A viagem

Motivation - moving beyond sticks and carrots

2016-04-08T11:40:00.002+05:30

Who doesn't like a stick?

Well, no one at the receiving end of one, for sure.

However, even experienced leaders and managers, when trying to motivate their followers, think of sticks and carrots. Only.

In fact, a reportee is lucky if “carrot” achieves some share of brainwave in her manager because sometimes it's all “stick”!

Management theory has traditionally equated motivation to the "right" mix of carrots and sticks or more eloquently put, "alternate kicks and kisses".

Renowned management thinker Daniel Pink characterizes this as Motivation 2.0. Motivation 2.0 presumed that humans responded to rewards and punishments in their environment. This is an incremental improvement on

Motivation 1.0 which presumed that human beings were just biological creatures struggling for survival. Thus motivation was considered entirely extrinsic.

In 1949, an American psychologist called Harry Harlow conducted a learning experiment on rhesus monkeys. The task involved solving a simple mechanical puzzle (pulling a pin, undoing a hook and lift a cover on a small device). Once the device was placed in the monkeys cages, they immediately started playing with it. In the absence of any rewards of food, affection, etc., the monkeys rapidly became proficient at solving the puzzle! Perhaps the motivation is the pure joy of having solved the puzzle.

Multiple new studies now suggest that humans also have a 3^rd drive (outside of rewards and punishments) – to learn, to create and to better the world. This is Motivation 3.0, which implies that motivation can also be intrinsic.

What are the implications for managers in the workplace?

Firstly, managers need to know the different types of motivation techniques, and when are each suited.

Extrinsic motivation may be of the following types:

1. Status: Spot awards, public announcements of achievements, etc.

2. Access: Allowing access to top management (lunch with the CEO, etc.)

3. Power: A bigger set of responsibilities/ budgets, more reportees, etc.

4. Stuff: Cash or other such perks

Extrinsic motivation has been shown to be very effective for quotidian tasks. However, when there’s even some amount of creativity involved, extrinsic stimulants reportedly fail. Speaking from personal experience, extrinsic rewards might even diminish performance. Economists call it the overjustification effect in which the external reward such as money, crowds out motivation for an inherently enjoyable task.

Enter intrinsic motivation.

According to Daniel Pink, there are 3 types of intrinsic motivation:

1. Autonomy – Provide people freedom in doing work (e.g. 20% free time at Google). Specify the what, leave the “how” to the person’s discretion

2. Mastery – Show people how the job helps in improving individual skills.

3. Purpose – Help people appreciate how the work matters. How it impacts others.

Thus for roles that involve even a modicum of creativity, managers should seek to make the work intrinsically motivating to ensure top performance.

If we want our employees to innovate, we should ensure we just don’t throw money (or such “stuff”) at them. After all, you can’t bribe people to innovate. We should ensure that key tenets of intrinsic motivation are laid before expecting employees to do their creative best.

Finally, with work becoming remote worldwide, there is a large need to motivate remote employees. In today’s world, work consumes a lion’s share of our conscious lives and in many ways define us. Here’s hoping that we can move beyond the “carrots and sticks” and make work a truly enjoyable and fulfilling experience it deserves to be.

2015-01-04T23:45:00.001+05:30

Din pore jaye din
Gaan pore gayi gaan
Akasho batashe...

The days pass me by
My songs float in the sky, in the wind

Rahul Dravid on “Patience”

2014-08-10T09:19:00.002+05:30

“When I’m requested to speak to youngsters I like talking about this phase of my life and liken it to fascinating plant: The Chinese Bamboo. You can take a Chinese bamboo seed and plant it in the ground, water and nurture the seed for an entire year & not even see a single sprout. Infact, you’ll not see a sprout for 5 years. But suddenly, a tiny shoot will spring from the ground. And over the next 6 weeks, the plant can grow as tall as 90 feet. It can grow as fast as 39 inches every 24 hours. You can literally watch the plant grow.

What was the plant doing during these 5 years, seemingly dormant period, it was growing its roots. For 5 full years it was preparing itself for rapid, full growth. Without this root structure, the plant simply couldn’t support itself for its future growth. Some would say the plant grew 90 feet in 6 weeks, I would say it grew 90 feet in 5 years & 6 weeks”

Media and Entertainment Industry: The changing landscape

2013-07-31T23:38:00.002+05:30

The world is changing - the world of media and entertainment. With technology the traditional landscape has undergone a complete revamp.

Innovations in technology has blurred the boundaries across industries. Leaders from ancillary and even unconnected industries have bulldozed their way into this segment. Looking at the value chain, there are three main segments. Content producers, broadcasters and distributors.

Let’s look at the dynamics of each segment –

Producers are the creative institutions such as Balaji Telefilms, etc. Which produce and develop . For the purpose of this article, let’s focus on the next 2.

