Quarter 3 - Week of Exams

The week went by in such a fast blur, so fast that I am beginning to believe that time travel is possible. Sleeping everyday at 12 and waking up at 6 should make you think that time seems to stretch for much longer, well, basically because you were awake for that much longer! And yet... I wonder why...

I hope to God we never have to write three exams in a day once again... it's just way too painful! Our first exam was Marketing. Maybe the teachers knew that this was going to be a helluva lot of pressure and pain, so they kindly (or unkindly) decided not to give one more exam that day, and gave us THREE on the next. In hind sight, I think that was the best thing to do. Otherwise, we'd ALL have depressing marks for sure! The prof seems to have caught on to our eeni-meeni-myni-moe strategy, and gave us a case study to analyse. I think I saw a few people drop off to sleep in the middle of the case, let's just say it wasn't entertaining. It was something about a virtual network service provider and some big insurance company and how we were going to market to them. Wasn't fun, but wasn't too bad either.

The next day had QuantMeth2, Law and ManAcc. QuantMeth2 went back to conceptual questions, and everyone was struggling to string two and two together. I kept getting five, so I'd keep rechecking my answers. I am beginning to think anything is possible in QuantMeth2. It was a somewhat easy paper, except for three or four tough questions. Out of Seven.

Law was as expected, we just wrote some fundas scribbled with common sense and served it in. I hadnt had time to study for that, I for some reason figured that whatever I understood in class would be enough. That says how much I understood in class!

I studied for ManAcc though. Totally liked the paper! It seems to have been something I could write with certainty all day! I am telling you, this was definitely something we could just pick the book up and read. It's surprising how we polished off stuff in three hours that we took almost 8 hours to learn... wierd. I am telling you, we're all geniuses when it comes to ManAcc.

Now for two weeks of well deserved rest.... aaaahhhhhhhhhhh!

Quarter 3 - Week 10

Last classes for the quarter - check.

Tension - check.

Strong black kaapi - check. check.

I have to study for the exams next week AND get back to my projects. See, our Marketing prof sprang a surprise on us by saying that we should submit our project by Wednesday. That kind of derails my entire plan of what to study and when. Now, my brain newly filled with management-fundas like prioritization tells me that writing this "popular blog" is not really going to get me grades, and that I am better served off doing the marketing project. Another part tells me that I should go on, and then compile all this in a book and make thousands of paise with it! While both sides of my brain argue about what route to take, I am going to go watch a movie at the newly opened BIG Cinemas!

Wait. The second part won, so I am now writing this... Sigh. No movies for me while I'm in this course, damn it! It's a good thing that what I have to share now has left a lasting impression on me.

Law - Like I mentioned last week, this week was going to be a special one since we were having a guest lecturer. Our prof very kindly granted us the first hour off so we could sleep for an extra hour. What he doesnt know is if we get an extra hour, we're going to TRY to study, and then fall asleep during that time. Or maybe he does know that, and if at the end of it all, if we are anyway going to sleep... is there a point to the conundrum? Who cares.

Anyway, so the second hour we had our guest lecturer come in and talk. It's intriguing to note that even when our first hour is cancelled, some of us still manage to come late to the class. Must be in our genes. Anyway, so this person speaks to us about open source software, totally opens our eyes to the fact that making your stuff open source doesnt mean you should give it off for free (it is encouraged, but it's your software, do what you want!), it's just that its for the betterment of communities and that people get to change the software that they buy. Charge for service if you want, why charge for the software? or why keep it so closed and protected from the world? So we understood the fundas of GPL, LGPL, BTL etc. Fun topics. He too has this funny way of making humorous comments while keeping a deadpan expression. Maybe both our prof and he went to the same college, I dont know.

After our guest finishes his session, he calmly locks up his laptop and walks out of class. Our entire class, that is typically at their noisiest and roguish best during the breaks, is quiet. Why? Because this person is none other than Dr. Kalyan C. K. He was a top ranker at NLSIU, a prestigious law college in Bangalore, and also at Franklin Pearce Law Center. He is a distinguished and eminent scholar, having written international publications on IP, and even co-authored a book.

He is also 90% visually impaired.

You would never guess it by the way he took the class. He had a laptop that he used effortlessly, he was on the right slides, and talking the right content. It didnt in any way look like he was having any trouble. There might have been an odd instance or two, when someone asked a question and he would look in another direction, even our profs do that all the time. The guys who came in late to class didn't get why he was looking in the wrong direction even when they were pointing the right person to him, and when they got to know, they were all dumbstruck! His presentation was impeccable, his confidence and sense of humour shining through, it was impossible to believe that he might be having any difficulties at all. But after packing his laptop without any help from anyone, he took out his stick and used it to navigate all the obstacles in his way, and walked out of class without any help from anyone. It was at that moment as he was walking out, that I felt so ashamed and humbled. So many of us have no such impediments, and we complain about how we struggle through life. I find it hard to continue writing this, as I still remember the way he walked out of class, independently. He came to talk to us about freedom of software, the Free Software Foundation. The talk didn't rub off on me as much as the way he was living his life. Not letting circumstances pull you down, but working against it to live independently. This the first time that truth has hit me this hard. For I've just witnessed true freedom.

