Recipe for Success and Recognition

It has been a very eventful week so far. I spent the weekend with my college friend enjoying the royal treatment he serves me every time i visit his place. We spend hours on end chatting on any and every topic under the sun...Back home in Monterey, Monday syndrome usually strikes me once i wake up on Monday morning. But this week something was different. I woke up and checked my mails and I saw the unbelievable news. ISB - which i am going to join in 2 months time has been ranked 20th in the latest Financial Times rankings for global B Schools.

I have never been a great fan of business school rankings and I chose ISB purely because i believed in its quality - students,faculty and the brand reputation in the Industry. But i guess this ranking beats everything. Even a non-believer like me understands the magnitude of this achievement. Just to put it in context, the B school rankings have always been the stamping ground for US B schools and a few elite ones of Western Europe.No B School from India has managed to be in Top 100 of the rankings though i believe that IIMA should definitely have found a place in them just by virtue of the quality of students and unbelievable brand value in India and abroad. True it does not have international diversity, true it does not have professors from US visiting them but the quality of education it has been imparting definitely deserves recognition. But this post is not about IIM it is about ISB, the school that dared to dream and achieve it.

A quick look at the history of ISB, its board members, its roots in industry (both US and India) is enough to understand the rich contacts that it brings on board. ISB has been setup with an improbable aim of being one of the best B schools in the world and in India. This was not an utopian dream but had a lot of rationality as well. In other words the founders had dared to dream and at the same time been active in getting the pieces in place to achieve it. When President Bush came on an official visit to India, he found time to fly down to Hyderabad to visit ISB. I guess that speaks volumes about the contacts the institution has.

So what happens when an aspiring institution (students, faculty and support staff) works tirelessly to materialize a dream to excel and is backed by established global contacts - the result is out there for everyone to see. The whole world has perhaps seen many such examples but this is unique in more ways than one - The school is in India and the founding members are not westerners but powerful and influential Indians. Finally we have made a hole in the elite class of B schools where the snobbish Harvards and Whartons London Business schools reside. This ranking should act as a shot in the arm for ISB and fuel the aspirations even further. As the dean said, this is the start of a positive feedback loop of more visibility,international recognition, more funds, more recruiters, better faculty, better students which would lead to better visibility. Hope i can contribute to the dream in one way or the other. For now I am just happy for one thing - ALL BEST THINGS IN THE WORLD DOESNT NECESSARILY HAVE TO BE OUTSIDE INDIA

ISB's global recognition....

The judgement day finally arrived on 28th Jan'08, when FT published the global ranking of top B-schools from around the world. Quite astonishingly, ISB had positioned itself at the 20th place in that ranking. It was a indeed a moment of proud, not just for the ISB fraternity, but for the whole of India as a nation. Not only ISB had surpassed the likes of Duke, Haas, darden and its own ally Kellogs in the overall ranking, it had topped the specific category rankings of highest salaries for consulting and finance.
Until now, people have been keeping their fingers crossed and kept wondering as to where does ISB stand vis-a-vis globally top ranked B-schools. No there wasnt an iota of doubt wrt its world class infrastructure, extremely talented faculties drawn from top B-schools, a diverse student mix, research oriented curricullum. Still this kind of recognition is what's needed to put it on the global map and establish it's true reputation. FT is considered one of the most reliable sources, for MBA aspirants from around the world, of comparative analysis of different MBA program. The criteria used for the ranking are comprehensive and data are processed to make the comparisons reasonably accurate.
ISB is, thus now, one of the youngest institutes to make it to the top 20 and the only indian one in that list. from the very onset it had established a vision for itself to be a globally top ranked, research driven business schools which would strive to groom business leaders who would not only take on the challenges of ever evolving business world but will set new trends of leadership and enterpreneurship. This ranking has substantiated the fulfilment of the vision to a great extent and now will draw in talents from around the world to an even larger extent.
It may prove to be a much required thrust to India's march to becoming a global force to reckon with and will help boost our confidence .
kudos!!!! to ISB, to India.......

Nothing succeeds like success..

