Internalizing Externalities

Is the world really flat?

2005-07-25T11:35:00.000+05:30

Two instances of bomb blasts in London, similar incidences in Ayodhya and now in Egypt…

Put those together with a just completed course in Global Economics and a term break of five days to mull over what has been taught – what you a get is a new view of the world. The predictions of Commanding Heights are coming true.

Friedman writes in his book and article: As the world becomes flat and more deeply interconnected there is no single power which controls it.

Can we continue to live in a world with nobody at the helm? What are the new rules of the game? Who will write them?

Greater trade and globalization have increased trade all over the world but it has also made very apparent the gap between the have and have-nots.

“Oliver Twist has come to town, and he's poor, and he's got a TV set, and he's able to see how you live as compared to how he lives, and he's going to get very angry. So either you show him a capitalist route to do it and integrate him, or he's going to find another ideology. And the fact that today there is no more Kremlin that is organizing a revolt doesn't mean that they're not going to find another capital, because when these things happen, when people are unhappy and rebel against a system, they'll find another locus of power very, very quickly.” - Hernando de Soto, in Commanding Heights

The other locus of power we are seeing today is Terrorism. The desperate need of the hour is to have a real flat world with no Himalayas and no Marina Trenches – and free markets ain’t going to get you there. You need a system with people at the heart of the model not money, not technology.

Another important aspect to delve over is that power has shifted hands from governments and countries to individuals. People and ideas are reshaping and shrinking the world faster than governments and countries can react to them. And foremost among these is the Internet itself. The blog I am writing this moment is gaining a power of its own.

I believe three inventions (among multitude of others) of the twentieth century – the airplane, the telephone and the internet have changed the world we live in. And the change has been so radical and so fast that we are still grappling to understand how they fit into our lives…

To understand the rapidness of this change I always state a hypothetical example: take a man from 1801 and put him in 1901, he won’t be totally out of place in his new world. Take a man from 1901 and put him in 2001, he will be overwhelmed, frightened and stunned by the complexity of the new world…

The Mountain

2005-07-14T15:22:00.000+05:30

Following is a post on our internal Blackboard site from our Global Economics prof. Today was his last class and also the last class of term 2. His classes have been a superlative learning experience.

My students look at me expectantly.
I explain to them that the life of art is a life
Of endless labor. Their expressions
Hardly change; they need to know
A little more about endless labor.
So I tell them the story of Sisyphus,
How he was doomed to push
A rock up a mountain, knowing nothing
Would come of this effort
But that he would repeat it
Indefinitely. I tell them
There is joy in this, in the artist's life,
That one eludes
Judgement, and as I speak
I am secretly pushing a rock myself,
Slyly pushing it up the steep
Face of a mountain. Why do I lie
To these children? They aren't listening.
They aren't deceived, their fingers
Tapping at the wooden desks--
So I retract
The myth; I tell them it occurs
In hell, and that the artist lies
Because he is obsessed with attainment.
That he perceives the summit
As that place where he will live forever,
A place about to be
Transformed by his burnt: with every breath,
I am standing at the top of the mountain.
Both my hands are free. And the rock has added
Heights to the mountain.

Louise Glück

Update: Prof. Krishna Kumar sent us this farewell mail today evening.

"economics, like real life, has its share
of ambiguities, fuzziness, and dead-ends.
but as john steinbeck wrote in his
beautiful novel, "sweet thursday,"
"...the clarifying leap springs from the
rich soil of confusion, and the leaper is
not unfamiliar with pain." what i or anyone
else can hope do in a short time is only
rake this soil. the leap is yours to make.

be bold. be irreverent. shift those graphs. good luck."

I feel if a teacher can stimulate interest and provoke the students into thought, then he has done his job. Everything else lies with the student. That's what I wanted when I got to ISB and I am getting it every hour. Prof. Ward had a similar comment: "You all are moving on a conveyor belt. We stand by the side and shovel in some content and then maybe respond to questions and issues."