Distribution comprises of MSOs such as Hathway, Den (a B2B biz) which engage LCOs to reach the end subscribers.

In India, with the advent of DTH and OTT (Over The Top or streaming) players such as Box TV, Bigflix, this segment will soon become a B2C business.

The major infiltration has happened here from other B2C businesses. Amazon through online B2C portal, Netflix through DVD business, Google through Social networking (Youtube, Android), Apple through well, all its products, etc. have all come riding in on robust tech platforms and a strong suite of loyal customer base and can provide content as an additional service. It’s only a matter of time before FB joins the bandwagon. There are huge cross selling opportunities for these players and with increase in broadband penetration and through network speed improvements via 4G players, etc. will only accelerate this infiltration.

That’s not the whole story though.

The distributors need content to sell. This content is in fact provided by the broadcasters such as Zee TV, Sun TV, etc. who are aggregators of various content programming and are recognized brands.

Couple of major shifts have happened in this industry –

Digitization
Rise of on-demand programming

Far higher revenues will now be realizable compared to earlier i.e. the revenues that were earlier not declared by LCOs. Thus ad revenues which forms about 65% for broadcasters will gradually become ~50% with the share of subscriber revenues going up proportionately. Secondly, through rise of on-demand programming, ARPU has increased as subscribers may pay higher prices to skip unnecessary ads lowering ad revenues further. Subscribers have thus become much more important for broadcasters.

The challenge is that Broadcasters which were typically B2B businesses dealing with either distributors or Advertizers have to deal with consumers more directly now.

This means that now they have to reorganize and become more nimble, make faster decisions, hire people or teams that understand consumer behaviour and develop analytics capabilities among other things. This is aided by better ability to get registered subscriber information because of digitization.

Since technology has changed the nature of the industry to more consumer facing, the power has shifted to tech players. These new entrants are not stopping at distribution. Netflix, through better understanding of consumer behaviour has been able to commission blockbuster shows such as House of Cards that suits its subscriber base’s taste.

Thus the only way for broadcasters to defend their position is to attack by going down the value chain. They should invest in evolving technologies (organic will be too time consuming), launch OTT services like HBO Go, etc. and investigate other means of engagement directly with consumers such as Mobile apps, games, etc.

There are exciting times ahead for the industry and the next few years may radically change the landscape

[Part 2] Budget for Success! Here are 5 steps to tackle the budgeting beast

2013-07-28T11:25:00.000+05:30

This is the 2nd part of this 2-part series on budgeting fundamentals:

Step 1: Prepare an exhaustive list of service lines/revenue streams

A budgetary exercise typically focuses on only costs – but in this author’s experience that may be inappropriate because a lot of costs depend on your strategy and revenue plans. For example, if you are an Indian firm, planning on serving customers in Asia, the travelling costs will differ vastly from those if you serve clients in USA. So a better approach is to first prepare a revenue plan after discussion with the top leadership. Very often in small firms, this can be a key challenge because of lack of clarity on customers and sales locations. The sales team will typically provide an inflated lump sum. Here (just as in life) the devil is in the details. One approach is to ask for a list of prospective customers– categorized by location, probability of conversion, (expected) deal size, etc. After agreement on which projects to consider, add a lump sum for other unforeseen new revenue opportunities but it should be justifiable in terms of prospects.

Step 2: Classify costs into revenue buckets

Costs can be divided into Capital Expenditure (Capex) and Operational Expenditure (Opex).

Capex is typically a large investment say investing in a new plant or R&D, etc. whose benefit will accrue to the business for multiple periods.It shall help to first prepare the exhaustive list of service lines and revenue types and then identify capex required for each item. This will ensure that any key capex item is not missed. Typically for R&D projects, further break-down details may be sought for on-going vs. new investments planned along with phase wise commitment information. Such soul-searching questions shall lead to numbers closer to reality and force Capex spend to align more closely with the long term strategy.

Step 3: Determine Multiples

One approach for budgeting for variable cost items is to identify multiples from either industry benchmarks or from the business leaders based on their past experience. For example, in services industry, one can come up with the number of resources required per unit size of project, volume of raw materials (respective) required per unit of final product volume, etc.

Material or input acquisition expenses should again be broken down by as much details as possible. For example if a media company is acquiring content, it shall help to identify what form of media – which language, which provider, which vendor, etc.

Similarly G&A and travel costs can be estimated from past experiences but again there should be quantifiable assumptions behind those numbers –

Let’s take travel costs as an example.

Travel Cost (separately for domestic and for foreign):

i. Flight fare: No. of trips * Fare per round trip (including Visa etc. for foreign trips)

ii. Hotel Cost: No of trips * Average hotel stay duration/trip in days * Avg. per day rate

iii. Local Conveyance: No. of trips * Avg. fare per trip (normal taxi fare, etc.)

The key is to ask for details and break any cost into its components so as to get more clarity and base the numbers on a strong foundation.

