Quarter 6 - Week 6

A couple of weeks back, our ENVC prof was flailing his hands that "you students didn't prepare as much as I did for the case, I should probably give myself all the marks and make you redo this subject!". Well, not really, but he did give us a piece of his mind. We had the B2B quiz, so we just wring our hands helplessly, as we claim that work and study takes away all our time, leaving nothing for case analysis. This time the B2B prof got it. He got bitten by the ENVC midterm! It's a different matter that nobody had the courage to tell him that "We didnt prepare for the very important case, because of our very important score that was riding on your quiz AND the other midterm". Anyway, we heard one more of the "You guys missed out on a very important case, now hang onto the coat tails, and try to atleast catch the gist of what I'm discussing with your more diligent friends here", while he was adoringly looking at those one/two people who had feebly raised their hands when he asked who had read the case. Must have been their most difficult class, considering the learning of 75 people and their future depended on the questions and points these two raised. The sheer heaviness of the responsibility is overwhelming! Or must have been for them.

Entrepreneurship and New Venture Creation

First session of the week was about how a couple of guys who were in HBS, wanted to start an enterprise in the dry-cleaning sector, and as to how they were exploring their options. These two smart guys went about doing the relevant analysis, and even took up jobs in dry cleaning establishments to gain some experience. These guys didn't mention that they were Harvard grads on their resumes, this shows the extent of resume checks that the US drycleaning companies do. Anyway, at the end of it, they were trying to figure out which of two drycleaning stores to purchase. Now, our job was to find out what they should do. Here's where our experience kicks in. Apparently, all the analysing teams said that dry cleaning was not a viable business to get into, and a couple of them reluctantly still chose one of the stores to buy. It seems, our batch (the PGSEM) were the only ones who really thought about the viability of the business. The other batches the prof handles didnt question this at all, and just went after the choice. So, all the PGSEM students, irrespective of whether they did the case or not, patted themselves on the back for the one feather they seemed to have in their caps, called experience. Turns out that the industry is a place where the labour was a huge chunk, taking up to 30-35% of the revenue, and the profits were only 10%. Immigrants therefore get into this, because not only do they make the 10% profit, they also are the labour! So they walk away with 40-45% profit, which is a fairly decent means of livelihood. Of course, there was a lot more takeaway on why the two should not have done the entire Mahabharat of exploration when easier methods of learning about the industry were available, but you cant help admiring the fact that these two chose to try such different stuff, when the rest of their class was probably getting into more profitable lines of business.

The next session was our midterm, and it was a case based exam. We were supposed to analyse the actions of a particular team and suggest alternative approaches. A lot of soaking in the day before, and then spot analysis the day after. Irrespective of the kind of marks you get, you just feel so cool and proud that you've made some decisions for somebody who is somewhere else. Consultants must be feeling good all the time, I think.

Social Entrepreneurship

We're still on reforms here, and the advantage of having the Right To Information. The first session was about how one of the persons known to the professor, once came across some information in the newspaper about how the Delhi Jal Board in association with the World Bank was trying to reform the water supply in the city. This person using the rights accorded to citizens, went to get more details on this. What he found pretty much got him all wired and upset. Turns out that the World Bank was trying to help us get more efficient water supply, and that we were capable of it, but didnt have suitable infrastructure. So they were outsourcing it to contractors, and the method of selection was apparently dubious. So this person goes up in arms, and gets a lot of people's support to avoid unnecessary expenditure. Their main argument was that the government spends much more on the water supply each year, and it would be unnecessary to take a loan from the World Bank for the purpose and give away the contract to an international firm, however experienced they may be. Additionally, the results in the other countries where this was done have not been good, and it would be careless to just go ahead and repeat this mistake. And so, a query was started, and relevant actions taken to find out what we could do on our own. And hence the story of one citizen's watch, on his government's action.

