My Journey

Placement Season

2008-02-10T11:29:00.000-08:00

It is that time of the year which every one was looking forward to. The placement week kicks in and most of the guys are all set to crack it. The placement season looks good here in India despite the rumors of impending recession. But looking at the state of our economy its looks like we would be able to tide over the recession, probably with a little bit of bruises.
How ever unlike the last recession in which asian economies suffered huge losses india's exposure to foreign funds is limited and the funds invested in the country seem to have sound investment reasoning. unlike the last time another threat facing the world economies is the subprime crisis. even though our banking system do not have direct exposure to US subprime I forsee an indian subprime crisis brewing. This is purely my own personal opinion. from the ground realities which I have seen most of the indian professional have gone in for some sort of personal loans either be it home loan or vehicle loan. Now what will happen if there is a cut in salary. There is bound to be default. This might lead to banks sitting on lots of NPA's and consequtly another crisis brewing..

Let us wait and watch..

An impartial observation on FT Rankings

2008-01-30T03:54:00.000-08:00

This article makes an interesting reading.
http://youthcurry.blogspot.com/2008/01/congratulations-isb.html

How free is the free press

2008-01-29T12:05:00.001-08:00

India is among the few countries in the world which boasts of providing considerable freedom to press. How ever What I have observed is that this freedom is completely misused and even some "reputed" newspaper do not follow the basic decency of reporting news items with the seriousness it deserves.

I first came across such incidences during my previous avatar at a prestigious organisation. Any of achievements of this organisation was usually pushed to 3 or 4 tha page of this prominent business newspaper since the newspaper had some spat with the parent organisation. Later on when a big advertising campaign was launched by this organisation and it started to give some advertisement to this particular newspaper the newsitems started to appear on the front pages.

How ever one of the recent instances where this dubious freedon was misused was in the recent rankings of ISB. One of the most respected newspaper in South India published this news item on the last page. That is a page which is usually reserved for reporting some inconsequential events. This is an achievement which draws no parallel in the immediate history of the indian academecia. And as a country India should be proud of such an achievement.

What are the news media hoping to achieve by such kind of partisan reporting. If their major objective is to have a selective and partisan reporting then they have achieved their aim. But they are not doing justice to the citizen who persume that the newspaper offers them unbiased news.

ISB Ranked in FT Ranking

2008-01-28T03:47:00.000-08:00

In the latest FT Ranking ISB has been ranked 20th. ISB is the youngest business school Ranked in Top 20. The Ranking's can be seen in http://rankings.ft.com/global-mba-rankings.

The News can also be seen on NDTV at http://www.ndtv.com/convergence/ndtv/videopod/default.aspx?id=22830

I am f***** smart

2008-01-07T04:22:00.000-08:00

Probably one of the best answers ever being told to an Interviewer at Harvard Business School.

For those who do not know the history, this is what Jeff Skilling (CEO of Enron) told during his interview for HBS MBA and no doubt he was selected. Not only this he was among the top 5 % of the class (and probably a Baker Scholar..I am not sure of this).

Wikipedia defines smartness as "Smart usually means highly intelligent."

So what was it that prompted people like Jeff to undertake such devious ways. After learning tid bits of accounting in my MBA class (courtesy Mark Finn and Siva) I now understand that they had retorted to some accounting practices which never existed previously. A gross example of this malpractice would be "they started counting the profits of their Dhabol projects when they had just begun its construction". And the rest as they say is history.

I have had the opportunity to interact with people of various talents and skills। What I observe is that the more accomplished a person is the more humane and natural he becomes. But I have also seen many guys who "seems" to have accomplished a lot (or that is what they pretend) and are at their arrogant best.

One of the common themes which I observe in the arrogant people is their futile attempt to create "macho" image of themselves. In case of Enron CEO I even hear that he used to go for mountain bike riding while he was the CEO. I have come across people who have done tremendous things in life like trekking for 3-5 days at the age of 60 or working in less glamorous jobs in spite of good qualification. In spite of all these these individuals have maintained a relatively low profile

So then What really goes wrong.. I don't really have an answer as of now.

Where were you?

2007-12-22T22:16:00.000-08:00

Lots of water has flown in Ganges since my last post.

It was not that I did not have time but Blog never occupied a priority item in my mind. I am currently in term 6 and with 2 more terms to go placement is what is occupying everyones mind. Things move quite fast and it is almost difficult to believe that I have spend 8 months here at ISB. This period brings about lots of good memories like those wonderful lectures and some great friends whom I have made at ISB. This week is the alumni reunion and hence lots of activites in campus. Lots of alums have made it to the campus and I had the opportunity to meet some accomplised people (especially the enterpreneurs). One of the alums I met was working for a prominenet newspaper and was also running a social enerprise. She said that she plans to quit the professional job and concenterate on the social venture. It takes more than guts to do it. I think people in India have started awakening and have the guts to follow what their hearts say.

Kudos to the new India!!!!

Day One and Here you Go..

2007-04-30T11:14:00.000-07:00

So after much of fun and frolic the guys and back to work. The guys who took the preterm already have there feet wet but for others it is like plunging into an Ice cold pond. But there is no other way than to take the plunge.

After the first two lecturers I have some confessions to make. Here I discover myself amongst a batch of achievers and I feel I am and the least proficient of the lot. But one thing which impresses me is the pedagogy. It is not like anything which I have come across till now. Here the emphasis is on practical aspect of subject and how it is applied in the real world rather than emphasizing on formulas and its application. I think that the education here resembles more closely to the American education system. We have some very good professors from Wharton and Kellog teaching us and some excellent resident faculties from ISB too.

I have two classes tomorrow and lots of pre reading to do...So Bye for now..