Behind every successful life is the wary of 200 lifes who did not succeed. Its the game we humans play all our lives. ISB's making it to top 20 has risen many eye brows. The moment this news is broken to big league B school grads, they start giving points against it.
I will put forth some points. Its not just ISB MBAs, its a victory of your nation. Its a testimony of millions of life which bracket under umbrella of tag "Indians". Its the pride for a nation which was brutually killed under slavery and which fought for its freedom.

a) Above everything else, this is victory of my country. There are millions of indians who go abroad to study because their nation was not considered to be the best of the best in terms of providing education. Look at the smiles on faces of indians studying abroad. They now know that they are not a minority, soon they wil have the world coming to their door steps. I have friends doing MS in US of A who flashed ISB making it to top 20, so its high time we digest the BIG victory.

b) Say whatever you have to say for rankings. Hard facts- FT rankings are most reputed in world. We have all parameters open in air for people to judge. ISB has been attracting best of the bests for last 5 years. Its we the people. We might not be the core academicians, who work on quant day and night. ISBians are not selected on their knowledge of GK and how well they can vomit out the figures. ISBians are selected for logics, thought process and courage to fight failures in life. The selection process has academics as one part of it, rest of it is all about leadership, intelligence, smartness, and ability to confer and analyse situations. It takes courage to take a path less travelled and win on it. And if you think institutes manipulate to get a ranking, you may be right. But then it appears to be true for all 100, so battle ground is very much at level. I would say that if Stanford can do it and make itself brand Stanford, we should do it as well. Its high time we stop thiking in stereotypical way.

c) For critics, respect the fact that here is an indian institute which dared to go out to world and test its waters. A ranking of lower than 50 could have made it loose its glamour. It dared to face success and failures with equal grace and it marks the beginning of Indian b school battles in times to come. I am sure there will be a day when we have Indian b schools fighting on global charts while historical ivy leagues watch us play game. :)

Lets take pride in being Indian. I mark this blog to thank all the alums, staff, facility maintenance people and ISB aspirants. We have shown faith in our nation and its products. Its the faith that alums showed for last 5 years that has been given an endorsement.

Cheers to the ISB community!! The only response to the world is "Nothing succeeds like success." I will rest my case here. Flash that card which makes the world look upto you, forget about all other logics for behind every logic is a counter logic. Time to celebrate, we have created a history.

India Shines with ISB

The day is 28th jaunuary, 2008. I enter into office and open my outlook. It is a mail from an alumni stating ISB makes it to top 20 in FT global b school ranking. The moment strikes me straight in head. Boss, here all discussions have led to a way which states, anything in top50 to start with is fine, and this is 20. AMAZING!!
But let me verify this. I click on link and am almost ready to shout in joy. Woooo!! A friend of mine over the weekend said 15 lakhs for a b schools, God knows stands where. I said a b school with an average GMAT of 710 is bound to stand somewhere, but then yes, it might take sometime.
And today, there is this proof, that its done in an year, ISB is ranked 20. No joke, indeed a proud moment for nation. We dared to face the world straight in 5 years and achieved a status which is just not a joke.
The ranking has proven the credibility. This might help us attract geographically diverse crowd in years to come.
However,this blog goes to the young(5 yrs), beautiful(Infrastructure) and successful(FT ranked 20) ISB. ( A friend of mine gave these adjectives and i loved them. )

Cheers!! For the day when the term IVY league will be changed for the history of b schools. :)

Bangalore Meet

We finally had the Bangalore meet of Co2009 on the 26^th of Jan. I was the first one to reach Airlines Hotel. Thankfully I didn’t have to wait for long as people started trickling in from 4:30 onwards. There were close to 15 of us in all. We had the customary rounds of introductions and most of us were from an IT background. But I guess being in Bangalore and expecting anything else would be a folly :)

But the group was a diverse one ranging from people with a little over 2 years of work-ex to folks with 10 years of experience. We discussed various issues over some coffee and Idlis. The topics ranged from the Laptops to telecom spectrum issue in India!! The table then broke down into a lot of small groups with the smokers preferring to form their own cabal. It was interesting to meet up with prospective batch mates and discuss issues and concerns with them. Unfortunately, we didn’t have a single alum attend the meet this time. It would have helped to clarify some of our doubts.

After more than two hours of conversation and a couple of rounds of photo shoots, it was finally time to leave. Paras was generous enough to pay the hotel bills on behalf of all of us. (I really hope he continues with this generosity in ISB too :D)

A few of us decided to hang around for a while. We walked down the road to the HardRock café. After all, what is a Saturday evening without some booze! We continued our debate on ISB V/s IIMs with some Floyd playing in the background and the notorious ‘Hydrocarbons’ in hand. Finally we bid our adieus and headed home.