The Rain @ ISB

2005-07-10T15:19:00.000+05:30

It's cold...it's dark...it's grey...it is raining...the Sun has been constantly losing its battle with the clouds for the last couple of weeks...

Not an ideal climate for delving into any kind of business except sleep or hot pakoras with steaming cups of chai or coffee. That’s exactly what our group meeting turned into on Friday evening – a pakora and coffee making session. Yesterday’s meeting turned into a pizza eating session.

I don’t like the rain per se...but I like the smell of the earth before it rains. I don’t like the time after the rains for the puddles – but like the droplets of water clinging on to leaves. Nor do I like the never-ending drizzle – what a like is a short torrential downpour. I like the rain with sunshine – it’s uncommon and chances for a rainbow are high.

The distances from the student village to the acad centre are just enough to get you wet in a drizzle. Without an umbrella and a waterproof bag for the laptop one must be prepared to sit it out at the lrc (library) or the village. Spent the whole afternoon at the lrc researching Tata Motors for my competitive strategy project.

Like anywhere else the rain adversely affects the participation levels in meetings and events. The inter-section quiz event yesterday evening saw few takers. Section C – that’s my section – won the quiz. Our sporty section has won most inter-section events – cricket, basketball and a tie in football.

We had a talk by Mr. Parthasarathy, co-founder of Mindtree, yesterday afternoon – people poured in with the rain – not a seat was empty. Apart from his views on the IT industry he shared ten key learning’s from his experiences and about work-life balance – an excellent talk.

Attendance in any event at ISB is not governed simply by the rain. A whole bunch of factors govern the participation levels – interest in event, return on time invested, perceived popularity of speaker, clash with assignments and academic workload and a bunch of other factors. Would be interesting to do a regression analysis!!

The rain has stopped now...there are the shiny globules clinging desperately onto the leaves – and then there are the puddles on the ground - that's life.

Next week – The Wind @ ISB.

MIT Weblog Survey

2005-07-07T22:14:00.000+05:30

The chicken and egg story

2005-07-07T15:09:00.000+05:30

Number of chickens and chicken farms in US, how much they eat, the social hierarchy among chickens and establishment of peck order, homicidal rates among chickens, egg production rates. These are some of the things that plagued my mind for last couple of days.

I furiously tried to write a marketing plan in one slide - those were the instructions, present whatever info you want on one slide. And what was to be marketed – contact lenses for chicken…if you don’t believe me click on the following link:

HBS Case link

Prof. Raju also showed us a promotional video for the product. This is one of Harvard’s best selling cases – sells about 6000 copies a year – and is used to give insights into marketing radically new products.

As always Prof. dealt with the case very well – when everybody said that the best way to sell is door to door, he asked people to enact a sales call. And boy it was tough – I mean what do you go and say – knock on a farmers door on a quiet Tuesday afternoon and say – eh, look I have this tremendous new breakthrough technology – contact lenses for chicken and these are the benefits – cost savings, they eat less, fight less with each other, lay more eggs – just buy these and you will save thousands!!

Apart from the door slamming shut on your face there not too many alternate end game scenarios. Even though the lens has been proven to offer cost savings and in all possibility is a great product, it is very difficult to make people try it and adopt.

What’s more interesting is the number of insights and angles Prof. Raju makes you think transcends the boundaries of the case. All those who say that the case method of teaching is outdated should take a seat in his class – it will be a humbling experience. Another great insight he shared was the diffusion of new technology in markets – cost reduction technology diffuses much slower – if one person sees the advantage he would want it to be exclusive and is not willing to share it – once other people recognize the benefit and adopt it – there no longer remains a cost advantage.

Another mistake the entrepreneur, in this case a Harvard graduate made was that he had very high targets. He thought this would revolutionize the farm industry and animal behavior just like IBM revolutionized the processing of data. Sometimes it is necessary to think small – with a market of about $50 million there is so little you can do.

Another virtue is patience – new ideas don’t get assimilated easily – sometimes it takes years and you need to have the capital and resolve to pursue it.

