Government, Society and Business(GSB)

I think this is one of the courses many people won't like but i found it very interesting. The course brings in a whole new perspective about the society and government (business .. we have already had enough of it :) .. well, to say the least, its a whole new world out there which i wouldn't have thought of in the normal course of life.
Its about UNDP .. Indian Government... policies ... state of society and the radical thinkers ...
We had a session today where we were shown a talk by Amartya Sen ... he gave some of the most thought provoking ideas .. one of them was like this ... people want to live and live long .. some of them want to get more of life and enjoy ... some of them have a definite purpose to achieve .... but at the end they all want to live longer .. now if you increase the life expectancy in the economy essentially you are increasing their freedom ... their freedom to achieve what they want ...
Its essential to understand the concept of freedom .. freedom to do what you want. Though the idea is certainly linked to economical progress .. but it has a number of indicators .. freedom to do any thing relates to the holistic development of society ... and that is what everyone should aim at.

Don't boil the ocean

Today was a long day ... I had classes and then two sessions, first one by Sanjiv B, founder of naukri.com and second one was conducted by the Boston Consulting Group.
Sanjiv's talk on Entrepreneurship cleared some of the myths surrounding entrepreneurial life. I really liked his practical approach and no frills lecture. Despite making it big now, he presented the real tough life of the entrepreneurship - aspects like peer pressure, financial struggle and yet the urge to do something meaningful in life were put in a very truthful and believable manner. It was inspiring as well. Being an IIMA alum, he could have taken a high paying job and could have comfortably enjoyed life, but he chose a path full of struggle. With more and more sessions on entrepreneurship, my old dream of being an entrepreneur is reviving itself.

BCG session was one of those gyan session I have got used to now. It was beneficial to ppl who had doubts about consulting life. I have already had my share of these gyan sessions with alumni and hence, had good idea about this gyan. Nevertheless, it gave some good information about BCG, kind of projects they take, culture at BCG etc. Rohit, an ISB alum was a part of BCG team and I got some time to talk with him about life, consulting and ISB. He gave some good insights about his analysis of studies at ISB.
The phrase that sums his approach is "Don't boil the Ocean". It is similar to work smart philosophy.When you know what you want to achieve, estimate how to achieve it and plan methodically the steps you need to take. Instead of trying to work hard and boil the ocean, try to just identify the little steps you need to succeed. This was thought provoking and I really felt that I could have done much better at ISB with this approach. I always think that I am a smart worker but here at ISB I missed that approach a couple of times. Hmmmm .. The notion of working smart is an old one, yet so difficult to understand and implement.

A Set of Tools

Our Managerial Accounting Professor keeps reminding us that the course is just a set of tools and we have to use to them to solve different problems. I think exactly the same way about MBA. Education can just provide a set of tools, paradigms and concepts that can be used to handle business decisions/problems, but ultimately the individual matters the most. Given a situation, the decision/solution is very subjective depending on one's perspective and preferences. Different ppl using the same tools and same process of analysis can come up with very different decisions.

That's the beauty of world of management, its all about our thought processes, our baises and our intuition. MBA education can provide a structured way to think about problems, best practices and different metrics to measure success, yet the crucial aspects of decision making can be developed only through application. I am not underplaying the role of education, what I want to reflect is that education can take us to a certain level, beyond that its individual's ability which matters.
MBA becomes essential because it equips us with some skills in a real short time and helps us take our thinking to a next level.

Bottomline, MBA is essential but not the only way to succeed in life.Doing an MBA can't guarantee success(though it can increase the probability) because ultimately its all about individual's application skills.

Registration open for TIE-ISB

This is for all the present and future Entrepreneurs. Registrations are open for TIE-ISB, one of most prestigious events at ISB. Here's a brief overview of the event:

The TiE-ISB Connect is a joint initiative of The Indus Entrepreneurs (TiE), Hyderabad Chapter and the Centre for Entrepreneurship at the Indian School of Business (ISB), Hyderabad. It is a forum that brings together early stage venture capitalists, start up and growth stage entrepreneurs and academicians, on a common platform to interact and help build successful enterprises. The first TiE-ISB Connect held in July last year was a resounding success with over 300 delegates attending the full-day event. Over 100 business ideas were presented of which about 15 are in different stages of development/ discussion with investors.
The TiE – ISB Connect 06 is scheduled at the ISB during September 20-22, 2006. This year we have significantly up-scaled the scope and magnitude of the event, with discussion tracks on diverse sectors including Internet & IT Services, Bio-Pharma, Media and entertainment, Infrastructure/ Real Estate, Telecom/ Wireless, Semiconductor, and Retail. Each track will have a keynote address by a successful entrepreneur, a review of global trends in the sector by an analyst, and a panel discussion by venture capitalists and successful entrepreneurs on sector opportunities. Entrepreneurs seeking opportunities in these sectors may attend the event as delegates.
The entrepreneur community can also benefit from three specific opportunities: Investor Pitch (Presenting plans to potential investors); Venture Showcase (Exhibiting product/ service) ; Jumpstart your venture (Workshop preparing the aspiring entrepreneur for an exciting journey)

So if you feel you have a great idea or if you have already started with a venture, Tie-ISB can provide you a platform to develop necessary contacts to take it forward. For details, please visit:www.tie-isbconnect.com

Talk by KMPG Global head of technology

Of all the speaker sessions i have attended at ISB, the talk by Mr. Edge Zarella
(KPMG's global head for technology) was really thought provoking.
Actually, this talk was interesting mainly because of the perspective it brought in. A little context here - These guys are involved in the risk management consulting with various corporates investing heavily in the south asian region. Surprisingly, Mr. Zarella didn't talk much about technology and other aspects of work at KPMG (as opposed to the various other speakers who glorify the organizations they work for) and I think it was a clincher. His theme was strategic positioning of India and various other aspects of it. He mentioned about growth of South Asia , the asian miracle and the road forward. One of the interesting concepts in the talk was of country portfolio management by the corporates. Despite India being the most favoured location, corporates don't want to put all the eggs in the same basket and divide the investment in 2 to 3 countries. This risk management exercise is benefiting a lot of asian nations. Think of malaysia, vietnam and you can relate to this.
More than the real content, i was wondering the way big corporate think.. its amazing .. globalisation is on full swing. Businesses are spreading their wings and in this profit maximization drive, world is real the playground.

refocussing myself

Today is the day for introspection. One and half terms are over and apart from learnings from courses, i believe that i have not been able to give time to a lot of activities i had planned before joining ISB.
In the last 2 months, i feel i have lost some of my focus. Did i join the MBA school just for the sake of studies??? No, i had a lot of other things in mind 1. Developing my skills (non-academic ones) 2. Knowing more about the world in general. 3. Learning from peers and networking.

I think i am not doing justice to these non academic things. Given 24 hrs in the day, there are a lot of tradeoffs to make at ISB and we need to be really disciplined to do what we really want to do. The bottom line is that you cannot do everything. Till now, i was thinking that i can manage it all, but at this point, i think I need to let some things go. I need to choose the courses i have to focus on, choose the skills i need to develop, and focus only on a few things which i have always been yearning to do :)

Football Fever

The football fever has gripped ISB campus as well ..... not that it is matching kolkata .. we still don't have people putting flags on their faces or wearing their favorite team's T shirt...
The SLC has put up a big screen outside the rec centre for the soccer fans .. nature has also been kind enough to present a great weather today ...
the now now is to have dinner and then proceed to rec center to catch the action on the big screen :)