The second session was headed by a guest lecturer, who spoke to us about his experiences with tribal villages in Karnataka. We had been previously instructed to look him up on the internet, to see what he'd done, I should have understood why. He comes into class, and says he will have an interactive session, where we'd ask questions and then he'd give answers and take the class further along his experiences. Suffice to say that there were enough questions to keep him occupied, and for us to learn. But his experiences and outlook were quite different from the other lectures we've seen. You see, he was a lot more understanding of the government. His view was that, many times the government itself is not aware of many issues. They take an action without fully understanding the implications of it, and so one of our efforts should be towards educating the representatives of the constituencies about the problems faced. They have no way of knowing otherwise! They're sufficiently caught up with other things. He spoke about how he got started in the social field, and his experiences so far. What was most interesting was that he also spoke about how he worked with the traditions and beliefs of the tribals. Apparently, they would give some booze and food to their spirits and the spirits would tell them what to do. For e.g., one time they were about to start agriculture in the lands allotted. Just as he was about to start, the tribals told him that we should first take the opinion of the spirits. A lot of song and dance later, they told him that the spirits forbade them from planting seeds saying that it would only rain for three days, and after that nothing for the rest of the season. So dont waste money.

This man got quite pissed. Here he's fighting for the people, against the government, for the lands and then some spirit tells them not to plant. Still he went along with what they said, and it turns out that it did rain for three days, and they didnt plant while all other regions and farmers planted, and then there was no more rain! So now he doesn't know what to say. These are his experiences! Yet, they do follow a Value Belief Study, where they try to understand the roots of the traditions. Maybe there was some inherent value to it, which was being blindly copied over the years. Doing it this way, they are able to find out which are the good traditions that yield positive results for the people, and the bad ones. They then focus on stopping the bad ones, and encourage the good traditions. It's a very interesting take on how to bring about change in tribal culture by keeping the good, and moving with the times. Apparently, they also now school all the children there and they have a 100% pass record. These children are also instrumental with challenging the beliefs. It was more a matter of "Why are we doing it?" rather than "We should not do this!". The basic outlook and attitude is very instrumental in bringing about change.

B2B Market Management

The two cases for this week had a lot to do with customer satisfaction, and knowing what to do further. The first case was about how Infy and one of their customers were preparing for Infy to move up the value chain. So we focussed on the kind of changes that were required for this to happen. While we mainly focussed on cross-cultural issues, there was also some discussion on how this also affects the work culture and environment in the host company. There's a steadily growing insecurity about the work security there, if all the work comes down to India! Hence, we looked into how this could be addressed, by also focussing on local hiring within the host country, and discussing how to make the sale of why Infy should be given the contract as against the other competitors. The main takeaway from this seemed to be that India is now looking for greater value delivery, and it is no longer the best thing to compete on the cost arbitrage ("Our company in India, cheap resource!") because it will remind the hosts about the possible loss of jobs at their end. Instead, we must focus on how moving this work to India actually reduces the Total Cost of Ownership, and hence it increases revenues for the company and benefits it more, thereby providing more benefit to both Infy and the host. Hence, it is a win-win, and not a win-lose situation. Yet, there is still a lot of worry on how things might turn out in future.

The second session, I wish I could tell you what I learnt. But I hadn't read the case, and neither had the remaining 95% of the class. So while the remaining 5% paid attention, the rest of us tried to keep up valiantly (or slept), trying to focus on what was happening. It's not difficult to sleep when someone's discussing something you dont understand, I can tell you that much. And therefore, I implore you, when you do a case study discussion, you better be prepared with the case, or you are going to waste a LOT of time. And you wont get the ever-so-important "Ahaah!" feeling when enlightenment is supposed to dawn at the end. You have been warned.

International Business Negotiation Skills

I like this prof, but this week was really dull. It started off well, as he gave us some pointers based on our performance in the negotiations. I dont think I've mentioned this, but we had recorded a negotiation exercise for each team, and the professor was going to analyse it. We were also supposed to get some hands-on out of it. It was quite interesting to see, and his points were well taken, but this part only lasted for about a half hour. It was all downhill from there. Of course, a few nuggets here and there, but for the most part, it felt unnecessary. After we had seen clips of everyone's videos (which frankly can get very boring after you see the first two/three), there was a video on body language, but it was not as good and effective as it could have been.

The second half, we had a guest speaker who spoke to us about how Yoga can help us with emotional control. The prof had told him that we were trying to understand it from the perspective of Negotiation Skills, but I dont think this guy really got what the prof meant. So we sat through 1.5 hours of a yoga educational speech. It was new to some of us, no doubt, but I dont know... I'd rather have gotten some info on Negotiations here. If I wanted a yoga speech, I'd attend some other time, some other place which was meant purely for that. Still, not too many complaints, I did understand how it's very important for your body and mind to be in sync, so that you're always at the peak of your energy and you're in charge of your energy. Fascinating topic, guess I just expected different.