Looking forward to the next meet sometime in Feb and maybe we’ll have the R2 admits as well.

P.S: Prashant and Suman, where are the snaps?

Information overload

Ever since the results were declared I have been dreaming about joining ISB. More than just dreaming I have also been spending considerable amount of time knowing more about ISB. I have made ISB as my homepage on my office PC. Countless times I have gone through the photo gallery on ISB site. I guess I exactly know how the path curves upto the academic centre from the main gate and how much time it takes to cover the distance. My friend, a current student of ISB, already dreads my number. My mobile bill is consistently hitting credit limit, even though it has been revised upwardly twice. My free time is devoted in following threads on orkut and reading ISB / ISBians blogs. Can't believe that I already know what CP means!!. All my grand plans for 3 months preceding ISB joining all got tossed out of the window. Still I always felt I needed more information........until yesterday.

Yesterday I read a post in general discussion forum of New admits website by Vaibhav of Class of 2008. He said that majority of questions in the forums are related to 'course details' but none are related to student life on campus. He went on to say that the whole campus is available to enjoy (except the Academic centre). On similar lines I thought to myself 'What am I doing?!!'. I am killing all the excitement of going to a new college by gathering so much information before hand. There is no substitute to the thrill of reaching the campus, getting bowled over and saying 'Wow'. Probably there is more fun in initially having some trouble in settling down because of the satisfaction one gets when things start going smoothly.

I will try to control myself from over indulgence in ISB. As they say, one should enjoy little things along the way.

Damn it feels good to be in Consulting

I have been thinking a lot about my post MBA stream. Ever since I was in my B Tech, I have been kind of attracted towards consulting. That was one of the reasons that I took up a job in a consulting firm during the campus placements. I had always felt that there were only two attractive streams Consulting and Finance. Somehow Operations and IT never attracted me and I was not aware of General Management at that time. So I had converged onto Consulting as my career option. I somehow felt that I am good at public speaking and will do well in such a job. Looking back at the past 2 years of my job, I feel satisfied that I had performed considerably above my expectations, especially the kind of roles that I have performed and the challenges that I have tackled. But there is a catch in Consulting jobs, it involves a lot of traveling. Although I have not traveled that much in my current job, that was because I had been plain lucky at times. Yes, I have done a 4 month stint in Bangalore, then sometime in Delhi, Hosur and several other places. But post MBA I won’t be lucky I know.

I came across this video on youtube and somehow that made me do a rethink on the Consulting job. He he he. The line about the lawn boy is surely hilarious and has made me rethink :) Just kidding

Watch this video and enjoy.

Thoughts on the Tata Nano

The Tata Nano was launched this past week amidst much fanfare and hype. People have been quick to laud Ratan Tata for belief in the execution of this 1 lakh car that places itself within the reach of the common man while still giving its manufacturer business viability. One may even go so far as to say that Tata has gone one step further than Maruti in pushing a car that is closer to middle class accessibility.

A few facts before some interesting questions about the Nano :

• According to this estimate the annual car market in India is 1.4 million cars. The same article estimates the total number of 2-wheeler sales in the country to be 5 times the car sales - that is 7 million.
  
• The Tatas plan to put on the street around 5 lakh cars over the next 2-5 years ( 2.5 % of the annual car market). This is a short term figure and assuming they will even capture 10-20% of the 2-wheeler market, one can expect almost 7 lakh Nanos ( 10% of 7 million) in the best case or 14 lakh Nanos (20% of 7 million) in the worst case. In the latter case, the annual market for car sales virtually doubles! Insane, isnt it? All of that isn't happening in a year though, it will take a while to get so many cars on the street.

The Nano is seen in a positive light by many. Some, if not the most publicized positives, are :

- The Nano is seen as a replacement for '2-wheeler families' who can afford the 1 Lakh price tag. From the viewpoint of traffic safety and customer convenience, this is a big plus. While I do not have the numbers, Indian traffic scenarios have a high percentage of accidents due to 2-wheelers. One can expect this number to come down significantly assuming the Nano eats into the 2-wheeler segment.

- Tier B and Tier C cities could well see people going in for the Nanos, especially as the price tag will be viable for people in these cities. On a positive side, more cars in such cities *may* lead to better infrastructure and transport initiatives for these cities. (There's a flip side but I'll come to that shortly)

- On an emotional level, the Nano will see greater convergence between aspiration and accessibility for the common man. Inclusive Growth as we call it will see more people owning cars.