Step 4: Prepare estimates for all financial statements

Typically small companies will only project their P&L along with capex. Don’t fall into this trap. Estimate both P&L and Balance Sheet so that Cash flows can be estimated. This will also bring into focus exact funding requirements including sources of funding and associated financing costs. Probably the most valuable commodity for an investee firm is cash and without a diligent mapping of both P&L and Assets/Liabilities, the business may find itself with insufficient funding (or untimely funding).

Step 5: Integrate

Once the above steps are followed, it is imperative to run them by the Sales, Procurement, HR, R&D and other department leaders along with the top management or board to check the sanctity and to ensure that they make sense as a whole.

A diligent budgeting process enforces discipline in a business. Thus robust budgeting helps a start-up mature and enables it to grow without hiccups. In sum, budgeting is an indispensable business activity and needs to be looked at not as a necessary evil but as an important value generating step in a young business’ growth.

[Part 1] Budget for Success!

2013-07-28T11:22:00.002+05:30

Yes it’s that time of the year again. The sales and the procurement people who passed snide remarks against the “bean counters” all year round suddenly seem to be smiling pleasantly – even waving and exchanging pleasantries with the “finance wizards”. No, it’s not Christmas or Diwali time. It’s time for the budget. This is the time the finance department suddenly becomes the cynosure of the organization.

All departments from HR to Procurement to Sales need the finance team to sign-off on their budgets for the next year. Hence the dramatic change in attitude. Most business teams treat the budgeting exercise with either dread or dispassion. This author has been in budgetary meetings where department heads joke about having two budgets – one presented to promoters or investors to keep them happy and another that resides in the business teams’ minds which shall actually be realized.

A few weeks before start of the new FY,the various teams get together (probably for the first time in months) and put something down on paper (or excel as the case may be) just to have the budget done with. Like most organizations, if you follow this cycle of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde behaviour towards budgeting, expect the process to end similarly – in a tragedy. The main reason for a budgeting activity is to better plan for the future – to get a handle of what is required to achieve the revenue targets.Additionally a budget may also aid in evaluating resourcing requirements. A sound budget is also mandatory to justify a funding request to a (potential) investor.

Thus unless due diligence is carried out while preparing a budget, the business may be in danger of facing cash flow risk going forward. This due diligence along with a strong framework should be provided by the finance team.It is vital that finance team is involved throughout the year on planning and the strategic decision making process to prepare the various types of budgets.

A budget is typically of two types – a one year detailed budget and a 3-5 year long-term budget.

The one year budget is used to predict monthly, weekly and sometimes even daily cash flows and expenses. This may become very important for a trading company as it typically prepares a 15-day rolling budget and a rolling P&L because the business is extremely dynamic and the risk management has to be timely and highly granular. Thus any business that has a trading angle to it needs to have a rolling short interval budget and a constantly updatable one year budget. Every business nonetheless needs to have a monthly or at least a quarterly budget that will help plan ahead.

The longer duration 5-year (or 3 year) budget helps put the long term goals in perspective. Of course the 1st year of such a budget needs to be in sync with the one-year budget discussed above. The longer term budget may not have as objective a set of assumptions as a one-year budget but each item needs to be based on solid references. For example,5-year revenue growth may be benchmarked against 5-year industry growth, 5-year SG&A percentage rise may be benchmarked against 5-year expected inflation and so on.

The challenges faced by all companies are broadly similar for both types of budgets. The task gets more complicated for a young company because of lack of past data. In an established firm, the budget numbers typically vary by a small fraction of last year’s values unless the management is investing heavily in a new plant or acquiring a company, etc. However, for a small and fast growing company, the challenge is absence of any past indicators.

The task is further complicated by the nature of investments and expenditures: whether capex or opex, whether fixed or variable, etc. The uncertain future of a nascent technology and sometimes of even the industry adds to this complexity.

In short, a budget is a dangerous animal and a structured well-thought out approach is required to tame it.

In the next part of this article which will be released tomorrow, we shall look at a set of steps that may be followed to do exactly that.

One liners

2013-05-09T12:03:00.001+05:30

Groucho Marx - 'I never forget a face, but in your case I’d be glad to make an exception.'

Peter Kay (2 July 1973-):

'My Dad used to say 'always fight fire with fire', which is probably why he got thrown out of the fire brigade.'

Tommy Cooper (1921-1984)

'I'm on a whiskey diet. I've lost three days already.'

Woody Allen (1 December 1935-):

'Life is full of misery, loneliness, and suffering - and it's all over much too soon.'

Billy Connolly (24 November 1942-):

'My definition of an intellectual is someone who can listen to the William Tell Overture without thinking of the Lone Ranger.'

W.C Fields (1880-1946):

'Start every day off with a smile and get it over with.'