Often people get lost in numbers – when presenting to venture capitalists they try to push numbers across – but VCs can see through these and questions like where will you get sales from, what’s your positioning come up. Everything needs to tie together.

Fixed costs – in most cases because of the name we think that these costs are inevitable – but these are the costs actually in our control and we should track them more diligently - the first thing turnaround specialists do is attack fixed costs to bring back a company!!

One case discussion can lead to a myriad of thoughts. Some professors just repeat case facts and fail to give any insights to its applicability and context. Its not that the case method of teaching is a thing of the past – what has gone wrong is the way people are teaching which has lead to its perceived ineffectiveness.

Aikya

2005-07-03T15:11:00.000+05:30

The title of this post, though it sounds like it comes from some far eastern language, is actually a Sanskrit word meaning oneness and unity.

Life at ISB is a continuous chain of events – each trying to draw your attention and striving to leave a lasting imprint on your mind. Today, we had the launch of the Aikya program. It is truly a novel concept and hats off to whoever thought of this at ISB three years back.

Our batch divided into 60 study groups met with their respective host families today at campus. Each group had been assigned to a host family from Hyderabad with whom we will interact for the rest of the year. Needless to say the families comprised of the who’s who of Hyderabad. The atmosphere was festive and the decor was befitting a lavish wedding – right from a Ganesh statue carved out of ice to mouth watering malpua and rabri.

The host family assigned to our group are second generation entrepreneurs with an AC manufacturing business in Hyderabad – to me they represent the quintessence of emergent India. We showed them around the campus and had a fun time interacting with them.

They in turn invite us for festivals at their homes and we reciprocate by inviting them to events at ISB. Apart from the cultural mix and home away from home factors, there is this great business angle as well. The families get to meet other families in Hyderabad and also get fresh perspectives and ideas about the business environment from us – the students. We have been invited to visit the manufacturing plant by our host family. Its win-win all the way.

Have had a whale of a time this weekend – and the fun has not stopped. There is the screening of the F1 Grand Prix later in the evening sponsored by Kingfisher and the finals of Wimbledon.

There is an assignment to be submitted tomorrow and case readings to be completed. But now they are just an hour’s work – not like when I landed here and was running all round looking for time!!

Commanding Heights

2005-07-03T01:02:00.000+05:30

Saturday evening was cool – the first time in the second term when I felt relaxed – mind you it’s a relative term – so relatively relaxed would be better.

In this heightened state of relaxation I attended the screening of a documentary at the auditorium and then chilled out in the atrium in an informal quiz jamming session.

Prof. Krishna Kumar from USC is taking part of our Global Economics course. The documentary he screened was not ordinary stuff – I never knew documentaries could be so exciting.

If you even have an inkling of interest in global economy, then you will love the following videos available free on the PBS site. It is based on the book Commanding Heights which was converted into a TV series.

Commanding Heights: Storyline | on PBS

"The program provides a spellbinding history of the world economy over the past 90 years...it should be required viewing for audiences around the world, for there could be no better launching pad for a meaningful debate about globalization and its future."
Business Week

Commanding Heights lays down the evolution of global economy. The first episode deals with the Battle of Ideas – who should control Steel, railroads, coal, the heavy industries – what Lenin termed as the commanding heights of the economy – the power of government or the forces of the marketplace. In essence the battle between Keynesian and Classical schools of economic thought.

The second episode deals with the Agony of Reform – a new capitalist revolution with the markets ruling the commanding heights sees the collapse of government regulation and privatization sweeps in. Though the wealth of nations expands people have to deal with unequal distribution.

The third episode shows us the new rules of the Game. With the world getting deeply interconnected and with no one having a clear control of the global economy – who will write the new rules? Global terrorism has already given indications that imbalances may threaten the stability of the global village.

If Markstrat and Prof. Raju's class are exiciting, then Global Eco is not far behind. Here all Profs are battling it out for the Commanding Heights!!

