I love it when

1) The fantastic Dr. Henry Moon teaches our ‘Managing Teams’ class an entirely new way of thinking about obscene CEO compensation (check out Tournament theory). Suddenly life makes sense

2) The equally fantastic (and energetic) Dr. Dishan Kamdar talks about showing different packages to a counterparty in a negotiations class and I can then tie it up to a prior marketing class and say that’s exactly what choice based conjoint analysis forces you to do (mini-aha moment)

3) I have the opportunity of being taught a macroeco course by the former Governor of the RBI, Dr. C Rangarajan

4) I think about the prospect of spending Diwali with my entire family (incl. my sis & BIL, who’ll be flying from Chennai to spend the festival with us). Not to mention the ‘highly subsidized’ fireworks that I could get thanks to ISB bulk purchases

5) I get interviewed by a journalist at TV-18 for a piece on the economic downturn and how MBA students are coping with it – hey my first media stint and I handled it pretty well

‘Global’ visiting faculty

That’s right. Term 4 is behind us and we can rightfully call ourselves 50% MBAs. Instead of the usual dissection of the term, I figured I’d use this post to talk about the global reach of our faculty.

Where else does ISB’s visiting faculty teach? Here’s the list for you (in no particular order):

1. Fuqua @ Duke (Mohan Venkatachalam)
2. Wharton @ Penn (David Bell, Robert Stine, Richard Waterman, Jagmohan Raju)
3. Kellogg @ Northwestern (Mark Finn, Sri Sridharan)
4. Terry @ Univ of Georgia (Piyush Kumar)
5. Georgia Tech (Luis Martins)
6. Sauder @ British Columbia (Amartya Lahiri)
7. RAND Corporation (Krishna Kumar)
8. UNC Kenan Flagler (Pradeep Bhardwaj, Atul Nerkar)
9. Jones @ Rice (Prashant Kale)
10. Carlson @ Minnesota (Akbar Zaheer)
11. UNICEF (Shiva Kumar)
12. Maryland (Prabhala)
13. CEIBS (Ramakrishna Velamuri)
14. Haas @ Berkeley (Sunil Dutta)
15. Anderson @ UCLA (Subrahmanyam)
16. London Business School (Stefan Thau)
17. Fox @ Temple (Rajiv Banker)
18. Eli Broad @ Michigan State (Sambamurthy)

Since this is a list of profs who taught Section F - faculty like Bhagwan Chowdhry and Harbir Singh who taught other sections are missing. Also, as you can see, a couple of folks work in organizations (RAND, UNICEF) and aren’t full time professors. So if I can get education that students at other global top schools get, that too at INR rates, plus the ability of being close to family and friends, the decision to join ISB is a no-brainer.

Term 4 and the winds of change

Welcome to the supposedly ‘easy’ term. After the bruises of term 3, I think this description is fair, but it’s not a term to be taken lightly. There are some fascinating subjects which are quite important not only from an interview standpoint, but which will also hold you in good stead for your career (OB being a great example of such a subject, which some people don’t enjoy). Anyways, I think I will enjoy this term more than the previous one. Let’s hope the grade gods bless me as well

It’s the last core term and you can sense a change. The monsoon season has given way to placement season. Light drizzles of resume workshops and resume review sessions with alums have begun. This rainfall is only going to get heavier in the coming weeks. Couple that with the fact that folks now have to figure out what electives to take (so that they get better jobs) and you realize that everything you do from now on is career focused. I just picked all sorts of interesting subjects and the way the dice have landed, it seems I get to be a dual major in strategy and marketing. Marketing?!?! Me??? I am not your charismatic ‘sales’ guy. But then whoever thought marketing was all about advertising and sales is so hopelessly wrong. There are some fascinating topics that are quant oriented as well, which I think I’ll enjoy (especially given the fact that I *loved* marketing decision models). So yeah, marketing it is. We’ll see how that pans out. But indicative bidding is still a couple weeks away. So, some more reviews with alums and I’ll be able to let you know exactly what I’ll be concentrating on.

I’m presently working on an initiative to help students with personal interviews, taking part in a couple of b-school competitions and just enjoying the falsely labeled ‘faff subjects’. Life’s good.

More on career prep stuff in future posts. I’m sure you’re waiting with bated breath

Term 3 Highlights

Term 3 was eminently disappointing. No the grades haven’t come out, and yes, I loved the classes – it’s just that I don’t think I was quite ‘in the groove’. Once the grades do come out, I think I will just stand up, dust myself, and move on.