Tony Hancock (1924-1968):

'This radio lark's a wonderful hobby, y'know. I've got friends all over the world, all over the world... none in this country, but friends all over the world.'

Les Dawson (1931-1993):

'My wife sent her photograph to the Lonely Hearts Club. They sent it back saying they weren't that lonely.'

Spike Milligan (1918-2002):

'Chopsticks are one of the reasons the Chinese never invented custard.'

Dorothy Parker (1893-1967):

'If you want to know what God thinks of money, just look at the people he gave it to.'

Gore Vidal (1925-2012):

'Every time a friend succeeds, I die a little.'

Bob Newhart ( September 5, 1929-):

'I don't like country music, but I don't mean to denigrate those who do. And for the people who like country music, denigrate means 'put down'.

Jimmy Carr (15 September 1972):

'I saw that show, 50 Things To Do Before You Die. I would have thought the obvious one was "Shout For Help". '

Ken Dodd (8 November 1927-):

'I have kleptomania. But when it gets bad, I take something for it.'

Mark Twain (1835-1910):

'Age is an issue of mind over matter. If you don't mind, it doesn't matter.'

Bill Cosby (July 12, 1937-):

'Always end the name of your child with a vowel, so that when you yell the name will carry.'

Mae West (1893-1980):

'I used to be Snow White, but I drifted.'

shayari

2013-04-20T19:59:00.002+05:30

Main kehta hoon iss dil ko dil mein basa lo,
wo kehte hain humse nigahen mila lo
nigahon ko maloom kya dil ki haalat
nigahon nigahon mein kya baat hogi

mohabbat ka jab humbne chhera fasana
to gore se mukhre pe aaya paseena
jo nikle the ghar se to kya jante the
ke yun dhoop mein aj barsaat hogi

------
badha ke pyaas meri ussne hath chor diya
wo kar rha tha murabbat bhi dillagi ki tarah

has ke bola karo bulaya karo
aapka ghar hai aaya jaya karo

hadd se badhkar haseen lagte ho
jhoothi kasme zaroor khaya karo

Shafaq, Dhanuk, Mehtab, Ghataye, Taare, Nagme, Bijli, Phool

uss daman mein kya kya kuch hai

wo daman haath mein aaye to

wo na aaye to satati hai khaleesh si dil ko

wo jo aayen to khaleesh aur jawan hoti hai

Grey and black and white (draft)

2013-03-25T10:13:00.003+05:30

People are by nature fond of black and white. Grey makes us uncomfortable.
We are very happy when we can characterize someone as a "Good" person or a "Bad" person. It's hard for us to say that a person is a cruel humbug yet is also nice and caring.
It is also part of our natural emotional defense or coping mechanism that probably makes us think this way.
It helps us overcome a breakup by vilifying or even dehumanizing the erstwhile significant other rather than thinking oh - he/she didn't do me justice but was such a nice person otherwise. I guess one dimensional thinking has its uses.
I have somehow never been a fan of the black and white. Not that it came naturally but over time that is who I've become. Not that that's very helpful but I do know that I'd rather let a guilty man walk free than hang an innocent one.
This line of human behaviour may be more prevalent than we realize. I think the root of the problem is that we hate uncertainty. We love clear outcomes. One of the leading sources of stress is uncertainty as proven in numerous research reports. Say professional uncertainty - a company not providing a defined career path may lead to many sleepless nights for the new joinee in question.
When the consulting JDs state that a key criteria of hiring is - comfort in an ambiguous environment - I think what they are looking for is actually someone who is so uncomfortable with ambiguity that he/she is willing to do everything in order to provide structure to chaos.
Even though very few of us admit it, I think that we also like to have a world with exams than not. Exams are so black and white. You either know an answer or you don't. It's has a clear timeline (keeping aside surprise tests), clear outcome - you know your rank clearly and is easy to plan for. In our careers, we aren't always clear when to work harder - during appraisal time or during the beginning of the FY or during a high priority project or may be all through. We don't know which behaviour will lead to better rating et cetera.
If anything, the exams are a prototype or a simplified model of career or life in general.
Exams are black nad white.
Unfortunately (or fortunately) life is grey.

2013-03-09T12:52:00.000+05:30

"I’ve been looking at what you’re doing and I think you’re in desperate need of change. … Even though success is a reality, its effects are temporary. You get hungry even though you’ve just eaten. … You’re happy with 50 percent? You’re on top, and you don’t have enough. You’re happy because you’re successful. For now. But what is happiness? It’s a moment before you need more happiness. I won’t settle for 50 percent of anything. I want 100 percent. You’re happy with your agency? You’re not happy with anything. You don’t want most of it, you want all of it. And I won’t stop until you get all of it. Thank you for your time."

-Don Draper, Mad Men.