Incidentally, Prof. Krishna Kumar won the best faculty for core courses last year at ISB. Seeing the passion he has for the subject and the amount of interest he is able to generate in class – it won’t be a surprise if he wins it again this year. But each term I think the professors are the best and then the next term I find better ones. I am sure I will have to eat my words each term.

The amazing world of Markstrat

2005-07-02T08:57:00.000+05:30

“The Markstrat world is a fictitious country of 250 million inhabitants whose monetary unit is the Markstrat Dollar. You and other members of your team have just been recruited by a large corporation to manage the marketing department. In the upcoming years, you will compete with several other firms to market two types of durable goods to consumers. During this exercise, you will be responsible for formulating and implementing the long-term marketing strategy of your division.”

I believe Simulation provides one of the best forms of learning. Having worked intensively with flight simulators and simulation platforms, the role of simulation is not new to me.

You can crash a plane any number of times, conduct safety checks on your avionics units, feed in absurd inputs – the simulation stands its ground patiently, unwavering - taking in all the junk you throw at it and quietly telling you the mistakes you have made. Then it gently puts you back at square one to let you start again – as if nothing had happened.

Simply put, it is “Garbage in” Learning out.

Our evaluation for Marketing Strategy consists of how well our group performs in Markstrat – a simulation game designed by professors of INSEAD. It models the real world quite well and tests our understanding of theoretical concepts too.

We play the simulation over 6 years each year translating to 3 days. It has everything in it – surviving in a highly competitive market (you compete with rest of the groups), managing your brands, interfacing with R&D and production units, taking decisions on pricing, advertising and sales force and making sense of tons of market research data.

But above all it’s a question of team dynamics. You may have a great strategy but it is useless if you cannot convince the rest of the team – a typical corporate boardroom tussle is ensured during decision meetings. There is every possibility for tempers to flare within groups and across groups.

Two Markstrat years are over and our firm is doing well in the industry and across the industries as well. We have the right mix of seriousness and fun in our group – and meetings are never dull.

Add to this some terrific insights into marketing strategy provided by Prof. Jagmohan Raju from Wharton in the classroom – the result is a terrific learning experience.

Firm results for the third decision period will be out any minute – can’t wait to log on to the Markstrat world and check out the numbers – it is becoming highly addictive!

Monday Morning Bliss

2005-05-09T23:09:00.000+05:30

8:30am on Monday’s

A time when most of the world is trying to shake off Monday morning blues.

Here at ISB, it’s the time to relax, celebrate.

That’s our deadline for completing and submitting assignments given during the previous week. We have classes only for four days a week till Thursday. After finishing our first four days of classes we thought the worst was behind us. But the kind of assignments that were thrust upon us – from marketing blades in Indonesia to calculating economic profits of a Sanjay Leela Bhansali movie – converted our extended weekend into a sleepless nightmare.

That’s the reason for the joyous faces on Monday. My celebration consisted of plonking down in front of the tv for the first time. Caught the replay of the Roddick vs Verdasco in the Masters Cup. What a match!! Raw power play – Verdasco hammered Roddick out of the court in the final set – all this for the honesty displayed by Roddick during match point in the second!!

Looking forward to the French Open and of course next Monday...

Gillette sales plummet at ISB stores

2005-05-08T23:10:00.000+05:30

This has to do with the inactivity on my blog for the last three days. People have been battling it out on a Gillette case study. Being the first assignment to be submitted, enthu levels were quite high as groups started out on Friday, some with straight 7 hour discussions on what Gillette could have done in Indonesia in 1996.

But by Sunday morning most of the male population had vowed not to look at Gillette products, while others have stopped shaving all together. You never know what an MBA can drive you to.

We are already seeing a sample of the enthusiasm graph. As shown by an alumnus in his presentation, people are quite charged up at the beginning of term1. Then the graph dips down till term 5 and then there is a sudden surge due to the upcoming placements. Sustaining the initial momentum and carrying it forward for a year is the key.

