Term 6 started off pretty slowly with not much to do except all the events that we had this time. We had the Venture Capital Investment Competition, in association with the Kenan-Flagler Business School @ UNC. This was an internal round and the winner from ISB gets to participate in the Asia Round that we are organizing for the first time sometime in Feb. So this was kind of a trial run. I was handling all the logistics and I can tell you, it wasnt an easy job. It did go off without a hitch though, so no complaints.

VCIC Internal Round

Parallel to the VCIC, we also had the Energy Conclave organised by the Energy and Manufacturing Club on the same weekend!

Next, we had the RBI Governor, Dr. D Subbarao on campus to talk about the impact of the recent crisis on India and our future growth.

Dr. D Subbarao @ ISB

Then we had the ISB Leadership Summit, ISB’s flagship event with over 30 speakers coming over to speak on multiple panels, all on a single day. It was an interesting experience, with the sad part being the choices we needed to make on which discussion to attend. I settled for a very interesting panel discussion where Mr. B S Nagesh, the MD of Shopper’s Stop, spoke on his experience with Indian Retail and its growth over the years.

Mr. Nagesh on Indian Retail

Then of course, we also had ISB Day celebrations as ISB turned 8, with a cultural program over the weekend as well, with some great performances by students, staff, families, you name it!

ISB Day- The Acapella Band!

In between we also had the finals of the iDiya, the social entrepreneurship competition, with teams of working professionals from all over India competing, and the top 6 teams attending mentoring workshops at ISB. One of the highlights of the competition was the session on Responsible Leadership by Rahul Bose, who besides being an actor, is involved in a lot of different things, from the Indian rugby team to his NGO.

In addition, pre-placement talks have started, with companies coming to campus almost everyday to deliver their pitches. There are some really interesting roles up for grabs, and resumes are being polished, and interviews being prepared for.

And last, but definitely NOT the least, we have Solstice 2009 this weekend. The biggest fun event of the year, when ISB alums from all over come back to school for 3 days of partying with the current batch.

WHEW! So much for being short, I am already out of breath.

Oh, and this is just a single term at ISB!

- Jasnoor

Class of 2010

There were many things I wanted to blog about in these hols, but what with one thing and the other, it all got delayed, so I hope to get back to writing this term, and lets see how that goes

The term break as a whole was a great chance to unwind. I visited some places in Secundrabad for the first time as well as the Salarjung Museum which is a treat to visit. The marble Rebecca is an amazing statue which leaves you wondering at the fine details etched into it.

Photo courtesy Salarjung Museum Website

Besides the famous clock and the marble Rebecca, everything there is worth seeing at least once. The whole scope of the place and the different kinds of stuff Salarjung III collected in his lifetime is just mind boggling, especially if you factor in the number of countries he got everything from as well as the weight of some of those items. Ming pottery from China as well as customised crystal from Czechoslovakia were only among some of the things you see over there. There were delicate Japanese and Chinese porcelain, suits of Armour, swords with diamonds embedded on them, silk embroidered paintings and what not! The amazing part is that only a fraction of the whole collection is actually on display, with space being the limiting factor here.

With the elective terms coming up, we also have the exchange students coming in. The last 2-3 days had orientation as well as a city tour for the new students who have arrived on campus for the next two terms.

We went out on campus, which doesnt sound like much till you realise that the ISB campus is 260 acres, with only part of it developed and in regular use. There is a check dam which is a great spot with a couple of birds the only creatures around to break the silence. The rest of the area has never been cleared and has lots of peacocks frequently seen along the road and even in the Student Villages. We took a couple of pics as well.

Thats Microsoft in the background…

The 'Dam' (Pic - Gaurav Goyal)

Bird drying its wings (Pic - Gaurav Goyal)

More Birds (Pic - Gaurav Goyal)

The Atrium - Deserted in the break

Some pics of the lawns and the main building:

Main Block at Night (Pic - Saikat Poddar)

Here's Another One (Pic - Saikat Poddar)

- Jasnoor, Class of 2010

What am I up to? Just dropped off a Management Accounting assignment an hour back and then hit an entrepreneurship case so that I can finish the online quiz on time. Both due in the morning of course. Thank God for afternoon classes this term!

Coming back to the reason for this post. I had a class today where I realized that around 50% of everything we have learnt over the last three months (has it already been that long?) can be explained by two simple graphs.

Graph - I

The ubiquitous supply-demand curve. Apparently, you can explain 75% of all economic theory using this figure. There are of course some slight variations, differences in variables along the axis etc, but the basic curves stay the same over multiple topics.

Graph - II

This ‘frontier’ graph has been verified as being the essence of multiple subjects, from Economics (the remaining 25%) to Marketing, and from Competitive Strategy to Operations Management. No wonder people can by now just walk to the board when cold called, draw this in their sleep, and be correct. Well, most of the time anyway.