Probably the slick-est sales pitch ever made

Footsteps

2012-11-26T18:52:00.005+05:30

Footsteps

The sound of approaching footsteps.
Expectancy and trepidation.
A pregnant feeling - hope.
A desire - a vision.
A smile.
Learning to discern.
A different sound - a broken heel.
A new style.
Learning to cope.
Footsteps.

Is someone else responsible for your happiness? (incomplete)

2012-11-03T15:06:00.000+05:30

I came across this nice article sometime back.
The author asks a very simple question: He asked me: "Why do you think that another person is responsible for your happiness?"

The topic of the article was general causes of depression, getting over personal grief, etc.
The question though very basic is very pertinent because at least I have never thought about things like that.

Whenever I have had a fight with a friend, whenever someone close has passed away,, whenever something has gone wrong I have time and again gone back and somehow blamed myself. The point is not who was at fault. The point is whether some object, some person is really the cause of your true happiness.

While our friends do give us happiness, I believe that true happiness can come only form a content mind. Someone not confident in his own shoes, will always look externally for happiness. Tagore writes: "chokher aloy dekhechilem chokher bahire. Ontore aj dekhbo jokhon alok nahi re". It means that "I saw the world using my inner light. But cannot see inside myself, because there's only darkness"

The key, the author argues is 2-fold.
1. An elevated sense of self-worth and
2. A personal purpose in life

I am a big believer in self confidence for I know the power of positive thinking. However, as Shakespeare once said, " I can easier teach twenty what were good to be done than be one of the twenty to follow mine own teaching".
To keep that confidence and belief going in hard times is tough even for the brave hearted.

the shrinking ocean

2012-11-03T15:04:00.004+05:30

When we are teenagers, our life seems like an ocean of possibilities - the different permutations and combinations that we can make of our lives. As we grow older, some of these combinations are annulled and the ocean shrinks to a sea or a river. A mature middle aged man may have just a pond of few choices left. A elderly man has but a pool, if at all.

Barbarians on the road

2011-09-21T17:45:00.000+05:30

Someone just smashed my brand new car! Are people just going crazy? Barbarians.

Since I decided to stay back in Mumbai instead of taking up a lucrative offer in the dark continent, there has been a terror strike, a street fight with a hooligan and my car has been smashed.

It could surely have not been worse in the Africas.

Confluence

2011-03-21T01:12:00.000+05:30

I don't know if I want to write a lot. Guess I'd just ramble a bit. Finally it hit. After all these years, it happened. I knew the intensity. I was aware from what I had heard. But when it hit me, I was still taken aback But somehow I have stabilized. Actually that's not entirely true. Nights are generally good. Mornings are the real test.

I am in Cal for the weekend. Couldn't spend my birthday and Holi in Mumbai.
Came home to friends and family. Well came home to parents actually. Just came home.

God, how it seems that life is just about 1-2 things.When this all started, I remember telling someone that "I am feeling like a teenager", Well now also I feel something like that. Didn't know I was so weak.

Well, on 2nd thought I amn't. I just took some time to realize the other good things in life. I wish I had Tagore around. Would head to the other house to get some of his work tomorrow. He has never failed me so far. I know he won;t in the future. Was just discussing Seser Kobita with Aru.
Came across this from Wiki:

"Even the theme was novel - after building up their affair and obtaining the blessings of Labannya's aunt, the lovers decide to marry other suitors, without the air of tragedy. In the text, the reason appears to be that they feel that daily chores of living together will kill the purity of their romance:

"Most barbarians equate marriage with the union, and look upon the real union thereafter with contempt.^[3]... ketakI and I - our love is like water in my kalsi (jug) ; I fill it each morning, and use it all day long. But Labannya's love is like a vast lake, not to be brought home, but into which my mind can immerse itself. ^[4]"

Isn't this just fabulous. Wonder how one man could have experienced all these emotions.

I don't understand friendship. How is that even possible? Strangely, I think I am going to be fine. It take s alot, but u can change feelings.

Hope tomorrow morning I don;t go back to being me.

New life

2010-12-30T00:00:00.000+05:30

It's been a while since I last wrote a blog post. I've now moved to Mumbai. Life in a new city is always an exhilarating feeling. First few months were a stretch just getting used to the sights and the sounds of this city. And I must say it was hard getting used to the filth and the dirt. I had a different idea about Mumbai when I first came in. I expected it to be rich in splendour, heavy in vigor and thick in taste. Initially all I saw were the disjointed flyovers, the traffic and the pollution. Then I got to know the people.
I think the people is what makes the city. The reason many outsiders don;t get Calcutta is that they just breeze through the city and never stay long enough to get enamoured by its charm. I think in that, Mumbai is also pretty similar. It's the vibrancy and the quality of people around. And of course if you are ready to splurge, there is no place that can give you such a rich life.

I have been lucky to have a nice set of people around me so far. Cheers to the road ahead.