Good reason to fail in Accounting

2005-05-04T19:47:00.000+05:30

Here's a terrific incentive for doing badly in accounts class:

Ebbers mounts an 'I never knew' defense from nytimes.

Bernard J. Ebbers the former CEO of Worldcom, uses his lack of understading of technology and finances as his defense. Ignorance is definitely bliss!!

Intellectual Value Added

2005-05-02T21:49:00.000+05:30

The Gods from Wharton and Kellogg were seen and heard today at ISB. We had our first classes today after two weeks of orientation. Befitting the occasion, the heavens themselves opened up at Hyderabad – heavy downpour for most after noon, a divine sign for us to take it cool!!

Scott Ward from Wharton taking a course on Marketing and Mark Finn from Kellogg handling Accounting. Each class lasts for two hours and the amount of Intellectual Value Added is tremendous.

The whole study cycle is basically reversed from what we have been used to – most of the reading is done before class as opposed to not knowing what the subject is about till the last night before the exam. Last minute preparations, the tension, and the adrenaline rush at the nth hour is what we lived by during our engineering courses.

Before I slip into reminiscing about college, let me get back to reading for my economics and stats classes tomorrow. It's a whole new ball game out here!!

Wear Sunscreen

2005-04-30T17:52:00.000+05:30

Here's an awesome piece by Baz Luhrmann:

"Everybody is free to wear suncreen"

This was part of a terrific presentation made by an alumni.

Lyrics:

"Wear sunscreen. If I could offer you only one tip for the future, sunscreen would be it. The long term
benefits of sunscreen have been proved by scientists, whereas the rest of my advice has no basis or
reliable then my own meandering experience. I will dispense this advice....now.

Enjoy the power and beauty of your youth. Oh, nevermind, you won't understand the power and
beauty of your youth until they've faded, but trust me in 20 years, you'll look back at photos of
yourself and recall in a way you can't grasp now how much possibility lay before you and how fabulous
you really looked. You are not as fat as you imagine.

Don't worry about the future, or worry, but know that worrying is as effective as trying to solve an algebra
equation by chewing bubblegum.

The real troubles in your life are apt to be things that never crossed your worried mind: the kind that blindsides
you at 4pm on some idle Tuesday.

Do one thing every day that scares you.

Sing.

Don't be reckless with other people's hearts; don't put up with people who are reckless with yours.

Floss.

Don't waste your time on jealousy. Sometimes you're ahead, sometimes you're behind. The race is
long, and in the end, it's only with yourself.

Remember compliments you receive; forget the insults. (if you succeed in doing this, tell me how).

Keep your old love letters; throw away your old bank statements.

Stretch.

Don't feel guilty if you don't know what you want to do with your life. The most interesting people
I know didn't know at 22 what they wanted to do with their lives; some of the most interesting 40 year
olds I know still don't.

Get plenty of Calcium. Be kind to your knees -- you'll miss them when they're gone.

Maybe you'll marry, maybe you won't. Maybe you'll have children, maybe you won't. Maybe you'll
divorce at 40; maybe you'll dance the funky chicken on your 75th wedding anniversary.

Whatever you do, don't congratulate yourself too much or berate yourself, either. Your choices are half
chance, so are everybody else's.

Enjoy your body: use it every way you can. Don't be afraid of it or what other people think of it; it's the
greatest instrument you'll ever own.

Dance...even if you have no where to do it but in your own living room.

Read the directions (even if you don't follow them).

Do not read beauty magazines; they will only make you feel ugly.

Get to know your parents; you never know when they'll be gone for good.

Be nice to your siblings: they're your best link to your past and the people most likely to stick with you in
the future.

Understand that friends come and go, but what a precious few should hold on. Work hard to bridge the gaps
and geography and lifestyle, because the older you get, the more you need the people you knew when you
were young.

Live in New York City once, but leave before it makes you hard.

Live in Northern California once, but leave before it makes you soft.

Travel.