Some highlights of the term that was:

1) NR Prabhala (Corporate Finance) – what a prof! Everything was so easy-going in his class – you want to bunk, go right ahead. You don’t want to finish the entire assignment, that’s ok you still get full credit for having finished more than 1/2 of it correctly. You want extra questions in the exam so I can pick the best, by all means. I loved it. And his mastery of the subject. Oh, you have to be in class to believe it. What a treat to see him delve into a case. And yet…and yet, the subject eluded me. Some took to it like fish to water. I struggled to stay afloat and I have the sinking feeling that all the life-jackets won’t save me in the finals. I just hope I have retained enough to serve me well in the Investments course next term

2) Entrepreneurship – cases were fun, made more fun by the ‘twist in the tale’ which the prof would reveal to us in his postscript. I especially loved the one where….on second thoughts I shouldn’t kill the suspense. But yes, the Paul Olsen case was ‘interesting’. And of course, we had 2 cases where the entrepreneurs themselves were part of our class (Jay Dehejia and Mrs. Handa). But the highlight of this course was the project we had to do. I got a chance to meet a director of Karvy, Mr. PVP. If ever one needs to learn the value of perseverance, one should meet him. Phenomenal hour of learning just sitting in an interview with him. That itself made this subject total paisa vasool

Managerial Accounting and Operations Management were alright (I enjoyed the latter more because it’s a good problem solving subject and also has a nice little game called Littlefield, built into the course). I didn’t fare so well on the exams though – both these papers had pretty long finals.

Had Narayana Murthy and a couple other bigwigs visit us, which is always fun. Participated in an Independence Day Quiz Series (spread over 5 days), which was won by yours truly (no skills required except for being the fastest finger at googling).

Term 4 promises to be just as hectic as Term 3, not so much from a subject matter standpoint, but because of placement fever slowly gripping students. The resume buds have begun blooming and I’ll be busy helping the Consulting club with some activities. Not to mention b-school competitions.

This term break was very short, IMO. I managed to stay home most of the time (apart from the obligatory Chilukur visit) to finish up all sorts of personal stuff. Also finished watching the Star Wars trilogy (the original) which I was wanting to do for a while now. Will watch a couple more movies and enjoy the remainder of the weekend and not think about studies. Now if only the Olympics were during the break. But what a treat that was. Especially with Mr. Bindra getting India gold! We’re definitely on the move…

Term Break (between 2 & 3)

Extremely relaxed break. We did have to do a little bit of work to turn in our competitive strategy paper in, but it wasn’t much. I wanted to watch at least 3 movies and have dinners at 3 restaurants in the city. Managed to accomplish 2 each, which wasn’t too bad.

Watched Jaane Tu – which was decent timepass. Paresh Rawal stole the show and some of the one-liners were pretty darned funny. The next day, we had dinner at one of the best Italian eateries I’ve ever been to – Little Italy. Don’t miss their spinach dip. And all their pastas were out of this world. That you only get veggie stuff here (because of Gujju owners?) is a bonus. If you’re in the city, definitely visit ‘em – http://www.littleitaly-india.com/hyderabad_rest.html

But the post-dinner movie – Hancock – truly sucked. Will Smith disappointed, the script totally bombed and the fx were cheesy. Man, I’m still reeling from the aftershocks of this movie. To atone for this sin, am planning to watch Dark Knight today with my study group. And if it’s as good as the IMDB ratings make it out to be, I will go again and watch it on an IMAX screen with my wife.

Term 2 roundup (& Markstrat)

After a long hiatus, I’m back. Term 2 was not as hectic as it was made out to be. I guess one of the reasons for that was the intelligent distribution of work within our study group. I was primarily responsible for Marketing, which means I had to lead the Markstrat game and also make notes and prepare my group for the exam. Others did similar things in different subjects. We were apprehensive at first because it means you’re not as heavily involved in other subjects as much as you want. But trust me, you wont lose much at all. Give this method a shot.

In my earlier post, I’d mentioned that Global Eco was my least favorite subject in this term. Thanks to the superb prof we had (Dr. Krishna Kumar), it has now changed into my most favorite subject. As numerous alums have pointed out, one of the best features of the course was ‘Commanding Heights’, a documentary produced by PBS. Even a layman can understand stuff in it and I strongly urge you to give it a look, even if you are not planning to head to b-school. Here’s where you can find it: http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/commandingheights/lo/story/index.html

Dr. Jagmohan Raju taught us the 2nd half of Marketing and he pretty much lived up to all the hype surrounding him. On the flip side, he seemed ‘exhausted’ most of the time. Is age catching up to him? He was also definitely more mellow in class and did not cut off arbit CP as much. Fun part was the photo cold-call and yours truly was also summoned to answer, which, thankfully, I successfully did.

I must finish up with my favorite part of Term 2 – Markstrat. If you’re in b-school, you probably already know about the game (if not, then you don’t care about the game), so I won’t go into those details. We were Team I, and our competitors in our industry was with 4 other vowel teams (A, E, O, U) and our competition for grades was 17 other Team ‘I’s in ISB. Team I is the worst team to be in, because you’ve got crappy products which naturally get positioned crappily. The only thing you have going for you is low cost. You need to do lots of R&D and the razor thin margins force you to take a loan (well, at least we did). As Team I, we knew we couldn’t compete in the Sonite market and being first mover in the Vodite market was our primary goal. We did that, made boatloads of money, goofed up and lost it all away and staged another come back later. Overall it was great fun, and in terms of net cumulative contribution, we ended up 2nd among all 18 Team ‘I’s, which was pretty darn satisfying. How do you succeed at Markstrat? There are no secrets really.