Marketing - Our prof continues to talk to us about Marketing Communication. He did sprinkle in a lot more of worldly wisdom this time. He does have a deep well of knowledge, no matter how often he throws in his bucket, he always seems to get out something to nourish us with. Anecdotes mixed with marketing topics for some reason keeps us attentive. He too mentions the point that what we do should be backed by strong research, "Soch ke kaam karo" he might say. I'm hearing this from all the teachers, I think they're trying to tell us something. Maybe they're trying to tell us that what we do should be backed by strong research. Duh! What am I, four? But maybe no matter how often they tell us this, we aren't doing it. So we might deserve the repetition after all. Sigh. He also talked to us about the properties of good ads - it should raise a question in your mind, answer it and then make you remember it. Smart. The next day we studied the importance of tradition. A lot more worldly knowledge followed. I like to think that he was trying to convey to us experiences that meant so much to him, that he just had to share it. We even saw a couple of videos where he was talking, and oh my God, no matter how much I had prepared for me to see him in a younger version, that image on screen really knocked my socks and shoes off! He had hair on his head for God's sakes! It's just so different! But his diction, expressions and gestures were the same then as it was now. Maintain that, and add an air of content and peace, that's our prof for you. This might be his last year at IIMB, I selfishly hope not. He's just too good a prof for other batches to miss out on.

In addition to the customary thunderclap, we also stood up as a token of gratitude and more importantly as a mark of respect, as he walked out. It's the first time we've ever done that for any professor.

Managerial Accounting - The last class is supposed to always be the easiest. I paid attention and survived. It definitely was easier than the other classes. Problem solving, actual concentration on the topic, all in all a good day. We studied Standard Costing today and solved a problem and a HBR case. This subject is beginning to grow on me. Rest assured, I definitely dont want more classes though.

Now, a very enriching and fulfilling week in summary. Feels good to be done with the classes. Calm time's over, the storm's about to start. Time to hit the projects.

Quarter 3 - Week 9

The penultimate week of classes for this quarter, it's really nice to see how fast the classes passed by! I get a familiar cold feeling, when I remember the exam is in two weeks. How nice it feels to know that we will have three exams on a Saturday, the first time when we're going to be this swamped. Now's when I'm definitely feeling the heat that our group should start on our Marketing and ManAcc projects..! Quit stalling, start doing! Good thing all our groups are still in the confused mode of which direction to turn in! :D

Law - We had a lot more to discuss on IPRs, and we began talking about the difference between Patenting, Trade Secrets, Non Disclosure Agreements, Copyrights etc. Apparently, we are even going to have someone come over next week and give us a talk on Open Source... that sounds like it's going to be very interesting! It's almost funny to note how many people had questions regarding patents and other company policy related doubts. At the end, while talking about arbitration, the prof cheekily gave us an example of how we would ask for difficult questions for the exam, while the prof wanted to give easy questions, so we would use the PGSEM chairperson as an arbiter, where he'd suggest that we have 40 marks in multiple choice and 20 in short answer type questions. Or something like that. And with that, we ended our tryst with him, marking the occasion with the now-standard thunderclap of appreciation. If we see him again next week, I wonder if we'll thunderclap again?

Marketing - This week we studied how a person goes about making a sale, and about how low cost amplification can help with bringing about great impact. We were also given a basic case on negotiations, and when we came back the next day, we split into our groups of four to fight two_mano-i-two_mano, and we had the occasions to needle, threaten, plead and ultimately come to a victorious middle ground between the two teams. Naah, we didnt do that... we chose to continue haggling since we aren't awesome negotiators yet. All in good time. The second day's class was more to do with how we should go about giving the other party something, taking something ourselves, and staying out of a "we-attack, you-defend" spiral. A couple of anecdotes that the prof told us about, wherein one person could act like he owned the marketplace, but on further investigation, we found that the traders felt he was one of the few people who really cared for them. The more I listen in this prof's class, the more I get to hear that being a nice person, taking care of those around you, not trying to cheat someone lie at the heart of being a good marketeer. But then again, what is it not at the heart of?