Accept certain inalienable truths: prices will rise, politicians will philander, you too will get old; and when you
do, you'll fantasize that when you were young, prices were reasonable, politicians were noble, and children
respected their elders.

Respect your elders.

Don't expect anyone else to support you. Maybe you have a trust fund, maybe you'll have a wealthy spouse,
but you never know when either one might run out.

Don't mess too much with your hair or by the time you are 40, it will look 85.

Be careful whose advice you buy, but be patient with those who supply it. Advice is a form of nostalgia;
dispensing it is a way of wishing the past from the disposal--wiping it off, painting over the ugly parts, and
recycling it for more than it's worth.

But trust me, I'm the sunscreen."

Ongo is my name

2005-04-28T23:04:00.000+05:30

For most part of the afternoon I was an extra-terrestrial robot named Ongo who could not speak or see…and boy, what fun it was!!

The first part of the Leadership Development Programme kicked off today with listening exercises in the morning. This involved six role plays with a focus on active listening.

In a survey, Certified Administrative Managers were asked as to list down the critical managerial skills. There are no marks for guessing what came out at the top – ‘active listening’.

The whole afternoon was spent in the hot Hyderabad sun participating in team building exercises. There were three games including conversing in Ongo, Pongo language to achieve a common goal, launching an egg from three stories without breaking it and using planks to move across a Amazonian swamp. Each provided good insights into group dynamics, communications, and strategy.

The best part of it all was the screening of the video in the evening highlighting all our goof ups during the games. Even though all 90 of us were tired, we could not help falling over with laughter.

The Leadership Development programme goes on till end of Term 3. Rajeshwar Upadhyaya who leads the program is terrific and a very articulate speaker. He has taken sessions for us on MBTI Personality test and Ethics. There are a whole bunch of activities lined up including talks like “Schizophernia, the Bhagavad Gita and Modernity”, movie screenings and colloquiums from leaders over the next couple of months.

Some books he quoted from during his speeches:

Zen Flesh and Zen Bones by Paul Reps
Siddhartha by Hermann Hesse
Changing Minds by Howard Gardener

Speaking of Zen, here’s some Zen gyaan on listening which I came across a few months back:

“The first misconception is that communication is about talking to people, and therefore more communication means more talk through speeches, videos, letters, memos, etc. However, talking to people is not enough. They also have to listen. A Zen riddle asks the question, 'Is there a sound in the forest if a tree crashes and there is no one to hear it?' The answer is that there cannot be a sound until the act of hearing it is completed.”
- From Remaking India by Arun Maira

The T-factor

2005-04-25T21:33:00.000+05:30

Today was the last day for the pre-term classes. Accounting – a subject which I had no clue of turned out to be a cake walk compared to statistics.

“Employees don’t leave organizations, they leave their managers” can be easily extrapolated to this case – students, subjects and teachers - a student’s interest in a subject has a definite dependence on the manner in which the teacher presents it.

The passion, the zeal and the interest shown by the professor on accounting definitely rubbed off on the class as a whole. Definitely, a perfect way to start of an MBA course, especially for engineers with no finance background – sparks of interest starting the engines of accounting and finance.

On the other hand, even after having a hang of basic statistics from school and college courses, somehow I am more at sea now with all kinds of data after the. At the moment I require a jump-start on my stats engine!!

From what the seniors tell us, the professors in the first term will revisit these topics and there is no reason to panic. The professors for term 1 are mostly from Kellogg and Wharton – each one of them are supposed to be the best in their respective fields. All of us here all looking forward for next Monday, when the core courses start – when the heavens themselves descend on ISB!!

Blue oceans from a sea of Red

2005-04-24T19:19:00.000+05:30

We had a series of welcome speeches today by the dean, assistant dean and the alumni. As the various talks progressed, the speakers emphasized the uniqueness and salient features of the MBA programme at ISB.

