MY TRIBUTE TO THE "JAY"S

Certain lessons in life are learnt not by solving numericals....not by doing assignments....but by listening to some extraordinary speakers who can pass on their thoughts to you in a manner that your complete thought process gets modified. After attending the lectures of Jay (Prof. Joseph Russo in Managerial Decision Making) and Jay (Prof. Jay Anand in Strategy implementation), I have started loving strategy more than ever.

Some students say strategy is "no substance", but I feel the lessons learnt in such courses, if properly imbibed are much more valuable for a successful manager than any other course. And when strategy topics are instructed by orators like the "JAY"s, you just cannot afford to miss it.

As Jay (Prof. Anand) puts it

"Undergraduate students are more concerned with grades. Post graduate MBA students with no work experience are more concerned about getting the job. Experienced people who attend the lectures after work ex are concerned about how to implement changes within organization and create a better environment."

A person who has spent a few years in the corporate world is much more likely to appreciate the subtlety of these strategy subjects than somebody who has not experienced substantial work experience.

My tribute to such great teachers...

AN EARLY DEPARTURE NOTE

I don’t like to read other people’s letters, but some how I could not raise my eyes from the beautiful lines that my neighbor in the strategy class was writing. It was a colorful departure note she was writing for one of her friends who will leaving to Haas for her exchange studies. Such exchange studies last for quite some time and by the time the students return to ISB, the regular batch must have left the campus long back.

I could feel a kind of mixed feeling….happy because I will back to work life again…and will out of the MBA grilling….but then a moment later…I could realize how much life will change after we get out of ISB….just two more terms….and we will be out to face the real life…dispersed in different places…away from all the familiar faces.

Sorry S… for reading what you wrote…

SOLSTICE

The solstice was concluded today...It was great to see alums of all batches till date. The alum reunion was not without advices. The seemingly wiser people did advice the class of 2007 with numerous placement related wisdom. Some people advised to take placements lightly...some others advised to go for the kill. And some others advised to value the real assets, one is likely to take out of ISB.

Two lovely parties were hosted by the alums...with typical ISB flavor. It is really nice to see the emotional attachment that our alums share with our institute.

CHRISTMAS CELEBRATION IN ISB

Time for the Christmas Carol








Santa with the ISB kids

The Christmas tree of SV-1

THREE UNIQUE B-PLANS

Entrepreneurship is always high in the radars of ISB and as a measure of the reflection, the business plan awards were recently given to three very unique business plans from the class of 2007.

1.The First Prize went to a product titled ‘Onbyx’, which enables users to receive and respond to email on their mobile phones in a more convenient way than what is currently available.

2.The second prize went to an idea called ‘Swacch Jaldhara’. The plan had conceptualised an efficient water purification method by using liquid chlorine. The team has further developed the technology to produce chlorine in a highly cost effective manner.

3.The third prize winning business model was “Media on Wheels’.This plan aims to tap into the Rs 2000 crore annual rural advertisement and promotion budget of product and service companies by using innovative content and the latest technology tailored to meet rural needs.

Kudos to all the entrepreneurs in making.

A DAY IN KARIMNAGAR

Often the MBA classroom lectures deal with the same common theme - the "process of value creation". Today was a day when I could feel a very different system of value creation...

N, R and myself had a trip to a place called Karim Nagar which is around 3 hours drive from Hyderabad.

We met some microfinance institutes and various self help groups, who seem to have benefited from the presence of these micro finance institutes. On the surface, the concepts of micro finance look so simple, yet they are such great discoveries....or shall I say inventions...the complete system of group lending and micro credit.

So many poor, uneducated people have benefited from this system…and yet there exists tremendous scope to create wealth in this process…thus adding value to all the stake holders involved. These so called poor and uneducated people even possess the wisdom to humble the so called more educated people.

One of my friends kept on questioning the methodology followed by the micro finance institutes in India…..and why our success rate is not as noticeable as that in Bangladesh….blah blah… and kept on pestering the fact that India should replicate exactly the same model as that followed in Bangladesh.
I was really amazed when one of the persons from these groups responded back in broken English “Saab…This India….Bangladesh different country…..not possible do same in India…their government different”. This person seems to have better outlook than MBA students from one of the most sought after schools of the country… Again... made me think the correlation that MBA education shares with the very basic common sense. Sometimes in the process of learning complex jargons and devising structural thinking, we just forget this common sense, which often is the most important ingredient towards developing a sensible solution.

I don’t have great passion for micro finance, yet I realize that there is something very powerful within this concept.

CLASS OF 2008 - R1

Exactly a year back, I had the same feeling, when the R1 results were out...seems like yesterday. It is so difficult to believe that one year has passed after that...and this one year has been like a dream...and the closer I come to the fact that we will be leaving ISB soon, the more I appreciate this fact. The R-1 results for the Class of 2008 are out and I wish all the admits a huge congrats. Having said that, I will suggest them to get the best out of life during this period as it will be difficult to expect such a period in life again.

For those who were slighly unlucky on a particular day....not to worry at all....keep the spirit on and soon you can realise that "whatever happens, happens for the good".

THE "M-FACTOR"

The perceived M-Factor in the campus has left the consulting wannabes drooling. The big M posted its job a day back. The new M (first timer in ISB) is even more interesting with lot of speculations. Lots of case study booklets, interview preparation guides, case consolidations have been floating in the mail box since the last couple of days.