The next week has the usual spate of assignments. We also have a take-home midterm (a first for me! It's like a license to copy, just that it's a dare from the prof about let's see what I can copy). The paper is based on our observations in class, and our understanding of the study material. So it's going to be an interesting experience. Also, we're planning to make a trip to watch a social enterprise in action, this is relevant for our project, so I'm really looking forward to this. Sometimes I cant help wonder, if I put a quarter of this energy in my engineering studies, maybe I'd be far more capable. There's something very different and compulsive about the teaching and environment at the IIMB, the pressure's a lot, but you look forward to class every day.

Quarter 6 - Week 5

You know what's special about this week? It's one of those truly simple weeks where you only had to attend classes, and submit only one assignment. These weeks are rare, so we enjoy it when it comes. We do have a storm brewing for the next week - midterms and all, but hey, that's a week away. Since I have nothing specific to describe this weekend, let's talk about this blog.

The whole point of me writing this blog, was so that you guys could get an understanding of what it's like in class. Is the course too easy, is too hard, will you find time.... and most importantly, is it worth it? I've written enough now for you guys to give me some feedback that can help me make it better for you. So, let me know what you think about this blog at the link below:

https://spreadsheets0.google.com/viewform?hl=en&formkey=dDN6dEZiVUdSRGVTZExrTkx0Y0wzOWc6MQ#gid=0

Entrepreneurship and New Venture Creation

We had a case discussion on both days, quite like the last week, with some dependence on the data at the end of the case. The first case tried to explain how a person might decide about when to sell his venture, if at all, and relies on his basic attitude on how to select people who'll help with partnering with him on the venture. The second case tries to explain the different facets of deciding WHEN to partner with someone for your new venture. Should you do it at the very beginning, somewhere in between or at the very end?

Sort of felt like the class was a little unprepared this week, I am not sure if it was because there was less of pressure this week, or if it's the typical case of the momentum slowing down in between, like taking a short breather. Next week might be better, we have our midterms in ENVC! Just imagine, a whole bunch of students trying to analyse a case and determine if that enterprise is going in the right direction or not!

Social Entrepreneurship

This week, we spoke about electoral reforms. Now, I knew that the prof was a bigshot, but how much of a bigshot wasn't known to me. Turns out he's helped with the ADR, this is the team that actually lobbied hard for the information on previous criminal records to be made public for those people standing in elections. While his last few weeks spoke about how might a person go about helping the poor in society, this week was about what you can do on a different scale, with regard to using the powers bestowed on society to actually help make it better. While it sounds pretty simple in a single sentence, the actual process of getting it done is pretty hard, and it shows on the prof. Through his bitter experiences, he's realized that when you talk about getting something done at the large scale of the government, there's a LOT of retaliation and inertia you face. The way of getting things done is so strongly fixed, that to make it move takes a huge effort.

If my manager was to try and get me to write one more line of code, I know when I might crib... so imagine how much the people in the government must be cribbing. Because for sure, it involves more than one person, a very large number in fact, and it involves them actually having to get off their butts and do some more actual work! It sure isn't as easy as sitting in an AC office and writing code, I'll give them that much. But when you really think about it, they worked to get into that position and we do have every right to correct any inefficiences as it is, ultimately, we the people. It's our job to give the feedback.

B2B Market Management

Ok, I confess! I didn't really read through the cases this week! I mean, I did glance through it, but I didn't actually read it and analyse the numbers. And so, when everyone else is spouting numbers and points to put up on the board, goaded by the professor... I'm just trying to hold on to the coat-tails of all these maniacs in class. Luckily, the basic funda of the class was easy to follow. We were talking about how best we could grow in an environment like the Indian IT industry, where the honeymoon phase is getting over. That is, we've spent enough time in providing simple services, but we're now moving out of the commodity phase and going in for more comprehensive solutions that can help get us to a better place, where the profits are more. And the first session was based on this, the word that we've heard so often is now subtle, in the background. How can we add more value?