Orientation week..

2007-04-21T10:12:00.000-07:00

So Finally I am back to studies at ISB. Landed in H'Bad on 13th and stayed with my Cousin. They drove me to ISB on 14th. I am put up in Student village 3 (SV3).

Here in ISB the last 1 week was all about orientation. There were lots of games and pranks being organised by alums from 2007 Batch. I got to meet a diverse bunch of people. We have around 4 ortho..surgeons in our batch, All India service officers (IAS, IPS and IFS..). There are quite a few Armed forces veterans in the Batch too. Some of most interesting personalities in the Batch that I now know are (I would use the short form since I want them to be anonymous..) RN, PY, VJ etc..

RN in itself is an amazing story of resilience and willpower. I will follow his progress on this blog.

PY is an example of What a genius can be. Among the people whom I met till today I consider him to be most accomplished of the batch.

VJ is an Army veteran who has taken part in many operations during his stint in the army.

And Dr. K has been of amazing help. This ortho surgeon was instrumental in getting one of my colleague to the Apollo and help us out with his contacts..

I truly feel proud to be the member of the batch.

Last week as a Free Bird

2007-04-10T23:52:00.000-07:00

Now I am eagerly awaiting what would turn out to be one more exciting year in my life. I was trying hard for last so many weeks to set my pririties right before joining ISB. I have to admit that I have failed in that attempt. But one thing is very clear to me..

In this one year I should try to mould my thinking and approach to problem solving (specifically management) in the lines of the great professors who teach at ISB. I believe that this is the most important thing which an education can bring in students. If the student is able to do that then the motive can be considered as achieved. One of the best things which the IIT education also embedded in me is this th

Last two weeks

2007-03-04T04:13:00.001-08:00

Got a Second Hand copy of "The Goal" from the Road Side vendor. The Book is interesting. Goldart has described a typical manufacturing unit in a novel way. Wish I could write like that too, Noted in the ISB Class of 2008 Blogs that many people have already left their Jobs. I am still working. My last day turns out to be March 29. So I have Long way to go. Life is in for really exciting times. If I can mould my thinking atleast half way to the extent the great profs at ISB do then I think that My decision to go in for ISB is fullfilled. Now I have to arrange for loans. have to Call up HDFC on Monday. Already talked to Andhra Bank. Eventhough their interest rate is attractive it is floating. With Bank rate going up I think that it can increase any day.

Current State

2007-02-10T01:18:00.000-08:00

Has been a long time since I blogged.

I am currently in a state of relief and despair. Despair because of uncertainity facing me for next one year.In ISB Classes starts on April 14.

Jayan's journey

2006-03-23T22:35:00.000-08:00

First few months of 2006

It has been some time since I have blogged. Nothing much has happenend in the mean time. There are few developments in my office which I feel is keeping me busy these days. The developments in the office are with respect to the project change which I am trying to make.
I have two options with me. One is to move into the consulting group and the other optionis to move into a Minneapolis based porject.
The group leader who is in charge of Minneapolis based project tried his best to hard sellhis case. The option seems to be good. It helps me in making some moneyand explore a few schools in the comming month.
But the Consulting group is also interesting. Even though I have been a part of the few consulting assignments in my career a full scle involvement in consulting has always been my dream. More over it is in alignment with one of my career goal of becoming a consultant after my MBA. The option of consulting also helps me to differentiate myselfwhen I apply to MBA schools.
At the moment my mind is there is consulting group but it is still wavering. I am not sureas to what decision I will finally take.

Jayan's journey

2006-01-22T05:02:00.000-08:00

Events Last week

Last week I did not try many things for my MBA admission. The reason was I was having a feverish feeling all the days. More over these days they have assigned me with the task of providing strategic direction for some blah..blah.. project. I do not know what directions I will provide..

Jayan's journey

2006-01-14T08:07:00.000-08:00

My MBA journey

My journey for acquiring an US MBA began in July-2005. Initially I started off studying the OG and Kaplan. I had initially fixed my exam for Oct 19 but could not take it due to heavy work pressure. My office work started getting hot in mid august and continued till novembr. You wont beleive me if I say that I could not even touch any preperation material during the above period. So after some deliberation postponed my Exam date to decembr 21st.
I completed my office work by November 21st and then had some support work for two weeks. SO by december 1st I was done with my work and my rescheduled GMAT date was 21 st december. So I took three weeks off from office. I gave a test on Ist and My score in kaplan was 550. I was thoroughly disappointed. But decided to give my best shot. Started doing the OG SC again. Now my main intention was to think in the way the OG was analysing. Then slowly My Kaplan score strted to improve. By the second week it was 610. Then I gave the Power prep test and the score came to 750+. I was not impressed with this score because all the questions were from O.G. I dont know why they really have something like power prep if they cannot provide varitey. I took My GMAT on 21st
Now MY aim in life is clear. I want to do MBA from a top 10 US B-School.I will apply to some US B-Schools Ranked 5-10.I am not sure whether the score is enough..Let me see if any one can guide me..

Jayan's journey

2006-01-08T21:07:00.000-08:00

Jayan's journey
I went to Chennai Book fair on 7th. There were lot of stalls. I bought couple of books from there. Monk Who sold his ferari, Fountainhead, Davinci Code and autobiography of Lance Armstrong.
This Autobiography was always on my list, Because I admire his achievements on the field. He has shown again and again that there is nothing in this world that can stop the human will. As the old saying goes..If you have a will you have a way..I will keep you posted about the reviews once I complete reading these books..

My First Blog

2006-01-06T21:18:00.000-08:00

I always wanted to create a blog but some how or other did not find time to create one. It is not that I have time today but just sat in front of My PC and created this one. let us see how it proceeds.