ManAcc - The class seemed a little more sombre than usual during our prof's classes. We've gone beyond Activity Based Costing now. We're now in Performance Evaluations, and the class just seems waiting to be done with this. But there is a more marked attention span that our class now has during her sessions, we might have just made a breakthrough with the sleep_for_10_minutes-pay_attention_for_20_minutes routine. I'm proud of us.

One more week of this madness, and then it'll be time to go really mad. God help us all.

Quarter 3 - Week 8

It's already week 8, time does fly by. Who'd think that just seven months ago, we walked the hallowed halls of IIMB for the first time, hoping to outdo all the people who have walked these halls before. The solemn promises of coming out on top, knocking the socks off all the other students and teachers, the hopes of mixing with the brightest in our fields, the ones who made it through all those filtering. It's been a blur... from the energy-filled days of Quarter 1, to the bleary-eyed days of Quarter 2, to the... well, more on this later.

Law - We studied more of Company Law, Competition Law and the second session involved discussions on IPRs. Not much to really talk about, there are no particularly interesting anecdotes from this.

Marketing - This week we studied the ITC eChoupal initiative. We had a guest lecture by ITC - he spoke to us about the initiative, how it began, and how it changed one aspect of the farmer's hard life and made him a little more comfortable. I've never felt as proud of being an aspiring manager, especially from India, after I heard this person speak. Finally, you felt there was a point to being a manager, maybe they can do some good after all, techies aren't the only golden saplings of the future. To summarize things, let's just say that farmers initially had to endure what seems like a very unfair ordeal at the hands of the middlemen, and there was no way they could learn from current technologies. In fact, they were so scared and uninspired to try out anything new that they erred on the side of caution. They would rather apply age-old methods of agriculture, than try out the new, more efficient methods. There was no one to guide them, they were islands in a sea of crops, dirt and wild plants surrounded only by like-minded helpless farmers like themselves and loyal, dumb animals that helped them till their lands. Completely at the mercy of nature, they crave and struggle for the barest of necessities, and yet hold their head up high by very nature of their culture.

The case very neutrally mentions that ITC kickstarted this initiative after they realized that they were not being very profitable here, so one mark less for being money-minded. But the good that they did for the entire community of farmers appears to far outweigh their reason for doing this. They brought computers to the community, empowered the farmers by making one of their own a point of contact between the farmers and ITC. Self help is the best help and all that. Finally some good inspiring story of how technology has uplifted and made life all the more better for some of the people who struggle everyday and sometimes skip food even, just so the world can eat with content.

The next day, we studied about how retail channels go about their business, and how power is moving from the producer to the retailer due to technology. Now retailers have systems which tell them which goods are moving fast, and THEY hold power over the heads of the producers telling them what goods they want to stock, and what not. An example could be how Big Bazaar has stopped holding P&G's Kelloggs, and are now instead placing their own brand of corn flakes on their shelves.

ManAcc - More study of the ABCs in ManAcc. No, these aren't the basics, we're talking about Activity Based Costing. Apparently, people have long been putting together the costs of indirect material, indirect labour, and other small/universal factory expenses, and distributing this equally amongst all product costs as "factory overhead". Somebody woke up one day, and says, "Wait, that seems wrong... I am making simple pens for really cheap, which dont use much of the machinery around me, and some sooper-awesome-pens-that-write-in-anti-gravity that use almost all this machinery and even stuff from outside the factory. How is it that my records show that the awesome-pens are making more profit for me than the regular pens?" So then he sat down, and went through the ordeal of actually checking how much of the indirect effort REALLY went into each product. Imagine his "surprise" when he finds out that the awesome-pens are loss-making, while the normal pens are most profitable. Perfect fairytale! Anyway, the whole origin of Activity Based Costing comes from the fact that factories that previously used to manufacture only one item, have started to "differentiate" their offerings. And this has caused diversity in effort, and therefore people wanted to check how much each offering really costs.

It's good to know that I now know SOMETHING in ManAcc, that probably causes me to rant the below. It makes me cringe when I realize what I used to behave like before the test. Today, I happened to see our class in a new light. Since now I am interested and trying to pay attention in class, it really hurts when you see some people in class joking around and not even trying to pay attention, distracting other people, and acting like they are the only ones in class. I mean, I get the fact that the person doesnt follow what's happening in class, but there's some decorum expected here. I mean, come on, you're not in nursery here. You're studying in a premier institute for a post-graduation course. There's some class expected from you. If you cant follow what's going on, atleast shut up, sit still or even sleep for God's sakes. Just don't distract those around you.

Be responsible. For you and those around you. That's the basic thing we're all trying to learn here. Do it justice.