The next session was quite interestingly about Microsoft. The big bad wolf of the software world had its fair share of problems. With great power, comes great responsibility, money, and customer dissatisfaction! Apparently, Microsoft was busy coming out with products that gives normal folks like you and I, and huge corporates, enough reason to open our wallet more than once. Now, while they were busy creating more products for us, it turns out that when it cameto service costs, the product managers would add a short buffer to their total costs when selling the product. Then, somebody must have done an MBA and enlightened them about ABC (Activity Based Costing - check Quarter 3!). All of a sudden, there was a way to tie the service costs with each product, and wonder of wonders, the cost associated with service was WAYY too high. So the product managers get worried that they're about to lose their bonuses (for real, this is in the case!) and so they're trying to figure out what to do. And that is how the Microsoft Support Network came into being. It turns out that they initially had call centres, and some very semi-formal methods of service that wasn't standardized. So irrespective of people who are first-time users, major experts or corporates, they all had to stand in the same queue to get problems fixed. So this support network soon found out that they could have online forums, and simple tips put out online, and ALSO have the call centre. Of course they found a way to make money off of that too! You could now get priority customer care for a fee. Yep, that's the summary of the conclusion... for more understanding of why and how such decisions are made, pay the money, and join the course! I've got assignments to do now!

Just to remind you in case you forgot, I'd really find your feedback useful. Here's the link again: https://spreadsheets0.google.com/viewform?hl=en&formkey=dDN6dEZiVUdSRGVTZExrTkx0Y0wzOWc6MQ#gid=0

Quarter 6 - Week 4

Immediately after an overloaded week of classes, when you get a half-week of classes, you feel so... free. While there was a lot of energy around the campus thanks to our ongoing business fest (IIMB Vista 2010), the calm moods within the classes of PGSEM seemed to point to one thing... "Finally, I can spend some time with my family/friends on a Friday night!". It's possible that due to the half-day off on Thursday (anyone wonder why Sep 30, 2010 was so much reason to be tensed about?), people weren't really wild-eyed/red-eyed/close-eyed in class on Friday. After a long time, I remembered what 8 hours of sleep felt like...

Entrepreneurship and New Venture Creation

Five minutes into class, and the prof drives right into the case for the day, a case revolving around an online PC distribution model. He poses the first question, expecting the burst of energy he's seen in all the previous classes, and other than one/two hands lazily climbing into the air, the only sound we can hear is the AC. (No, our ACs aren't loud, I'm trying to say the class was so silent, you could hear the subdued hum from it!) In all my past quarters at college, a few such instances have come, and the professor wrings his hands in despair, and makes an almightly plea while reprimanding/motivating the class to read the case for the day! The truthful profs also add that even though they really like to only hear their own voices in class, they also like the occasional question, disruption, banter that the class involves in. And then the usual spiel of "I put so much into preparing for the case, I think you students should also do the same". All totally valid points. But the students typically always have a reason why they hadn't read the case... the "Sir, we have internals today", "We had to submit four assignments today", or the rare-but-typically-unspoken "Case was boring, I thought some other classmate would read it". And this time was no different! It's midterm season, so everyone's preparing for some exam or the other, this time I had B2B's quiz, I'll come to that later.

Anyway, our prof didn't say any of the above, but we could see it in his eyes. No, I'm not kidding! We know that look! And then the class gives the response look, and then after a short impasse, we continue with the class... participating in a subdued manner, and the prof taking every chance he can to tell us "Read the numbers at the end of the case!". Unfortunately, when you combine midterms with a first-time-situation in this class where we have brilliant exhibits which we need to crunch for information, it almost makes our class look juvenile when we argue on the qualitative merits, instead of hard quant. This time, the case revolved around how you need to remember that even if your enterprise is out to fix a major problem, if some of the most important parties is being affected more negatively than positively, it's not going to fly. Overall, what you propose may be a very well-warranted solution, but sometimes without safeguarding the interests of all affected parties in the business, you're actually going to have an extremely tough ordeal ahead.