- one year programme
- affiliated to Kellogg, Wharton and London Business School
- experienced and diverse student pool
- lateral placements
- visiting faculty from top schools around the world
- world class infrastructure
- innovative curriculum - entrepreneurship as a core subject
- leadership development programme

Moving from 120 odd students in 2001 to an intake of more than 300 students this year, ISB has succeeded in attracting a large student pool from a highly competitive market. This is a clear case of first mover’s advantage as mentioned by the dean in.

In business parlance this translates to identifying a blue ocean strategy out of a highly competitive and bloodied red ocean of the existing b-schools in India. What ISB has done is to expand the boundaries of the b-school market in India by its unique positioning and targeting an entirely untapped market of experienced people looking for a management education in India.

"competing in overcrowded industries is no way to sustain high performance. The real oppurtunity is to create blue oceans of uncontested market space."

As said by W. Chan Kim, and Renée Mauborgne in HBR and their book on Blue Ocean Strategy.

The GODS descend

2005-04-23T19:12:00.000+05:30

One of the cons of having a one year programme is the lack of interaction and inputs from the senior batch. From having three batches of seniors on joining engineering and having none here at ISB is something we are coming to terms with at the moment. Even with all the ragging and other horror stories that come out from engineering colleges, the fact is that the bonding with seniors is always a special one.

To offset some of this we have students from the previous batch arriving on campus today. Over the next week they take us through their experiences and share with us all the gyaan. Gods of finance, investment banking, marketing, club presidents, entrepreneurs - all of them are here. With the pre-term classes nearly coming to an end, the whole of next week is dedicated to under the peepul tree sessions on academics, professors, clubs, events, placements, parties and life in general at ISB.

Just after a few hours of talking with the seniors, one realizes that the number of clubs and the number of events held over a span of one year is mind numbing.

Some courses I require immediately:
Prioritization
Time management
The art of managing the Outlook inbox

First Blood Drawn

2005-04-18T23:32:00.000+05:30

US GAAP and Indian GAAP, the case of Barclay’s bank, Sameer Arora and Insider trading, should goodwill, intellectual value and brand value be part of balance sheets, the Hong Kong market crash, ENRON – the name synonymous with accounting practices...

All this and much more in our first class of 2 hours in an ISB classroom for a pre-term course on Introductory Accounting. The main courses on which we will be graded don’t start till May 2nd!! This definitely sets the tone for the year to come.

The first two weeks are supposed to be a settling in and getting-back-to-studies mode - with courses to get engineering folks get a grasp of accounting and non-engineering folks being fed with quant and calculus. From the looks of it – there is a lot of settling in to be done.

Though the class participation may have gone off on innumerable tangents, what I am thinking about is – do young Indians (or maybe Indians as a whole) know more about more? Are we inquisitive as a race? What is class participation like in foreign b-schools?

Enough of MBA gyaan, let me move on to the most unique event at ISB outside the classroom – the dunking session. Just returned from one. The general sequence of events is:
Finish dinner and generally hang around in the atrium (the central courtyard of the academic centre which also has the café and dining area, need a separate post to describe this wonderful place – a bracketed explanation is a gross injustice). Once a sizeable group is formed the question inevitably pops up – whose birthday is it? Move towards his/her room – all this while the number of people in the gang steadily rises up. Take the victim towards the mirror pool and ‘un’-ceremoniously throw him into the water. In the meantime, two or three hapless onlookers are also pushed into the pool. As soon as this happens there is a mad scramble to get miles away from the pool area.
Some pics from today as I sign off.

Moving the masses

Barging into the bday room

Dunked !!

Another one down !!

First couple of days at ISB

2005-04-17T23:44:00.000+05:30

The night train to Hyd

Peacock crossing

Meeting People

Checking into great acco and food

Student Villages

Registration

Welcome address

People, people and more people (307 checked in and counting)

Hanging around the atrium

'Nirvana Rock'

The famous ISB pool dunking

That's a few hurried phrases I can put together as I start an year full of information overload and intense sleep deprivation!!

Watch this space for more info on anything and everything.

The beginning...

2005-04-16T23:00:00.000+05:30