Introducing TheTripMagic

2010-08-15T10:58:00.000+05:30

Just wanted to introduce a unique travel portal that some friends from ISB and outside have recently launched. It's called TheTripMagic: http://thetripmagic.com. It's a complete travel portal with blogs, forum, community, social network, etc. To quote form the site:
"

We believe in the simple philosophy that happiness multiplies by sharing. So if you’ve had the trip of a lifetime, write a blog and let the world know.

The blogs are powered by WordPress, the most powerful blogging platform known to man!

You can create your own online space for free with us: your website, your blog, your album, and so on and everything for free. You can even get your own domain. For example, if your name is say Joe, you may name your personal site: http://joe.thetripmagic.com.

We know that sometimes, you want to venture out to that unknown place. At TheTripMagic, you can find folks who’ve been there, done that.

You may even find a travel buddy who is going to that place at the same time!

If you are in college, you can form public or private groups with your friends and discuss plans collaboratively through our group wiki.

This is all just for starters. Next up, eclectic choice of getaways especially for you.

In the near future we will have some innovative travel solutions for our members.

Some eclectic hotels are also going to be launched from Monday which you can browse and book from. Do check back in the site coz the content is updated almost daily."

I have also helped a bit in the design etc. Would appreciate some feedback on it. Please leave a comment if you want some new features and/or destinations.

Mothers

2010-06-30T00:03:00.000+05:30

Suffering with 104 degree fever, acute breathing trouble because of bronchitis, sitting in doctor's chamber, while answering the doctor's questions, she looks at me and asks "Why are you standing dear? Take a Seat"! Mothers.

The whys of MBA curriculum

2010-06-17T19:56:00.000+05:30

Having now joined the workforce, I can now appreciate the method in the apparent madness of the MBA curriculum. I think these info will helo the prospective students.

A few days back, I got a call from a director at another office about help regarding a proposal. I was given 2 hours to go through the project specifics-public announcements of a merger. After 2 hours, I was asked what I feel about this. Then over the weekend I wrote a proposal on the post merger integration of these 2 firms.
Sounds familiar? This is just what you do for a case prep. We are given copious case study notes with miniscule time. We read up on case for 2 hours, discuss the case in class - state our point of view and then write a case summary. THis rigour really helps now in job scenario.

Similarly, I'm also working on a strategy project with a team spread across India. Off course the colleagues have different wavelengths and pre-ISB there might have been a friction. But the rich (and forced) experienced via study groups of working with unknown people from different backgrounds over a long period of time and managing egos and personalities really helps avoid frictions now.

So in addition to the actual content of an MBA curriculum, the design itself also helps cope with post-MBA work environment. We also had courses that taught us how to cope with office politics. Maybe I'll write about that sometime!

Poll

2010-06-04T02:23:00.002+05:30

ISB MBA: Things I'd do differently

2010-05-25T15:06:00.004+05:30

It's been nearly a couple of months since I donned the convocation hat and received my degree certificate with a photogenic smile from Mr. Kapil Sibal. With this time lag in between, here's taking a look at what could have helped shape my ISB experience better.

Student exchange-The biggest "if only..." feeling I have is about the student exchange program. I wanted to go for student exchange from the time I was researching MBA schools. I remember meticulously researching each of the schools my target colleges had tie ups with. At ISB the problem was the timing. I was only interested in the very best global B-Schools for exchange namely Wharton, Lbs and Kellogg. I had somehow formed the idea that each of them had an exchange timeline that clashed with the placement season. However, after the first round exchange deadline was over, I realized that Kellogg exchange actually started in Apr! A golden opportunity to get access to the Alumni portal was missed this way. In fact, I could have also (and should have) gone to colleges like HKUST or CEIBS which would be big in Asia. Apart from the travel aspect, exchange really helps in long term professional (and personal networking).

Asia study trek-There were talks of a European trek which I was interested in. Later that fizzled out (only London tour with only 1 person attending) and I decided to skip the Asia trek. While professional networking wouldn't have been a huge gain here, the camaraderie developed with fellow ISB travelers and the personal experience of visiting so many countries and corporates would definitely have compensated for the cost.

More involvement in clubs-Apart from serving the ISB Toastmasters Club as President, I never got involved with any other social or professional clubs. Organizing some of the major events would have definitely helped to know more people and form better bonds at and outside ISB. The toss up here was time. That said, given a choice I guess I'll still settle for my ISB rank.

Choice of subjectsThis is very pero=sonal but for the sake of completeness, let me list the specific papers that didn't work for me and I wish I had chosen otherwise. I didn't find any value in Capital raising for corporations. The profs were fantastic but the paper itself didn't give me a high. I should have taken the course Advertising taught by a stellar prof Jaidip Sengupta. Same goes for "Investing in Private Equity" by prof Vinay Nair and "Advanced Transaction Analysis and Modeling" by prof Ashish Kohli. Both are super profs and the subjects are tremendous value ads. The last course I would mention is LSCM-"Logistics and Supply Chain Management" by prof Milind Sohni -one of the star profs at ISB. Advertizing and LSCM are not something that I may use too often in my professional life but they were good to know subjects taught by people who made the classes interesting. Same goes for the 2 Fin profs above. Disclaimer for future ISB students: Please note that these are my personal opinions, other batch mates may and probably will come up with totally opposite views.