Some of the publicized and not-so publicized negatives now :

- The Nano is all set to congest and burden infrastructure in metros to a level we may not be prepared for. As metros struggle with flyovers, ring roads and other measures to grapple congestion, the Nano means more cars on roads and this may well see longer lines and waiting at signals. One can even make a case for 2-wheelers since they tend to reduce congestion and are able to efficiently use road space and find their way through traffic.

- Fuel emission. The Tatas claim that the Nano meets Euro III and IV norms, which is a good thing. What remains to be seen is whether pollution standards in cities can be maintained with more cars. Obviously this is not an issue directly linked to the Nano as long as it conforms to existing emission standards.

- Fuel consumption. Again a side-issue, nevertheless an important one. More cars will imply more fuel consumption. While the fuel consumption per car is not likely to be an issue, the net fuel consumption as more Nanos come on the road will be. Again, what does this mean for the end customer's pocket and the country's fuel consumption in general remains to be seen.

- Urban sprawl. A lot of people I know have debated this issue. As more cars are bought, it is observed that cities also tend to grow. Often people do not hesitate to travel to work places in city centres from suburbs or from the edge of cities. Does this imply greater congestion in city centres? In the face of lack of infrastructure to support speedy transport, will car-owners simply chuck the car and prefer mass rapid-transit systems? Or will more affordable cars lead to the slow death of public transport and mass rapid transit systems because not as many people will use it as before?

While it is easy to construe this Nano launch as India Shining and get wrapped up in jingoistic fervour, the car itself will raise some interesting questions and demands.

- Will local governments take the cue and speed up infrastructure development in already congested and soon-to-be congested cities? This is at best an optimistic thought given the speed at which our governments are known to execute such projects.

- What will be the role of public transport amidst new and affordable car markets ? I think rapid transport could well get a shot in the arm if infrastructure does not take off.

- As cities grow (and they are likely to), will businesses move their operations to where their employees reside? Highly unlikely considering not every business has this flexibility.

It is one thing to think that Ratan Tata has opened a Pandora's box unwittingly in the process of making dreams come true. It is another if the Nano sets the ball rolling for better roads and infrastructure.

The Kite Runners

Ever observed a group of children chasing a disconnected kite? As the kite slowly advances with the wind, the children follow expectingly, hoping that the bounty will fall upon them. The group becomes agitated as the kite comes in proximity to the ground and the children run in random directions, as ordained by the kite. A lucky fella gets the hold of the end of the string of the disconnected kite, laying claim to it. Another one grabs the string from the middle and lays claim to it, being nearer to the kite. A third one grabs the kite itself as it falls on the ground. The other two come running towards him, laying their claims. In the bedlam that follows, the kite is torn, apart from some clothing.

What would happen if there were three disconnected kites flying in their direction, instead of just one? It's likely that every child will choose his own kite to catch, considering that it will be beyond his ability to catch the second and third kites before the other guys catch them. In such a case, none of the three kites will meet the fate of the unlucky kite in the above paragraph, nor will any clothes. The three children will be satisfied with their respective loots and will not feel as much animosity towards each other as in the case mentioned in the first paragraph.

Any idea why the poorest sections of the world are more prone to violence and become the unwilling cause for destruction of their own resources?

Perhaps the above anecdote can explain a few things.

Sledging Incidents

Hey Guys,

Sorry for deviating from the regular management or professional gyan. Read an article on Time of India, couldn't stop myself from sharing with you all.

The article lists down some of the hilarious sledging incidents.

Article

They are side-splitting believe me

PiccaDelhi Meet - ISB

Was on my way to Shimla for New Year's - had stopped in Delhi for the night - and joined the meet before taking a bus to Shimla.

I reached PiccaDelhi around 1:30 - I was the sixth person to reach. I was a bit apprehensive at first - wasn't sure what kind of reception I would get - not sure what the apprehensiveness was about - but there was this feeling. However as soon as I reached - I felt comfortable - as if I belonged to the group - and it didn't seem like this was the first time we'd met.