Social Entrepreneurship

This week we spoke about agricultural co-operatives. After last week's session, one thing was quite clear, the fundamental value in a co-operative comes from the people involved, not from the patrons behind it. It is not meant to be managed by someone, it is meant to empower the people themselves, almost democratic in its own way. The prof minces no words when he says that well meaning do-gooders come to the villages and try to setup co-ops, and leave disasters behind. There's no point coming to a village with a solution, without understanding the problem. He mentioned a personal experience where he went to a village with a few other people, and first tried to understand the problem itself. Obviously, since he was an outsider, he didn't want to seem too intrusive, so he was casually asking about the directions to nearby villages, and slowly after circling started asking stuff like "what's the name of this village?", "How many people here?", "What do you do?" etc. Within a short while, the villager tells him "Sir, there are enough poor people here, just come and do what you want.". And this prof is taken aback since he hasn't said a word about what he wants to do, but this guy has already understood that this "self-appointed-do-gooder" wants to do something, and directly given him the answer. and pat comes the moral of the story. Villagers aren't stupid, don't go there thinking anything along that direction.

They are used to city slickers coming down, and distributing money, baashans, advice, and clothes. So it's not new to them that someone wants to help them, even though its a passing fling. So, if you want to do something well-meaning, and empowering, you're definitely going to have to stay at it for a long time. More important than anything else, if you want the villagers to commit to an initiative that you start (irrespective of whether it's going to be driven by them), and take risks, you're going to need to earn their trust. To one of the questions "Can we assume they'll be capable of managing such a co-operative? They're not as well educated as us", the prof gives us a very interesting answer. He says, even if you go by statistics, 5% of people anywhere are going to be smart. It's not like the smart people are clustered only in metros. So, you go to such villages, these 5% will automatically stand up and take leadership. He also gave an example where a lady who had only studied upto the 7th grades, was handling the entire accounts for a very successful co-operative in the area. So, don't worry about the capabilities of the people. In fact, it's very important to let them run it, because if you do everything for them, and protect them from mistakes, when will they get a chance to learn? They'll always be dependent on an external entity, when in reality the external entity should only be responsible for the initial impetus, nothing more. So, let them make mistakes, let them learn from it. All we need to do is help them build a system of transparency, and accountability, and let the people take care of themselves.

B2B Market Management

This class was the reason why we hadn't read the cases properly for the other two. I think today was a perfectly valid reason. We had three chapters to read, from an extremely intense book, and you could easily fall asleep in 3 paragraphs! So much jargon and intense reflection-packed statements make people reflect on their own lives, and totally forget about marketing. I scarcely remember a time while reading these 3 chapters (actually, I could only make it to two, I had to rush through ppt slides for the third, god bless this prof and his advance provision of slides). By the end of day Thursday (or should i say the wee morning of Friday), I had read so much about value, that I was beyond thinking of "value". This is like a repeat telecast of last week. This "value" thing is getting to be very addictive. I am still trying to quantify the value of me writing this blog now, instead of sleeping. It's really tough. Good thing we recently learnt about intrinsic and qualitative value. I can now postpone this blog quant value tradeoff to another day.

This week was negotiations week! There was a very interesting case, and our teams had to work either as a buyer or a seller, and work with the other party to decide on a final price. Looking at all the crunching we had to do, this price decision was actually very well thought out. We looked at all the factors, time of employees, breakdown idle time, annual maintenance, the entire shenanigan, and then we pitch our points. Results from all the teams were collated and then we did a final analysis, on what would be the right way to deal with such negotiation. Regarding the quiz, suffice to say that the prof nicely gave us some objective type questions. Knowing completely well that by the time, we'd be probably have only the word "value" in our brains and tick every answer that had the word "Value" embedded somewhere, he wickedly put "value" just about EVERYWHERE. Each question had atleast two answers that had this word, so the last minute gimmick of the unprepared did not work.

And now, on a Sunday morning, on to the next set of assignments.

Quarter 6 - Week 3

While almost every Sunday goes off in some project, or exams for the coming week, this one was one of those annual occurrences that you just have to watch out for. Because of Gandhi Jayanthi next week, since we'd have had a holiday on Saturday (Oct 2nd), our beloved institution figured that we should instead have classes on a Sunday as compensation. In the words of one of our professors, that great man would have been mortified if he got to know that most of the country was planning to chill out on the basis that it was his birthday, and that he probably would have rather wanted us to work on it! All good intentions of our profs aside, and also leaving aside the messups that such holidays can have with our sturdy college annual timetable, let's do some simple math.