The best Markstrat tips are the ones you receive often:

1) Apply theory that you’ve learned in class. It’s amazing how many times you forget to analyze the weakest link in the chain Share of Voice X Share of Mind X Share of Distribution

2) Don’t ignore R&D, but don’t think R&D alone will suffice. Ad spend, and more importantly ad research is key.

3) Don’t spread yourself too thin. Focus on a few brands, but do them well.

4) Read the manual diligently. There were a couple of lines tucked away in corners of the book, which we wished we’d read more carefully and at an earlier stage.

5) Be organized. There’s lots of data you’ll have to wade through. It’s advisable to create your own excel sheets and have formulae, etc. to plan your next move and also document your decisions. Note that having lots of data to wade through doesn’t mean you need everything. Pick the reports you need, wisely.

And finally

6) Stay honest, don’t collude with the other vowel teams in your industry and don’t ask alums for specific help on what to do. It kills the fun and kills the learning process. A couple of alums rightfully declined my request for help (when I’d asked them for it before the markstrat game even began) and I respected their decision. In hindsight, I am pleased we did everything independently and learned from our mistakes. And hey, we didn’t do bad at all. If we could end up 2nd inspite of all this, it just goes to show that enthusiasm to do well in the game and corresponding hard work pays off.

In the clutches of Term 2

The term break just flew by and here I am, in the thick of things in Term 2. Results of the end terms were out and there were some good (Stats), some decent (Mktg) and some not-so-good (Accounts/Economics) moments. It’s high time I recognized Drs. Stine and Waterman. Folks, if you’re in two minds about coming to ISB, the very fact that you can possibly attend some of the finest statistics classes on earth should convince you that this is the place in India to get an MBA. Dr. Waterman, in particular, has truly taken my breath away. I’ve never seen a more articulate and knowledgeable prof. True – his first impression is very different from Dr. Stine, but I found his lecture to be much more engrossing. Was it because of the foundation Dr. Stine laid for me, or was it because of the lucid real world examples that Dr. Waterman used – I don’t know. But whatever it is, the magic these two have created have helped me shed the hatred for Math I had. I actually loved Stats so much, that it easily became my favorite subject of Term 1. Coming from a math-phobe, this is saying quite a bit.

Tip for future batches: Pay close attention to profs during lectures and take copious notes. We had questions that specifically related to discussions in class (esp. Accounting and Marketing), which you couldn’t have gotten any other way.

Rundown of Term 2 (courses in ascending order of my liking):

Global Economics – The prof just started off with a bang, and not in a good way – I mean there was very little time for me to rampup and keep track of the big picture (ironical, considering that the topic is all about the big picture). Anyway, I’m having trouble keeping up. Maybe I should have read more of ET pre-ISB, but macroeco not as much fun as microeco was.

Decision Models & Optimization - Brand new prof (he just completed his PhD last year) and a boisterous class overjoyed at being able to use the laptop for the first time in class – this is a lethal combination and maintaining focus is difficult in class. The problems are fun, but hard. I think I like the subject, but am not paying too much attention to it, which ain’t good.

Competitive Strategy – What a subject, and what a prof! Dr. Kale (from Michigan) is an ace at dissecting a case within the time and getting to key messages that related to other pre-reading. We’ve studied Coke/Pepsi (we even tried the Pepsi challenge in class), Southwest and Apple. It’s great fun when your prof has actually talked to Steve Jobs and shares that experience with students. There’s truly some fantastic learning to be had in this course.

Marketing Decision Making – Great prof, and some good course content. But the best part of this course and the entire term (and possibly the best part of the entire year at ISB if I have to go by what some alums say) is the Markstrat game. Suffice to say I’m addicted and can’t do anything but sleep, drink, eat and breathe Markstrat. The INSEAD profs and Stratx are geniuses for having created this game. I’ll probably devote another post to this after we end this term.

What else?

Joined French classes (weekend classes all the way to the end of the year). I’ve also taken up Salsa (weekend classes for a month and a half by the good folks from the Shiamak Davar dance school). This is the first time I am trying to shake my legs in an attempt to do something similar to what other people call dancing and the fact that I do it in the Atrium in full view of all other students happily ensures that I look like the clumsiest oaf on earth. All good fun though – esp. because my partner is my dear wife who can easily overlook my foibles.

I also got myself elected to the student body of the Honor Code Committee. I had to go through a grilling by four professors who wanted to know when I would expel a fellow student for academic violations, before I could end up on the committee. I really hope there aren’t any hearings, coz if there are and if I’m on the hearing, I could end up being one of the most unpopular guys on campus. To all future dudes and dudettes who want to enter ISB – this stuff is taken very seriously here. Cheating to succeed just ain’t worth it - not in ISB, not in the business world, not anywhere. 

I am also participating in the NIIT Why Not challenge. It’s a funky contest to come up with innovative uses of every day products. My team is yet to meet up and the deadline is less than 2 days away. So I better get to putting my thinking hat on instead of writing this post.

Finally, for all you people who think I am left with no time to enjoy life – you’re mistaken. Here’s what I used to do at work (and was highly successful there) and I am attempting to do the same thing at ISB in the hope of getting good grades. What do you guys think? Good strategy, eh? 

So until next time…enjoy the great monsoon weather with a cuppa chai and some garam pakoras.