We had an initial round of introductions - and I was a bit surprised at the mix of people and their backgrounds. I had naively assumed that most would be techies - more like the nerdy kinds - but I found a motley group of guys very similar to the people I had in my previous colleges. And I had thought I might be stuck for a year with nerdy "brains" who can only think of studying. How wrong I was. The people I met were full of "life" and not at all the studious kinds (and was I relieved . . . .).

Soon more people starting coming in and we had more rounds of introductions (I think we kept on introducing ourselves again and again) Finally we ordered some beer and food - I think by now the waiters had given us up as hopeless and a waste of space. But I guess we made up for it after our orders.

Soon we had a full quorum and finally an official round of introductions. Then the table broke down into the usual inane chatters which everyone (myself included) loves so much. We drank - we ate - we enjoyed ourselves.

One incident I remember is when Kritika asked the question as to who all were married and the question was passed down the table through Prateek (aka talli) and after getting all the answers from the other end (3 married I think) he asked as to who had initiated the question. Kritika mentioned that she had asked and Prateek inquired whether she was married or not and when she replied that she was - his face fell and a loud "OH" came. It was so funny - the entire table started laughing. Of course Prateek did back down and say " I didn't mean it like that" - but it was hilarious.

Then there was a round of tongue twisters courtesy the hotel "clown" - We had to say "Upper Roller - Lower Roller" 10 time fast. Round the table people (including me) bumbled and trumbled till at last Gautam got it correctly. He got a watch as a gift - which he gave to Anurag for arranging such a great get-together.

Finally it was time to leave - we paid the bill - and Vikram (DR VIKRAM) asked if someone had a mobile camera and should take a photograph. Then I remembered that I had my camera in my bag and should have taken it out earlier. Anyways - we managed to get one good photo . .. . .

Little delights all the way

In my previous post I had mentioned that good ad campaigns need to be backed up by positive changes within the organisation. In this post I will narrate an example of a company which exactly did that. It’s about my personal experience with Deccan soon after it started its re-branding exercise. I had experienced flying Deccan before the re-branding. So this time as I entered the airport, I was closely looking for changes with great curiosity.

Deccan already had few good features like ease of booking, quick response helpline, great on-time performance and large number of destinations. On top of this was the ‘delighter’ weapon of Deccan - PRICE. After take over by Kingfisher, all the above remained unchanged. But Deccan corrected a few basic stuffs, although trivial, that truly made the difference, as I was about to find out shortly.

I checked in and got the boarding pass. To my pleasant surprise there was seat number printed on it. I never understood why Deccan was not giving seat no.s earlier. It does not even cost anything to give seat no. Happily I said to myself – Great-Change 1. As I was waiting in the queue for security check in, I noticed upbeat Deccan staff (The staff was now in the same attire as that of Kingfisher) helping out customers and rendering their service (Only later I came to know that all outsourced staff were replaced by airline employees). Nice, I thought – Change 2. Lastly we were served free water on board. Again, a small change that made lot of difference. Change 3.

The re-branding exercise was targeted to reposition Deccan from ‘Simplifly’ to ‘The choice is Simple’. The campaign promised ‘On-time performance’, ‘Wider Network’ both already strong points of Deccan. But more importantly Deccan made a new promise “Little Delights all the way”. From my above experience I could say that the campaign truly lived upto its promises.

Definitely now the choice is simple.

On quitting, feedbacks and what lies ahead.

Wishes on a productive year ahead in each others' company to all those who are reading/registered on this blog. This is my first post here. I run an independent blog over here . Please feel free to visit/comment.

I'll be completing my last week at work this Friday. Inspite of the fact that I'm leaving, my manager insisted that I participate in the Yearly Performance Review (YPR) process. As always, I found the feedback process a great way to become aware (and refresh one's convenient memory) of my development areas. For those of us (and I think most of us) who are still working, I'd strongly recommend participation in some form of feedback. In a sense, even the application process - writing essays, discussing and coming to concrete career goals from a hazy state of mind and the interview itself was the best feedback we could have got about ourselves. While the ISB admit is certainly special, we may be better served if we entered ISB aware of these development areas than in a state of complacency.

During discussions with my manager, a lot of points came out in general about how good managers function and go on to hone their skills. I'm tempted to share some of these ideas on this forum although they may be repetitions of ideas you may have come across elsewhere. These ideas may not apply in all scenarios or situations but generally hold true more often than not:

1. Good managers are usually inclusive and do not hesitate to delegate power with responsibility. Often, we function in environments where we may have felt - what if I had more powers, I could have changed this state of affairs. A good manager allows his group sufficient powers and delegates not just responsibility at times, but even power. Empowering people around us is the best way to go forward, get noticed. Sounds easy, but is particularly difficult when we may have our own insecurities.

