "careless" I am, and a spectator during the India Pak match puts a banner which says " CRICKET FIRST, MBA LATER" and my mother stares at me, as I look at the screen, knowing fully well that there are no directions to hide the face.

But after all the indulgence somewhere down I was still feeling happy that I had watched Dus Kahaniyan. Its a great movie where 10 small movies have been made into 1 movie, with a little over 10 minutes for each small movie. Excellent direction, kept me hooked on.

With about 50 days left for placement and 4 months for the course to end, I am realising the seriousness of arming yourself with enough knowledge to use jargons for a living. Only thing that I am sure of, is not to get into any IT company(the service companies). So as I dwell in guilt, its time to get back to normal life, 3 hour snoozing sessions, classes, presentations, B plans and et all, and when all of that gets freezed for a few moments the glorious cycle of indulgence and guilt will repeat......but a similar blogpost will not :-) .

Life is Digital

I either sleep or do case studies.

FMCG Week

The last 2 weeks have been great with the kind of insights I have recieved from my faculty K.S.Ramesh, who teaches us FMCG Marketing. His real life experiences at FMCG companies and his simple ways of teaching have made me understand the intricasies of FMCG marketing very well. His suprise tests and quizzes, have ofcourse, jolted me, but the case study assignments and the nights spent in decoding the case and having Microsoft Excel/word and Powerpoint for company, has made the last 2 weeks an amazing journey. I am now delving for the final case study tonight for a presentation on Wednesday. K.S.Ramesh is a visiting faculty at Great Lakes and IIM-Indore and runs his own strategic marketing consultig firm.