In my case, right now, I have taken four subjects. Each subject has two sessions in a regular week - therefore 4 X 2 = 8 sessions. When you move another half-week's sessions (Friday's still on btw!) to a previous Sunday, we then have an additional 4 sessions in the previous week. Therefore, that makes a total of 12 (Yes, I know mathematics). Here's the kicker.. the full time students typically have 6 subjects in each quarter. That makes 12 sessions for them in a general week. THEREFORE, I just had to do the schedule of a full-time student this week, even though I spent a major portion of my time working. I'm happy to report that I'm alive, and that only the left half of my brain has stopped working, while the right half is contemplating different methods to fall asleep, unchecked by its neighbouring twin.

Let me help you out with this loooong post here. I like the experience from the Social Entrepreneurship and B2B class best. So I'd recommend that you check these out for certain!

Entrepreneurship and New Venture Creation

This week we delved a little more into HOW a person goes about starting a venture. This covered the basic attributes of an entrepreneur and his style of execution, the kind of people he mixes with to start something, and how he reacts to situations as and when they come into play. And finally, how he prepares a business plan if he was to convince someone to put some moolah into his venture (here's four litres of my sweat, "show me the money!", Jerry Maguire-ishtyle).

The first session was about how a person got involved in a venture, with two other people, all because he hit it off well with them and liked their attitude. They got into a field where none of them had any expertise, yet they did have the relevant expertise in their actual tasks. That means, I don't know jack about call centres, but I have been in marketing in my previous company, therefore I can market my good. etc. etc. So we analysed how he should choose to get into the next business, and what kind of thought processes run through his head. The next session was all about effectual entrepreneurship. This is typically a characteristic of serial/expert entrepreneurs. As it turns out, these guys just depend on who they are, what they know and who they know. So they just catch people along saying "Hey, you want to do something together? Cool.. get on board this ship", and then before you know it, they've got a Viking ship hurtling through a storm, with someone manning the sails, someone steering, someone cooking, someone rowing etc. Now this sounds counter-intuitive, I mean, do we really think one tender idea can be sufficiently grown in between multiple interests? Turns out that that the idea is constantly evolving due to the multiple partners... only the ones with interesting twists are being brought on board to lend a better shape to the idea, even if it is pulling the idea towards a different direction. Apparently, this has a better chance of success, and most serial entrepreneurs do stuff this way. I can see how it's successful... when multiple people are committed towards making an idea well, and the people are inherently good and proactive, there's a good chance of success. And that's what a VC banks on. He's not banking on the project, or the idea, he's banking on the team that's behind it... since he's sure they'll take his money someplace safe. And bring it back multiplied.

The third session was to do with the all-so-important business plan. Apparently, VCs have seen enough of the "We can change the world" business plans. Everyone seems to think their ideas are the best-est and they don't stop crowing about it. While pushing all the good points to the front, they quietly keep all the scary parts at the back. Why? Well, someone's gotta give them money, sure can't get money if you scare them away. The VCs must have learnt this trick early on, because they no longer buy sweet smelling poop. The VCs actually look to see if the team is good, again lending credence to the last idea of effectual entrepreneurship, as they know that no forecasts or planning can really be certain, because if it was, this world would have been a better place and all businesses would succeed. Sure, they are interested to know about your business and about where you plan to take it to, but they HATE it when someone puts all the nice stuff in front leaving out the bad. We need to remember that they care about the fact that their money should be put behind something good, and it's not their job to investigate our ideas. Instead, when we bring them the entire research, through their experience they know whether they should be backing this, or they give tips on which areas to watch out for. There was a whole lot more, but I can't cover that now. Only two things to remember - VCs look to see if the team can execute well, and one way they check it is by knowing if the team has sufficient experience in the arena they're pursuing. The second thing, VCs don't want to grow old and die with you and your company, so they're looking for an exit option (preferably within three-five years). Give them that option.