Quarter 3 - Week 7

Nothing makes you appreciate a subject more than an exam that is scheduled for it, and you have to prepare for, within the week. An event of togetherness, group therapy (yes, you heard right), shortkuts and finally enlightenment. More on this later. We also had the Vista fest going on this week at IIMB, and I must say it looked like a lot of fun (atleast to a spectator).

Law - This week included the finishing touches to Contracts, and we started off with Company Law. I dont know if it was because everyone was up studying the previous night for a scheduled test, but everyone looked ready to hit the pillows by the end of the second class. Still... interesting session... as far as I can remember... no doubt. Yawn.

Marketing - You know, I was so sure that I'd never fall asleep in this class. The first session we had a guest lecture by someone, who wasnt really introduced properly to us. He just came out of nowhere like the boss when you're playing Solitaire after seven hours of solid work (But I was working till now, honest!) and gave us a talk on Conjoint Analysis. He must have mouthed some three or four acronyms which for some reason he expected we understood (You're all MBA students right, I should probably talk to you in the bijiness-man-language even though you're still struggling with the spelling.) and we're all nodding like good ol' techie, marking down the acronyms we heard to reference and understand later, whenever we were awake.

[Disclaimer: Replace any 'we's with 'I's. Most of my classmates typically know the acronyms and were awake.]

The second session was held by our prof, who as usual was awesome. I don't want to keep saying this, it should be taken for granted right now that he is. He discussed how to go about product pricing, and then handed over a test (I just pray to God, choose my favourite option for the day, and randomly mark the test... while giving a little more visibility to my favoption) after which we began preparing for the impossible ManAcc test.

Managerial Accounting - This week (read: the four hours in the night before the test) was dedicated to the ManAcc test. It sucks when you've been distracted easily in this class, and your classmates have far more interesting things to tell you than the prof does. So when the shit finally hit the ceiling, you had all of our batch furiously exchanging emails saying "read this ppts, concentrate on that topic, solve this problem". Everyone had conveniently forgotten about the Marketing test more out of a popular unheld vote, because this one appeared to weigh in more. 35 marks, or 1/3 the final count, is actually quite a bit. Anyway, luckily for us, the subject IS easy to pick up, with a few keywords and catchphrases. You need to practice like mad, but atleast you can pick up the topic. Kind of wierd to know that the prof took 7 sessions to explain what we read in 4 hours, power of fear strengthens us I guess.

It's interesting to note that one of our classmates felt strongly enough about our decreasing enthusiasm, that he wrote something about it here. I guess we all feel like that a little lightly, but it's good to know that some of the guys really want to do something about it.

On the whole, it was a fun week with a guest lecture, the hullabaloo of a fest, and the surprise understanding of a subject even when we have been subject to a whole day's work at office.

We are geniuses.

Quarter 3 - Week 6

Annnnd we're back. Time really doesnt stop for anyone. Weekends pass by really quickly, especially if you enjoy lolling around.

This week everyone looked sufficiently sprightly after last week's break. Classes were a little more interactive, and groans were extra groany, whines extra whiney, whenever we were prodded into action by the teachers. Yes, it's fun to be a student.

Law - Surprise Surprise! We now have two classes a week in Law. Since classes of QuantMeth2 get over this week, we're going to have two classes each of Law, Marketing and ManAcc. This week in Law, we studied the fundas of Contracts and what could happen if you breach one. Sometimes, if you have an agreement between two people that violates a party's Fundamental Rights, or if one of the parties does not in any way benefit from the agreement, apparently the contract is not really a valid one.... very interesting if you ask me. A lot of fine possibilities emerge, if one would want to take the risk!

Marketing - We studied a little more about Brands and how you could make the place of a Brand in one's mind, thereby creating that unique identity of one in many products within that category. We also studied what constitutes good service, and how you should look to provide the end user with an experience which makes him bond with you.... till you do something stupid. Sometimes I think that marketing is essentially about using common sense, but isnt that what business is all about in the first place?

QuantMeth2 - The last two classes happened this week. Our prof comfortably finished all the portions in session 1. Session 2 was only meant for clearing doubts, along with a small couple of points remaining from session 1 on Goal Programming. As he said, he wanted to make the fundas clear to us... let's hope we recognize these concepts when they come back to haunt us in the not-so-distant future! At the end of the last class, as is the way students acknowledge someone who impart a part of them to us, the prof quietly accepted our applause. There's always respect and gratitude in the minds of people, when they recognize someone's effort to help them, and make a difference. Hopefully, that's atleast one way our profs realize that we appreciate what they do for us... irrespective of how rambunctious we may be. Even if we are closer to 40 than we are to 5.