Other-Someone asked me if I would have changed my choice of colleges if I retook GMAT. Well, it didn't matter to me as I only apped to ISB. I would always urge anyone considering MBA to go for the best colleges. I abhor the concept of categorization of colleges into reach and dream and what not. I wanted to get into the best college I could afford. Else I wouldn't have joined an MBA program.

Survey on Online Travel Industry

2010-05-11T16:18:00.004+05:30

Hi,

Would really appreciate it if you respond to the following survey on Online travel industry. Would take 15 minutes max.

What is your package?

2010-05-04T21:31:00.003+05:30

Ever since placement, I have heard this question so many times that I feel like smacking the mouth that utters these words. Whoever I meet at ISB or outside asks this question as if it's my duty to inform the person about this most private thing. Whatever happened to respecting privacy?

Following is a conversation I had with an old acquaintance recently over gtalk.

S: hey hi buddy

hru doing these days ..?

me: im fine

how are you

long time

S: ye pretty long time ..

doing good ..

so hows all going at your end ..?

MBA over ..?

me: ya

just graduated

S: cool yaar congrats ..!

placed @ ..?

me: hv a cpl of offers

with xx and yyy

S:
congrats yaar ..!

:)

hey can u tell me wht ws ur gmat score ..?

me: 740

S: hmm ...

If u dont mind ...cud u tell me ur package for yyy..?

me: it's good enough for me mate

S: Ya but it was good even before right

me: Ya well it takes care of my needs even better now

S: Ya but exactly how much?

P: I'll get by. Enough to take care of my needs.

S: haha :) ok

People just don't get the hint that someone values privacy.
Another time an ISB classmate asked similar questions. So I said it's a private matter dude. Did I ask yours? So the reply came, "just because you didn't ask me how would I know I didn't ask anybody else? And anyway, I just want to benchmark my salary". me: "!".

Today I got this email...(to set the context, I had forwarded a job posting I got from ISB alum group to my undergrad (Jadavpur University) alum group.

Hi Priyom,

Though I'm not intersted in the job you mentioned but from your signature I came to know you are MBA from ISB 2010 batch. Would you please tell where have you been placed from campus with what package. And what's highest, lowest, average package of ISB this year domestic as well as international.
Regards,
P*******

I got so pi**ed off at this that I felt like giving a mouthful to this person whom I didn't even know.
I eventually replied:

P*******,

I had an offer with ** Corporate Strategy from the campus.
Compensation details are a private and confidential matter and I won't provide that info to you.
The ISB salary and other details are available on the ISB site www.isb.edu (the current year's will be available in a few months).

Now I've decided that I'll be brutally frank and tell people to f*** off if anyone asks my salary. And if you do want to ask, wrap your question in a garb of propriety. For instance, today someone asked me, "Could you tell me what percentage hike you got over your last CTC"? Though I replied "substantial" but at least I haven't lost respect for the person asking the above question.

Anyway, this would be be a good time to mention that I decided to rejoin my old firm. They are opening a new strategy consulting practice and I'd be in charge of the entire east India region. In fact I'm the first and only employee so far in this part of the country. My reporting manager is the SBU head. Interesting days ahead.

Doing well at a B-school: Academics

2010-04-08T14:52:00.000+05:30

This is the first part of a series of Doing well at a B-school articles I plan to write. Today I'd share my experiences and insights on what I felt may work academically at ISB or in any B-school. Halfway through the year I realized my follies and felt the need for these precious tidbits from seniors which are difficult to get in a 1-year B-school. A disclaimer before I begin: these are just my personal thoughts. Please don't come back to me if any of these strategies don't work.

Exams: The so called easier subjects such as for Strategy of OB are actually tougher to score at because the TAs have specific guidelines on points in the answers. So you have to really follow the class well to understand professor's points of view. The hard core fin subjects have very high spread so be sure to practice practice and practice sample questions. After the first 2 terms I just couldn't get myself to study the day before the exams coz of fatigue or burnout or whatever. This is a disaster. I changed this during the last few terms to great effect. So make the most of the day before exams. To set expectations, a general rule of thumb is that about 8 marks above average guarantee an A (at least at ISB).

Assignments: Well this is really tricky and there's no right answer. Few electives in fact have only assignments that decide the grade. So just work hard in them I guess. For core terms, they generally don't matter so for subjects which have >80% weightage on exams you are better of ignoring assignments (where spread is very low) and concentrating on exams.