The first round of shortlists of G and a few other companies were announced today and people are again back into company specific studies.

The appeal of consultancies in b-schools is simply awesome. Quite a bit a glamour is associated with consultancy based jobs, apart from the remuneration based reasons. Early trends suggest that consultancy based jobs will be real hot show this year too, with some new recruiters in the scene.

FRAME AND LUCK

Lately, in one of the classes I have been exposed to this concept called "Framing". In the layman's language, framing is nothing but the mental image given to a practical situation. Different frames provide different perspectives to the same situation. For instance, the frame which a operation person uses to view a problem is vastly different from that used by a marketing professional. This is the reason behind clashes in the two or more viewpoints and smart people know how to deal with such issues.

There is one particular issue, which has confused me. And the issue under debate is "Does luck plays an important role in the success of a person or a venture".

Well, I remember one of the professors of entrepreneurship was very much against the concept of luck. According to him, luck is a concept which is used at hindsight while tracing the career path of a successful person. But somehow, I couldnot agree with him. He looks things from his frame.

There are so many achievements, which are like jackpots. There are so many cases when equally talented people miss out what others so easily get. They follow the same trajectory, but somehow land up in different places. From my frame of understanding, luck does play a fairly important role in our life.

Two different frames...a complicated question...and a confused mind.

MORE STORIES

1. Our Honorable Prime Minister advised us "Think global, act local".

2. My worst ever performance in any form of exams (and that includes the complete span of my academic career) , as marks of one of the courses of the last term was revealed... was nothing but expected....that concludes how poor I am when it comes to work with numbers ...completely out of touch with numbers for ages now.

3. Dada scored one of the most important innings of his career and perhaps things will look brighter for Indian cricket. What a fighter...this guy is?

4. Term- 6 is almost half way through and it will get over on the New Years day. No midterms for me this time.

5. Placement PPTs are in the process of getting scheduled one after another.

6. Some exchange students have already left and some others are likely to join. Exchange students are so much a part of ISB these days.

EVENTS AFTER EVENTS

One event after another….the string of the sophisticated events is just mind boggling. It started with the ILS and the 5-Year Celebrations. ISB has completed 5 years and I doubt if any academic institute has ever achieved this kind of stature within the first five years of the inception. And the Dean says that the first five years were just the beginning….the real growth is likely to happen from now….when ISB enters the second phase. With Global Logistics Summit and Entrepreneurship summit lined up, things are set to be real hot in the campus. The Honorable Prime Minister of India will be in the campus early in the day tomorrow and will inaugurate the Global Logistics Summit. Many leading industrialists and educationists from all over the globe will be there in the campus for the next couple of days to share their expertise in their respective fields.

The campus looks entirely different. There are more security officers and police officials on the roads than students. Atrium is already closed and no one is allowed to enter except a very privileged few. Classes will be suspended tomorrow morning and the dining hall is temporarily shifted to the recreation center. Our very own ISB will no longer be ours for the next couple of days. Yet, it is such a great feeling to see all these great things happening.

RESUME WRITING - LEARNINGS

Often, in our group meetings, we face varied opinions. Five different people have five different ways to solve the same problem and yet none of them could be wrong. Each of these people sees the same problem from different frames, and thus unravels different aspects of the problem. After appreciating this whole concept in many of the projects which we did in groups, I feel the importance of framing, and understand the fact that, consulting different people from diversified background is more pronounced when it comes to resume reviews.

Every person who does a sincere review of your resume is likely to contribute to the betterment your resume. For instance, when my resume was reviewed by one of my batch mates from the iron and steel industry, I realized that I need to better my resume in certain aspects. Similarly, when another batch mate, this time from information technology reviewed my resume, I got to know of facts which I myself could never have thought of. Now that I have mentioned about resume, let me pen down my experience on resume making. I admit that I am at a very beginning stage of the learning curve, however no harm in putting down my understanding till date.

(1) The first thing which I learned recently is the fact that your resume is NOT the description of your job profile. It is rather based on what skills you learned during your job, and how you used those hard learned skills to differentiate yourself from others who share the same job profile. In simple MBA lingo, your resume should be able to reflect the value you added to your organization.

(2) Secondly, the fitment of the mentioned skills with the next stage of your aspiration should shine brightly from your resume.

(3) Always indicate measurable indications. Without measurable indications, things look incomplete. If you are an engineer, you should provide simple, understandable numbers so that the reviewer can estimate how good an engineer you are. The idea is that these numbers should describe how effectively you managed your team or how quickly you completed your project etc.

(4) Simplicity is again the key. As far as practicable, avoid complicated jargons. A person from a different industry should be able to understand and appreciate what is mentioned in your resume. In case you need to mention complicated research topics, which you think your resume cannot do without, then make sure to write a line which will help the reviewer to understand the importance.

(5) As far as practicable, stick to the principle of “one page” resume. Most organizations consider this sacrosanct.

(6) Some strong hobbies and personality traits like knowledge of international languages, or great social service etc. should always be mentioned. However, NEVER misrepresent anything.

(7) Know your resume inside out. Any question targeted to the resumes should be answered back in the most convincing manner.

(8) More the number of people who review your resume, the better it is.

That’s all what I can write now. More resume writing tips as I move ahead in the learning curve.