ManAcc - Our prof spoke to us more about costing and went about the funda explanation by way of problem solving. Taking one example after another, she pointed out to us what we need to do to determine costs and benefits. We then received ample warning to prepare for the coming exam next week. Covering all that we've done till now in Managerial Accounting.

Well, hol's over. Time to hit the books again!

Quarter 3 - Week 5

Time to give ourselves two and a half pats on the back... we just crossed the halfway mark this quarter. That means we have officially finished 2.5 quarters out of 10. THAT means we've completed a quarter of the course. one down, three to go!

Noneventful week this was, except for two tests - QuantMeth2 and Marketing. Tests have become a routine part at IIMB. Every week, there's something or the other the profs have to keep us active (or rather scared). Like we all know, grades don't matter to us. The only ones that did was that of quarter 1 - these grades determine our pecking order for the exchange programme. So whether we do good, bad, ugly... all's well.

Law - The guy's back! We started getting a peek into international law, and moved on to Fundamental Rights, the Constitution and Constitutional Rights. A little sprinkling of how the judiciary and the legislative have their squabbles, and how the legislative created a whole new section just so that the judiciary could not question their laws in THAT section. Apparently, recently the judiciary said "Ok, that's it... fun's over. You try that trick with us once again and we'll get you." I hear the legislative is trying to behave well now.

QuantMeth2 - He's getting a little more depressed Friday and Saturday after Friday and Saturday. We might just have one more session of his when we next have his classes, and we're all done. With him. For now. And forever, for his sake, I hope. Dont want to be the cause of a perfectly intelligent mathematician breaking down. Cant have that kind of statistics on my hands. We were studying stuff like Shortest Path Alg last week right, and the Transportation and Assignment problems...? This week, we did Non-linear programming. Or atleast the formulation of it. He says "You guys need to know (on reading an essay) WHAT the problem is? Solving it, you dont have to worry about(Meaning: You're too dumb to use awesome theories/algos). Excel and its Solver are there no?" So we are going through a course where the prof honestly believes that if we know how to formulate it, a reliable source will give us the right solution. Based on all the "Ask and you shall receive" and "Ask me the right question, and I'll give you the right answer" related fundas. Are we really getting that bad?

Marketing - Stuff about what "Customer Value" is all about, how you determine what means a lot to the customer, and then finally Diffusion of Innovation. Interesting stuff on how the customer is a "learning animal", you can not take him for a ride all the time. And more about how you should preferably stay farther from Entrepreneurs and more towards "more socially respected people". Apparently, the former dont listen to the market and feel its pulse, the latter is looked to because of their opposite nature.

Managerial Accounting - Solving problems based on all the fundas we've done before. That's it. Really. And i was paying attention this time! Math is really good, and the language of science. I listen when someone talks in my language! Most of the time, atleast.

Quarter 3 - Week 4

Nothing can beat the oh-so-wonderful-joy of being in class on the 1st of January. A brilliant way to bring in the New Year, especially after getting pretty drunk the previous night when we still remembered what fun was like.

Of course, if the teaching sounds more like clashing cymbals which you cant drown out and if you're sleepy enough with one bored eye out for any welcome distraction from a brave student asking questions who is himself valiantly trying to pay attention.... well, let's just say you weren't the only one feeling that way.

Managerial Accounting. I dont like this subject. Especially on New Year's Day. I think we did something on Break even analysis. It's basically how you decide what are the minimum number of units you have to produce to break even for that period.

The prof of QuantMeth2 hopefully was partying till the wee hours of Friday morn, or he was coming up with some optimized format for how multiple drunken drivers could weave their way back home without meeting another drunk on the main road head on, while all of them move in non-linear paths. Since he's young and probably is giving us generous marks, our money's on the former. So no class in period 1 of day 1! Yipeee! (Wait a min, we're paying quite a load for one class... we cant miss that! Yeah, right, shut up inner voice!). The second day, it unfortunately hit him that though the year was new, the students were the same, and they had fared dismally in the just concluded test last week. The disappointment on his face could have either been the fact that the New Year party had ended, or that he was still stuck with our fidgety-and-looking-at-the-table selves. Who'd have believed we were "professionals" with a life outside of college (work life that is), and didnt have to show report cards to our parents? Sure, some firing from him, return fire from us... and then we called a ceasefire in the interest of Advanced Optimization concepts (Shortest path, max-flow min-cut... yada yada). Good fun.

Our wise old Marketing prof knew that there was a very good chance that all his wonderful students were doing something that was not related to reading Kotler the night before, and so he wished us Happy New Year, spoke slowly about the topic for the day (Value Innovation) and did not give us a test. He then went on to tell us that we WOULD have a test the next day, it WOULD be on the marketing case, and it WOULD involve using the exhibits carefully. Brilliant New Year's gift for us, he's now officially my most favourite prof in IIMB. He even showed us a video regarding innovation during the class, for variety and to keep us awake. The next day, we discussed how to 'Differentiate' ourselves in the market and eyes of the consumer, and how important it was. He's got a great set of fundas, so it's worth paying every iota of attention to him.