Projects:For most projects, using some fancy frameworks to analyze the issues really help. Also try to bring in concepts taught in class. Very importantly, if the project is in slide/PPT form, and you've to submit both hard and soft copies, you must put in some animations irrespective of guidelines. Sometimes presence (or absence) of animation (whatever quality) makes the difference.

Class Participation (CP): The much abused part of B-school life, CP hardly matters during core terms in the overall scheme of things. In electives, CP does make a whole lot of difference due to very high spread. But a word of caution. Please don't blabber or ramble if you have nothing substantive to say. I have seen numerous people who constantly jabber get very low CP marks wherease a few well thought out points win very high marks. And, it is OK not to speak in a few classes, really!

These were just few things that I felt I could have benefited from if I knew them from the start. If you are just starting out on a B-school, do remember that grades follow learning and learning follows enjoyment. So don't forget the enjoy the b-school experience in class or outside.

The Grand Finale

2010-04-05T16:00:00.008+05:30

The ISB stay is finally over and I'm back home. The last week was really special. There were lots of parites, outings, get togethers, etc. Monday we went on a trip to the interiors of Hyderabad to see the workings of Basix, a Microfinance institution (we had a course on MF this term). On Tuesday, I went to Little Italy with V.
On Wednesday, my parents came over. Next couple of days were spent waiting for the 8th term results to decide our final CGPAs and the dean's list, etc. The city had curfews due to some communal tension so we had to spend few days indoors. Then on Friday, there was a special dinner party thrown by the dean for Dean's Listers and other awardees. It was great to have my parents over for this event. Thereafter, we had a fantastic graduation party replete with booze, kebabs, DJ and the like. Hats off to the SLC (Student Life Council) for doing a terrific job during the year. They were innovative, passionate and resourceful throughout. We had free Red Bull (which saved many of us from sleeping during a 4 hr Comp Strat marathon xam) during exams, puzzles arranged in the LRC, SV crawls (where people crawled from one student village to another drinking all the way) and many more such amazing events which made our stay here really special.
Finally on Saturday, the 3rd of April,2010, yours truly became an MBA. In the momentous occasion, Shri Kapil Sibal, the hon'bl Union Minister of HRD awarded the graduation certificates to our batch of 568 graduating students. We started the year with a strength of 579 folks but lost some due to various reasons. The convocation was held in a semi-temporary pandal structure constructed on the AC6 lawns. The students on the Dean's List (top 10% by CGPA) sat in the first row (in order of rank), followed by the Young leaders and the torch bearers (60 odd). The rest of the batch followed then in order of last name.
It was an amazing feeling when all of us graduates walked to our seats greeted with standing applause from all the relatives and professors.
The ceremony itself was an elaborate affair in which the Dean started the proceeding with a "trademark" speech. Thankfully there were no references to "monkeys". The dean of MIT's Sloan School of Management was also here to mark the occasion of MIT becoming ISB's 4th associate school. So after speeches from 2 deans, Rajat Gupta, the ex-McKinsey global CEO (ISB is his brainchild) spoke a few terse but weighty words on his mantra for success. One particular statement that's etched in my memory is that "whenever in life, you feel comfortable, change the scene." It effectively means always break yourself and keep reinventing. Stability is the enemy of growth.
we were treated with Kapil Sibal's semi-political monologue on various factors of life. He concluded with a self composed poem ("a gift to you students") on the Banking crisis which was received with much enthusiasm from a few of his political aides.
Finally, the certificates were handed out in order of seating. I use the term "certificate" very loosely because it was only a sample copy and the actual certificates and transcripts were given to us about an hour after the ceremony (in order to avoid mix ups). Off course Mr Sibal didn't know this and proudly displayed the certis during official graduation photographs for the first few students. Fortunately he was told to mend his ways thereafter and other students managed to pose smartly for the photos with certificates that didn't have "sample copy" printed across them. Since the whole distribution took a lot of time, the students invented some entertainment for themeselves by cheering for each repeated surname at a time...we went "Singh, Singh, Singh..., Sinha Sinha, Sinha...", etc. Even Rajat Gupta and the other guests burst out laughing.
The last person L Vyas (by order of name) got the most rapturous applause of his life when the entire batch just burst out with all remaining energy.
After thanking our relatives for their patience, support and best wishes during the past year, we tossed our hats and became MBAs.
Private photo sessions followed after the ceremony with friends and family.
The batch MMX (2010) thus took shape. We have arrived!

At night had a fabulous dinner with all students along with relatives.
To cap off wonderful evening, SLC organized our first party as alums of this amazing institution. I partied till the wee hours of the morning as this was our last night together. I got to say good byes to most friends and to those whom I couldn't, here's bidding adieu to you-I'll miss you all. This year, without a shadow of a doubt, was the best of my life and if there ever was a life changing experience, it would be the year at ISB.
Over and out from the batch of MMX, ISB