Quarter 4 - Week of Exams

Only one assignment - the beta book! And someone from our class somehow managed to get that extended by a week as well... we're getting better and better at this! :) But all that aside, nothing could take the one thing off our mind... the final set of exams for the final quarter of this year was dawning near.

Some people havent slept this week, others took leaves, most of us left it to Fate or God. Some had already prepared before, but they're the minority within a minority. So it should be safe to ignore them. They deserve it anyway, how dare you call yourselves students when you're doing your third revision in the week of the exams? There are some kayde-kanoon! You're supposed to be running helter-skelter and panicking... where's the rush otherwise?

OperMan - The prof seems to have gone a little easier on us. Most of the probs could be drawn in parallel to something from the book. Easy to lift. However, a couple of them had their fair twists and turns. Our class rep got a special mention in the exam, a problem was based on him, and he will go down in eternity as the sole guest appearance in our exams. So far.

CorpFin - At the end of the paper, people were only left with two facial expressions, either extremely pleased or extremely dazed. Many claim the paper was really easy, many others claim complete ignorance about what was in the paper. Only the marks will separate the wheat from the chaff.

MPPO - The MPPO exams (much to our relief) didnt have any kind of theory or explanations. One simple case about a factory near Tirupati, and basic questions about our suggestions regarding the processes followed there. People began leaving at the 1-hour stretch itself, out of two. Either they didnt remember the theory, or they had just had it on the last day with soul-searching, or they actually knew it all. I highly doubt the third.

But nothing compares to what happened at 5 PM. All papers collected, and all the students outside were busy chittering. And that wasn't about the exam. Some about the beta book, but more about the electives and the holidays. And then one person went "One year's over!"

Yes, one year's over.

Quarter 4 - Week 9

The last week of classes is the one where you get to see all our classmates determinedly staying awake, or reaching class early enough, in an attempt to absolve them of the guilt of their past broken resolves to "Study hardest this quarter, and get all the As". No matter, we have another 6 more quarters in which to meet our resolutions. Atleast once, I hope.

Of course, the last minute groaning and grunting for project completion is still on its way. We're trying to wrap up the MPPO project as I'm writing this post right now. My mates would be pissed if they got to know that while they were trying to delve into the innermost parts of their mind for more junk to drop on the assignment, I'm sitting here... well... writing a diary. Not too much difference between what they and I are doing anyway.

OperMan - The last two sessions were related in part to process improvements and what we're really trying to achieve when we say six sigma, and finally on a course wrap-up where it was like "Ok everyone, all together now", where we tried to tie in the vision of what the course was supposed to embody and how we had gone about it. You know, those aaah moments, when you realize what the hell you were trying to learn in the past ten weeks? Something like that. The last case of the course had us comparing two distinct manufacturing companies that went about their production operations very differently even though they were really in the same space. Too much competition, cost and quality priority, and yet the choices they make are based on their "strategy", and their strengths that they've developed so far. Common sense, but wrapped in reason so you know next time HOW you can arrive at such a solution. That's what this MBA is about, isn't it?

CorpFin - For whatever reason, the prof gave us a little baksh by not conducting a case discussion on Friday. Apparently a small proportion of the class had read up the case, the rest were probably working on the projects. So a little chastising later, and he got us to read both cases for the last session of the course. Combine that with that resolve I spoke of earlier, and for the second session there was hardly a person who HADN'T read the case. I'm so proud of my class, and our last minute guilt pangs, and our following up on it! :)

Anyway, there was practical application towards the case. In fact, since I was busy working on the OM project, both cases suspiciously looked like OperMan cases to me, and I was thinking of solutions on those lines. It's only after an hour of coming up with those answers, that I realized it was really a CorpFin case. The second case was actually very interesting. It spoke about how a company chose to merge with another company, and transfer it's debts to the accounts of the second company that was doing quite well. Due to that, the merged entity started showing some losses, but it soon came out of it. Now, the interesting thing is, this complete shenanigan was completely within accounting rules. So, even though what the first company did was unethical, you couldn't fault it. And so, the course ended with us left to ponder on the fact that even if nature took its own course, and everything turns out fine in the end, doesn't ethics play a part in this play? Because everyone knew it was wrong, but even then, if it doesnt hurt anyone, is it still wrong?

MPPO - A final case which was actually very disturbing. While most of the other cases had some sort of happy endings (generally), this one was truly puzzling. It dealt with how there was an employee who apparently was very hard to deal with, and about an incident where he went to the extent of abusing his boss, who was actually being nice to him. A lot of analysis later (which I frankly thought was highly open-ended), we closed the case under a cloud of doubt. I dont know, but I think the prof was trying to tell us that sometimes, you never really know what should be done, because people are just that, not machines. Their actions can not be predicted. There may be a lot of history we're not aware of, and there's so much that can affect a person's attitude. The trick is in taking the effort to stand in the other person's shoes, uncover what might have happened in the past, the circumstances under which the event transpired, and maybe, just maybe you can deal with this somehow. And yet, you may be wrong.

As the profs winded their respective classes, we applauded, as usual. But there seems to be a marked difference between this quarter and all the previous ones. The energy seemed to be missing. The number of people who gave the standing ovation seemed to have reduced. Which brings me to a fork - Are we all just tired, or are we so used to seeing such brilliant people coach us, that it just seems commonplace? I hope it's the former... because it's too early for us to start thinking we've seen it all.

I hope we continue to feel that sense of inspiration as our future guides take us through the clear yet murky world of business management.

Quarter 4 - Week 8

The overall energy in the class seems low. Even the general sermons that some of our classmates give during MPPO class without reading any of the articles seem to have come to a trickle. It's like the entire class has come down with a serious illness and are conserving all their energy for one last attempt at the assignments and exams of the next two weeks.

And add the electives confusion on top of it all. Seniors have taken most of the courses, and we're left with the not-so-interesting ones. I wonder how we can really call it electives, if the seniors get everything.

OperMan - Discussions on Material Requirements Planning, and Total Quality Management. I vaguely remember nothing.

CorpFin - This class seemed to have received a boost due to the energetic new prof we have. But this week did see a lull in things. Maybe a temporary blip. Most of us seemed to have done reasonably well in the test on Saturday. We even had an extra session on Saturday, and we covered a lot of material at a very rapid pace. I definitely need to catch up on a lot of the topics, a lot was pretty much OverHeadTransmission this week.

MPPO - What was it, transformational leadership? Some motivational video on how every person can make a difference. You can choose to observe the nature of the universe, or you can choose to act. To say that, the guy in the video took half an hour. The next day had some discussion on teams and how people work in groups. Very general discussion, not much of a takeaway.

And so, we inch closer to the end of year 1. One more week of classes. And then, the final exams. We'll pull through. We just gotta.