2. Anticipation is a skill good managers possess universally. Often, we tend to sit on our accomplishments. Anyone who has read Andy Grove's book Only the Paranoid Survive will know that only those who anticipate change and prepare for it survive the actual inflection periods.

3. Develop instinct. Being able to use your gut feeling when available data is insufficient is a skill that evolves over time. How often are we in a position of making a decision without time/resources/information to guide us? Developing the gut-feel for a situation and tuning this feel to make a sound decision comes with time.

4. Place your ego and your emotions in the trash-can. Hopefully, ISB will teach this lesson in more ways than one. More often than not, we will need to subordinate our emotions to reason - atleast in the work place.

Enough said. I'll now leave you all with some gems taken from "The Daily Drucker" - a book who's author we'll frequently come across in B-school lecture references.

• There is only one valid definition of business purpose: to create a customer. He alone gives employment.
  
• Listening (the first competence of leadership) is not a skill, it is a discipline. All you have to do is keep your mouth shut.
  
• The one person to distrust is the one who never makes a mistake. Either he is a phony, or he stays with the safe, the tried, and the trivial.
  
• There are keys to success in managing bosses. First, put down on a piece of paper a "boss list," everyone to whom you are accountable. Next, go to each person on the list and ask, "What do I do and what do my people do that helps you do your job?" And, "What do we do that makes your life more difficult?"
  
• A decision is a commitment to action. No decision has, in fact, been made until carrying it out has become somebody's responsibility.
  
• Luck never built a business. Prosperity and growth come only to the business that systematically finds and exploits its potential.
  
• Just go out and make yourself useful.

Wishing everyone a good break ahead before the grind.

Hello everyone.

This is my first post on the blog. And I'm so excited about the whole ISB experience that I can't think of anything to say. Writer's block is no stranger to me & when I sit down specifically to write, it's the first thing that haunts me.

These days life is quite routine. More so because ever since I got the ISB call, I have found it difficult to concentrate on work - not to say that I was a very productive worker otherwise. So yes, I'm looking forward to meeting up with the Bombay gang & then finally setting up home in Hyd where we can have all the hydrocarbon guzzling sessions as mentioned by many Orkut-ISBians.

Cheers,

Parikshit.

Fate or Destiny

Many people I have heard do not believe in destiny and fate. They say its all the excuses of the weak-hearted.People make their own destiny they say. This has let me to think in earnest about this matter. What do I feel about this?

Being a guy who has been brought up in a decent surrounding I have been lucky to interact with people from different backgrounds,cultures,religions as well as strata of the society.I have seen my mother having utmost faith in god and HIS role in our fate and destiny. I have seen one of my mother's friends as an atheist and a person who is such a firm non-believer of fate and destiny.I have had friends too who have different points of view about all this. To be honest with you all i too at an early age did not believe in fate and destiny. My dad instilled in me a sense of practicality - which still i have to a very large extent and is an impediment in certain cases - and an ability to adapt and cope with situations without being low and losing faith in my own abilities. I used to think at that time that i had the power and control over my fate my own destiny.

During my early days all I understood about my own destiny was what I would end up being in life. I knew I had to be successful and had to make my parents proud of me. My entire life was encapsulated in a set of small objectives and aims I had set myself up with.

It was much later in life after my high school that i came to realize that life is not all about what you do and how you do. There are indeed things over which you donot have any control whatsoever which can affect you life in an unimaginable way.I really for the first time in my life felt powerless and realized that maybe this is what everyone calls fate or destiny.I remember having a very thoughtful conversation with my dad during one of our evening walks before i went for college and he said - Yah there are things in life that you cant help and there would be situation on which you have no control yet in those times too you will find u will be confronted with choices. And what you choose will be your control over your own destiny.

I have had to take a few such very important decisions in life at that time and later and I found that this thought gives me a lot of comfort. It helps me keep faith in my abilities yet conscious of the fact that no matter what or how i do there will still be things that will happen - be it good or bad.Today when I look back at life i feel that I might have taken some decisions wrong but what is still good is that i took those decisions and hence I should be content with what i have. I guess thats what is life all about.We donot realize how many millions of decisions we take or choices we make consciously or unconsciously which all affect our life in certain way.I remember seeing a film called Sliding Doors which tells the story of the life of a woman when she misses a New York subway train one day and what if she had not missed. But however you might want to look at this its is good that there are certain things over which we do not have control. This makes our overly complex life a little more complex.