Law as I mentioned stands cancelled till a couple of weeks later. I personally believe he's now on his way back from wherever he was partying and is judging between two people on a ship. His jury probably consists of the boat captain (who threatened to delay the landing by three days if he wasnt on the jury), the prof's wife (who was hinting at buying some really expensive clothes at the in-ship store) and two dolphins.

Quarter 3 - Week 3

We had classes on Christmas.

I mean, seriously! We're taking this 'passion, drive and motivation' a little too far! While all your friends, Christian or not, get to party the night away and drink to glory, we sit hunched under a lamp trying to prepare for a test on Saturday and a "possible surprise test" on Saturday! Wont all my team members be happy to see me now, gleefully tittering at my predicament while they gallivant somewhere. Should give them more work.

We didnt have Law this week since the prof's out till Jan 19th. A part of me thinks he's tripping on all the wining and dining somewhere in Goa arguing relentlessly about where the justice is in today's service oriented corporate structure and plans to do so till New Year and beyond, the saner part of me thinks he's got some urgent lawyering/judging to do.

Marketing was just about ok on day 1. We were discussing what Infosys was trying to do around 2004 with a Blue Sky team (?) to figure out how they can be more a part of the software pie offering. "Making their pie and eating it too" types. Everyone had made presentations and when the prof calls for volunteers to present their case, after quite a bit of fidgeting and studious concentration on an empty whiteboard by most of the class, one brave lady volunteered and dragged her team with her. They confidently gave their view on what Infy should have done and why. Not too exciting. The second session was awesome! We had Prof. Harish Bijoor (look him up), who gave us the deal on Rural India. Ex-HLL senior product manager, VP of Tata Coffee, and now has his own consulting firm. While I wouldnt say that he shone some brilliant gyaan on us, he definitely shattered some myths about the rural aadmi, and made us look at him with new found respect. 75% of India's population lives and breathes in rural India. That's a lot of people. So many little tidbits which we devoured hungrily, all put to us in a funny manner but with a great deal of serious information in it. Did you know that while 22% of urban women use lipstick (yes, only that much), 11% of rural women use it too. 11% less than 22%, so rural juntas suck? try seeing it this way, 11% of 75% of india's women is more than 22% of the rest. Especially when they use more lipstick than that 22% sophistikat. He came up with so much fundas JUST ON LIPSTICK. It was so cool! So you'd think the most popular brand is Lakme? Hell no, it's Raja lipstick! How rural women apply lipstick is apparently quite different from how urban women apply it... all this and much more, on the day after Christmas. A good gift, and a fitting way to end 2009! :)

Quant Meth 2 - Yes, its Operations Research but I seem to think QuantMeth is a nice think to call it now. Quite heady, u see a lot of stars, and when it's over you wake up with a splitting headache. Naah, its not so bad, our prof's trying to make sure we get the fundas right. So we continue to study Duality and then move into Integer Programming from Linear Programming.

And then we have Saturday's test.

Man, what's with us and not understanding that these profs arent teaching us nursery rhymes. All he gave us was simple funda-applicable problems requiring us to draw on common sense, and all we do is draw on our paper. We'll find out which of our folks were whining even after having done well, many of us anxiously await our marks to find the posers who think they're cool by acting like they've done bad like the majority. Wait for it, ur time will come!!

Managerial Accounting - Blearrggh! I dont like this subject. It's ok. We were learning how to decide costs of our offerings, what is a cost driver, job order costing, normal costing, actual costing.. blah blah blah. I'm sorry, but if you want to know more about this, get this book we're using "Managerial Accounting" by Hilton, Ramesh and Jayadev - TMH publication. The prof's trying hard to make sure we understand the goodness in the subject, but it's being so much of a pain in the bag, and seems to have an acquired test. Like beer. Yuck.

Still, Marketing saved the day with the cool insights into the rural market. A good way to end 2009. Ready to walk bleary-eyed into 2010!

Quarter 3 - Week 2

Aah, the anticipation of being "impressed" by newly acquainted professors mixes with the stench of dread from the promised pressure in this quarter, to provide a very heady mixture that helps you daydream in class about what you would do if you were fighting a case where due to a marketing research goof up based on some operations research data it was claimed that managerial accounting had completely disfigured the revenues reported and hence disrupted the forecast.

