Quarter 7 - Week 9

There must have been some sort of internal memo that went flying around in IIMB, something that said "All projects should be submitted a couple of weeks in advance of the end of the quarter". Whatever it was, almost every one of the courses have asked for the presentations and the reports by this week. A bunch of panicky Skype calls and Google Doc sessions later, and we have a submission that is likely to make it through the door. Of course, a little needling-and-wheedling got us an extra week for one of the subjects, but hey, no more panicking at the absolute end of the course anymore! Now we can panic earlier! Yay!

E-Business Models and Strategies

Our prof has gone out and told a couple of VCs that we've got some fairly awesome biz plans and so they should come and rip us to shreds. Nicely and neatly. And so the VCs came, and shred they did. Nicely and neatly, just like they were asked to. But maybe it came across that way because most of the ideas were actually pretty nice. And it was amazing and inspiring to see that a few of these were really under progress! A few of our seniors have already quit their jobs, and they're doing something they want to do! I've got a hunch, which I might need to check up on, that amongst all the colleges and courses, the PGSEM definitely has a greater percentage of people who churn out startups! Let me back that - in some other post.

I'd have loved to tell you guys what sort of stuff these guys dreamed up, but hey, early venture and hush-hush and all that. Maybe in a year or two, you'll hear of them anyway!

Research for Marketing Decisions

A similar couple of sessions which had us listening to presentations by teams, instead of the prof. The prof would ask some clarifying questions for the benefit of the class, so that some theoretical points came through for us. But more than anything else, people were a lot more chilled out than usual. The second session had a few teams present their marketing projects, and since some of them have actually gone out and done ACTUAL market research, instead of the watered-down versions we see for other projects, it was fun to see the results!

Marketing Communications

Same-to-same. First session was a bunch of study presentations made by different groups. The obvious favourites was the online social-networking based ad presentation. It's almost like they had an unfair advantage. They had members in the team who're in the social media space, who're in the advertising line, and so it's very easy to say that they had things handed to them on a digital platter. I keep telling myself that's the reason they trumped the others. Someday I'll believe it.

The second session was on Mobile Advertising. We had a guest lecture from someone who has started a venture in this space, and they're actually doing quite well! So he goes all the way from how many mobile subscriptions are in India, to how ads can be personalized, and finally to how specific trends like the usage of augmented reality are actually putting a whole new cool spin on the Mobile Advertising arena. Good fun!

And so, we wait for the last week of the quarter. A couple of presentations left, but I think we'll live. Like I've been saying through the whole of this quarter, the funda to chill has been figured out.