Having said all that I can say that my destiny now lies in a wonderful year ahead with all you guys at ISB. Three cheers to the class of 2009.

Bye Bye Coding...

I am writing this article sitting in my cubicle at hp, with a code written in C opened on my system. Lately I have been feeling pretty nostalgic about my job. Not only because this is my first job but also because these are my last few moments officially as a techie. Yeah, I still may do a little bit of this and that of tech during and post ISB. But thats not the same. Officially I am ending my career as a techie. My last few moments with the core of Oracle, SAP, SQL, Telnet, C, pointers, bug fixing, patch building...

Before starting my life as a manager, I have decided to give these last few months their space and enjoy each and every technical moment.

Just a thought I felt like sharing with you guys/gals.

Note : This does not mean that I work really hard et all for my team...in fact I have been

doing just the opposite :-D

Good ads need to be followed up with ground work

Many would not have missed the huge re-branding exercise been carried out by Canara Bank. At the heart of the campaign is the new logo (shown below)

My first rendezvous with the campaign was through a hoarding ad, specifically the one shown below (reconstructed)

This is one of the most superbly executed ads I have seen in recent times. The beauty is the manner in which the ad brings life to the logo.

Father represents blue triangle and daughter the yellow one. The entangled sides now become the bonded arms. Even the size of triangles are different showing one cares for the other. If one has read 'Da-Vinci code', one would recall that top ended triangle represents male & inverted triangle represents the female. Again the characters in the ad match it.

The campaign aims to attract young India, probably more so children of existing customers. But no matter how good an ad campaign is, unless it is backed up by ground action, it is deemed to fail. Now, visiting Canara Bank branch is usually a traumatic experience(no exaggeration here), once again proved to me by my brother's recent visit to the bank. I have no idea what back-end initiative does Canara Bank have to fulfill the promises made in the campaign, but if it does succeed, it would be something worth noting.

PS: This is kind of disclaimer. "I have an account in Canara Bank".

Blogging his way to LSE

I happened to read a story on CNN IBN website. The story was about a guy who got admitted to LSE but didn’t have finances to help him. So he has started a blog, where he will write a short story everyday. In return he will earn bucks from advertising. What a novel idea I must say. To read the story you can click on

IBN Live Story

The blog can be found at,

http://www.milliondollarstory.blogspot.com/

It will be make for an interesting read I guess. Especially for those who are vella in office :D

Brilliant talk!!

Considering that i have some leisure time to kill, i have been trying to hear from some real life heroes. This talk impressed me and makes the thought stronger that where there is a problem, there is a solution. So, i could just not resist sharing this with you all.

http://www.ted.com/index.php/talks/view/id/91

Happy Viewing!!

interesting trivia.. :)

There's this book I'm reading these days; 'We are like that only'.. Rama Bijapurkar. I came across some interesting trivia in one of the chapters where Rama is discussing the schizophrenic nature of consumer India, one of the key drivers being the different states;

"There is a story, hopefully apocryphal, about how a large prestigious business school, promoted by prominent members of India's diaspora and Indian industry in partnership with two Ivy League American schools, eventually found its home. They first decided to set up in Mumbai, since it is India's business capital. The government of Maharashtra, known for its parochial ideology, immediately demanded reservation. The delegation then went to Bangalore. The government invited the delegation to meet the CM who did everything Indian politicians are known to do - he was late for the meeting, distracted, said yes, yes, yes of course, but did not offer free land or any other benefit that should normally accompany such an initiative. They then moved on to Chennai and met the regional party in power in the state. They were met at the airport by people with garlands and then told that these garlands were for them to garland the CM of the state whom they were to meet for breakfast. The delegation then moved to Hyderabad. They were met at the airport with garlands - meant for them - and, hold your breath, recieved by the CM himself, who came with offers of free land and an agreement which would insulate them from all forms of bureaucratic interference from the department of education."

As soon as I finished telling this to my dad, he said, "and that's why the CM was overthrown..." :)

Delhi Meet

Detailed post to follow - photo attached. . .