The far fetched thoughts always ended up with me, being the judge, being given a bonus and thrown in jail. Before I could retrospect, I would be back in the classroom in a jolt because the prof would have noticed me dreaming and walk towards me. I might be being paranoid, but feeling guilty does that to you.

In Law, (yes, I dont remember the name of the course anymore, and I'm too lazy to find out. Read my previous post.) we began to study the concepts of Civil Law and Criminal Law. Apparently in the former, once you draw up a complaint, you could withdraw it if you want, but if it is a case of the latter type, once you open a case, there's NO way you can close it! This is because in a civil case, the court's objective is to clear the matter quickly as it's not really worth too much time, and they'll more often than not try to move in for compensation as a trophy of well-deserved justice, rather than go the length to fix the problem. A case in example - you buy a plot of size 30*40, and when you go there to build you see the neighbour has encroached by 10 feet. Enraged as you are, you demand justice and cry belligerently at the doors of the court, which lazily opens an eye and prefers to get you the compensation from the other guy, instead of asking him to break down HIS building and give you back your ten feet. In a criminal scenario however, once you complain, that same sleepy peace-loving behemoth charges into action (or it atleast tries to in the Indian scenario). You dont even have to pay lawyer fees, apparently the government takes up the "victim"'s case on its own head, and does what is required to get the truth out and prove the accused as guilty. That's where things have changed, see, now that the government has taken up your case, you've just been pushed out of the action to sit back and ride. That obviously means you're no longer in control, ergo when you say "Stop!" the case does not stop. It's simple physics really.

In Marketing, we learnt quite a few more fundas about how to arrive at a delicate balance of performance, process and people. We got to know how it's important that you believe in your idea with a passion that doesnt crumble, and if it does, it only does so due to hard facts and evidence. If you have a real good idea, instead of doing armchair research (you, your mind and your chair. No one else.) you should get your lazy butt out on the field to really see whether your hunch and observations about what the market really wants still stands. Then you get your people to believe in that vision, because only then will they really work as effectively as ever. And then he proceeded to give us a surprise test which as usual I wasnt prepared for. Next time, sigh.

The second class we had a guest lecture by Prof. Shombit Sengupta. And he gave us some insight into how you bring a brand into a person's mindset.... was good stuff. Our prof tried to request him to share some details on his current works, some of which was not confidential and which was insightful he shared... but for most of the part, he politely declined only giving us vague hints about what we might expect. Nice chap, one thing I really liked was how he keeps his mind occupied with various activities like painting, playing the piano, EVEN ARCHITECTING HIS OWN HOUSE! Apparently, that's how you keep your mind fresh and full of creative thought. Hmm..

QM2 - OR was a little slower than last week. Either our prof thinks we're really dumb or he thinks that these fundas are so important as a basis that it deserves the detailed focus and concentration he's giving towards it. I'm hoping it came across like that because I'm too smart for this stuff. It's not often I get to feel that, so when I'm learning what A,B,C is, I enjoy it even though this is nothing. The second class was excruciatingly slow. At this point I began to get scared that there was something REALLY important about this section, even though we appeared to be doing the same thing that we'd done in the first 15 minutes. Good thing I paid attention. I now know A, B, C. Thank God he realized we're going too slow, he says he'll buck up the pace next time. We've heard some horror stories about him from the last batch, that he's way too fast at teaching and thinks way too fast... but he's making a real good effort to get through to us, so I trust him. A little green around the edges, but a sincere effort is worthy enough to command the student's attention I think.

Managerial Accounting - Ahaah! I wasn't sleeping. Ergo, it's not the subject that's boring!! We spoke about what comes under a period cost, and a [some other] cost. We even looked at some of Infy's digits (publicly declared, mind it!) and took up "the challenge" of understanding three lines out of it. There were quite a few questions on what comes under what, how do you decide whether an expense should come under product cost, or general & administration costs or selling & distribution costs. What is direct material, labour, manufacturing overheads... yea, not too inspiring to talk about. A whole bunch of overheads actually. Saw so many OHs on the board, it kept making me think that there was a song in the back of my mind which had that in it. Anyway, classes over, weekend shuru!

P.S. Somebody said something about a surprise test next week, so we're back into that mood again! :)

Quarter 3 - Week 1

OMG! Vacation's already up? That last weekend just went by so fast, I cant believe I've already jumped into the next quarter. It almost seems like it only lasted two days... sigh...

Warning: This post is long, I'll keep it short next time. But it really tells you about our profs. Read it.

This week we had an introduction to the four (yes four! not three!) subjects we're studying this quarter:

Law: Indian and International Systems - The prof is young, I'd put him around 35? He's studied Law at NLSIU here in Bangalore. Went on to a Judges college (?). I didnt really get that, but at the end of it, let's just say he's now equipped to make decisions if there's a dispute and give his opinion on it, wanted or otherwise? The difference between him and us... is that he's got a degree to prove that his rants are grounded, while we dont!