The lesson? Remember these two figures and thats a major part of MBA teaching distilled right into your brain. I might just write a book (or a pamphlet?) about it. Title suggestions/comments welcome, though I am currently partial to: “The 2 minute MBA.”

- Jasnoor S Gill, Class of 2010

DJ Omar of Poison spinning at an ISB party

Friends,

Conferences, microeconomics and leadership development programs aside, I would like to report on important things: The party scene at the ISB is decent.

Hyderabad clubs tend to close around 1 a.m; if they don’t, police comes and shuts them down. Thus, the poor Hyd people have to be dressed and out of the door by 9 p.m., at the club by 10 and back home, tucked in their beds by 2. Luckily, as any proper party, ISB kind of a party is lifeless before 11. The crowd starts slowly trickling down around midnight, gets excited around 1, and stays charged till the peacocks sing good morning. Often, professors and staff are in the attendance.

The Lounge of 08, THE spot for the ISB parties, is a dance floor and bar set up in the open air. With the sound system and lighting by the best clubs in town, munch food served on the side and vivacious ISB crowd it is difficult to have it boring.

Yevheniya Krutko, Class of 2010

 

Sadly, I was wrong. Very wrong, actually. This term is easily the toughest of all we have gone through till wrong. Agreed, the mad rush for CGPA & the dean’s list is somewhat less. But for a person like me, whose best academic performance was coming 4^th in Class 3, the above 2 indicators were never a factor anyways. I judge a term purely by its workload and in that Term 5 wins hands down. There is just too much to do. Period.

 

The entire term sort of peaked over this last weekend. Everybody in campus had, on an average, 4-5 assignment submission to be made on Monday/Tuesday. Everybody was running all over the campus, different subjects, different studygroups, always on the phone. Among all this, also cram in a soft skills workshop, a case study prep session with Deloitte, a talk from Google, CV review sessions and so on and on. Of course, there were the obligatory weekend booze sessions which further reduced available time – first, the time spent drinking (usually starting around 8-9 pm and going on till 2-3 at night) and second, the entire next morning spent sleeping or walking around like a zombie.

 

Well, one of the high points of the entire year (at least for me) took place last weekend. A bartending session was organized by Tulleho. So, we learnt to make 4 cocktails and the deal was that whatever one makes, one consumes. So we had about 40 very happy people at the end of 2 hours. Forgotten were assignments, deadlines, placements and other myriad worries. The mind was freshened, the body was charged. I only wish I had taken some pictures.

 

Coming back to the acads, one of the major pain points is that the old study groups no longer exist. For good or bad, some kind of synergy (apparently the 2^nd most abused work in MBA land *) existed in the study groups. Over 4 terms, we know who were good in what and work responsibilities were divided accordingly. With electives all that’s gone. So now I have 4 different study groups and every member of my study groups (19 in my case) have equal number of study groups themselves. The result is there is an astonishing amount of pull from all directions for everybody. It’s hard to fix up a meeting, there is constant juggling of the calendar and even when you meet ultimately, the phone just doesn’t stop ringing.

 

“Have you done this” / “have you done that” / “when are we going to meet” / “but you said you will meet at 10.30” / “it will take only 30 minutes, please come yaar” / “don’t give me BS about assignments, we all have assignments” / “Boss, can’t take this anymore, nobody is responding to meeting invites”…..different outcomes but the same common pain….just too many assignments!!

 

On a totally unrelated note, people tell me that Café has a new menu and it’s actually quite good.

p.s.

* in case anybody is wondering, the most abused word in a B-school is ‘intuitive’

 

Well I can’t believe it but we are half way there.. half of the course is over. The feeling is of relief more so for survival than for anything else. We survived the 4 core terms where we had to do all the subjects, even those that we were not really comfortable with. Looking back it was a great chance to get a flavour all the different avenues we could pursue, from finance to marketing, from operations to public policy..truly was a buffet for the inquisitive mind.

There was saddness as we bid our section good by. I will no longer be sitting with Sec C (or section C). I spent the last 6 months with my class of 75, 4 hours each day and many more hours doing assignments. I got to know each one of them and our sections become our comfort zone on campus, something like our extended family. Some of the friends I have made here will be there for a long time.

Also last week was the last assignment with my Study group, the 5 people that i did all my assignments with during the last 6 months. We saw our ups and downs and went through at least 70+ assignments together, lots of late nights and lots of early mornings.. Got to learn a whole lot from each of them.. and off course those end of assignment outings to Punjabi Rasoi for a bit of Dhaba style celebrating ..it will be weird working with a new group come Monday.

We all move on now to our elective terms where we choose our specialisation. I haven’t fully decided mine as i think the choice of my subjects will decide that for me. Its exciting in a way, we will get to interact with more people and make more friends…adding to our ISB experience … Will keep you posted.