A very grounded prof, he had the class in splits with his deadpan expressions and timely wisecrack delivery. Confident, authoritative and yet we catch a glimpse of the lighter side of him every ten minutes or so. So he began with a very simple and yet vexing case of a mother approaching the court for abortion in her 21st week (look it up, you cant abort after 20 weeks), and how this dragged on for long, and what would we have decided - abort or not. Looks like a simple "problem statement", had us discussing the merits and demerits for over an hour and a half! His point being that it's not easy out there to decide stuff, so watch out for the rest of the course.

Principles of Marketing - Woah! so you'd think that "marketing" is it! The M in the MBA..! Well, seeing how we did Strategic Management(WOAAHH!) in quarter 1, these high profile topics do give you a rush when you say it out loud... and this one had the same effect. You'd also think that the prof of this is someone young.. fresh in the field. Imagine our surprise when this old man walks in, bald shiny head and all... and the whole class hushes up while we wait for him to sit down, or cough or murmur(I dont want to say "croak", touch wood). You almost feel like you're in front of ur grandpa, and that you should touch his feet or something.

And then he spoke.

That first class of his, pin drop silence. You know when you hear confidence in a voice, you know when you hear experience in a voice, you know when you hear raw power in a voice. A voice filled with "I've seen it all." without the ego, the calmness of a powerful beast as it's ready to pounce. It was just... awesome. To say it was impressive... doesnt do justice to that class. The way he calls on the students with a "You Suhhh!" (slightly faarin accent, but adds class bigtime.), the way he shakes with mirth at a couple of his funny real life anecdotes with one finger on his lips and a wide contained smile at some joke which only he truly understands. Make no mistake, those funny lines arent duh! or something. It's like as if there's some comedy or irony in some event, and only he has heard it in all its form and understood the underlying basic funda. The voice of a man who's still seeing it all, and walks the hallowed corridors that are shrouded with secrecy, amongst the marketing giants of today.

He started off with Steve Jobs' Commencement Address to Stanford (2005) . Read it. Full of fundas, but sometimes that's the only way these giants can share their experience with you. He told us to expect a surprise quiz anytime, to read up Kotler even though it's a dictionary, and to come to class with a six-slide presentation before cases. For the second day itself. He's serious, and in a way that you DO want to come prepared. The next day we studied about Tata Steel, and how it turned itself post liberalization, and how 2001 was a key point in that turnaround.

Management Accounting - This professor was quite good too. She started off with trying to tell us what keeps Management Accounting different from Financial Accounting (we did this in Q1). Her's was the last session of the week. I cant really give you a proper introduction to her, since I was so tired by now, that I was sleeping. Last night none of us got a good night's sleep after the marketing prof's announcement of preparing for today. And that man didnt even give us that promised surprise test! (I am thankful for that though!!) Three hours is all I got. So I just kept slipping in and out of reality through her class. But she tried valiantly to keep us active. Maybe next week I'll give you a better insight into this teacher.

Quantitative Methods 2 - This prof is young too! Probably around 34? Honestly, he does look like the pundits out of our 11th-12th grade classes.. the one who mugs bigtime. There's a rumour in class that he's an All India Rank of 3 in IITJEE! He talks with confidence about the subject, but he's also trying his hardest to make it appealing to us. So there's a couple of jokes he cracks to get us laughing... but sometimes these are some real PJs. Got to give him one thing though, he's sincerely trying to get through to us. And that gets our attention. Put all that funny fluff away, and see the man trying to make us see what he can see... and you know why such a young man commands the attention of 80 odd people year after year, to explain to them the science and math of Operations Research.

Apparently after the feedback of the last year's batch, he is trying a newer technique... of giving an example first and then teaching the underlying theory. He seems the kind of prof who's really willing to take in your feedback, all so that he can get through to us better. So we studied some part of Linear Programming, and he's going quite slow for us... but maybe the raftaar will increase after all.

Say anything you want, but this is why we understand at times the real value of the Indian Institutes of Management. These teachers arent run-of-the-mill people who've failed to get a career in the world of practice, they've CONSCIOUSLY chosen to share their knowledge even when they're amongst the brightest and can make a helluva lot more money out there in the corporate world. They shine in their classrooms so we can shine outside. They sacrifice their exposure to the corporate world, so that hundreds more can make their mark. And yet, from within the halls of IIMB, their brilliance shines through for all of the corporates to see.

That's also probably why they get paid big fat bucks to come out and give talks to global corporations every once in a while. They are in control of their life, unlike many others out there! ;)