Social Entrepreneurship

After hearing enough criticism of microfinance over the last two weeks (well, the prof kind of feels that while some parts maybe good, for the most parts it's affecting more than helping. Remember that this comes out of experience of watching this on the field, and is not armchair theory) it was a little surprise to see someone come to talk to us about microfinance. Turns out that this person has been watching microfinance very closely, and a professor at another of India's best management institutions, so he comes with high credibility. One thing for sure, when we get guest lecturers here, they come armed with research and live field experience, nothing can be better than that. So he comes and talks to us about how microfinance works, explains the cogs and cracks, and then goes onto describe how the microfinance model has been evolving. In fact, while most people trumpet about the Grameen model and are implementing it everywhere, apparently Grameen itself has stopped using that model, and have moved on to Grameen 2. This seems to suggest that the optimal method has not yet arrived, and that the microfinance industry is slowly evolving. To the allegations that microfinance seems to be causing more pain in some areas, and that it's being exploited in yet other areas, the prof says that you can't help it when some people take control of a really good funda and use it for the bad. Yet, not to worry, a string of legislations and other legal clauses are on their way to set some of the things right in the microfinance arenas.

The last session for the week covered co-operatives, and how they've come to be in today's state. The shining example that was spoken about was Amul, one of the few successes (and might I add, what a scale!) and how it came to be. While the prof seemed to suggest that most of the co-operatives today are toothless sheep masquerading as tigers, there are quite a few that are having the intended results. Now why would he say that most of the co-operatives are pawns? Turns out that these are controlled by govermental bodies, and that the legislations that are currently in effect seem to actually hamper the true growth and acceptance rates of such movements. When the whole objective of co-operatives is to empower the society, and its constituents by bringing forth solidarity, when you take away the control from the people and leave it with a governing body that is far from facing a similar lifestyle (however well meaning, under claims of "They're illiterate, and don't know how to manage, we need to help them.." etc), you invariably dumb down the essential funda of societal empowerment. People are more likely to take something forward in a motivated manner, when they're in control. They don't know something? Teach them, and then let them be... trust them enough to be in charge of their fate. The prof however agrees that you can't suddenly tell people to wake up and start a co-operative. More often than not, an external impetus (maybe in monetary terms) is required to get things moving. But taking that off after a while, and avoiding steering the whole way is important.

An anecdote that was mentioned comes to mind. Apparently, one of our earliest Prime Ministers once wanted to visit Anand (the area from where AMUL began), and Dr. Verghese Kurien (the Father of the White revolution in India) urged him to spend a night in one of the villages nearby, before dropping in to meet him. Since this was the time when we didn't have reporters falling out of helicopters to cover every damn thing, not many people were really aware that the PM was coming down. All that the host in the village was told is that a foreign guest is coming to town, so keep your house clean, but don't have to do much else. But sooner or later, the village got to know the PM's in town, and so instead of sleeping, the PM actually spent the night talking to the people to know what's up.

Now I wasn't there when this happened, I dont think my mom was born yet, so this is not a direct quote, but try to get the gist. The next morning, when he went to meet Dr. Kurien, he asks him.. "Dr., I was very curious to know why the co-operative in Gujarat seems to be doing so well, while it's struggling in other states. I first thought it had to do with the land, or weather, or people here. But there are other states with far better tillable land, with more amenable weather. Last night, I find that the villagers are also very similar. So I dont get it, how?". Dr. Kurien replies "In Gujarat, the villagers are in charge of the co-operative. That's why it works here." Again, long before B-schools, this visionary man seems to have understood the power and connection between giving the responsibility to the people and its resulting motivation. He spent a long time fighting the powers that be, to get this in place. 60 years he's been there. AMUL is now recognized as the most successful example of co-operatives across the world. India, from a milk-deficit country at the time, is now the world's leading exporter in milk. Now, that's social entrepreneurship.

Business 2 Business Market Management

The last two weeks, all I've been hearing is Value, Value and more Value. This kind of value, that kind of value. So much so in fact, that I've been dreaming value. For real! My alarm's ringing, and I'm thinking "What is the value that I get out of an extra half hour of sleep? What is the value I get by reading the rest of the case that I have left in that half hour? Which one is more?". I actually woke up frightened because I realized that this was one of those instances when the "engineer" was slowly being transformed into the "businessman". Anyway, not like you care much about my fears... your time is more valuable than this. SEE??! I did it again!

Anyway, this week didn't really have too much. I'm serious. I've got the funda now. While the word "Value" is being twisted into different phrases for different meanings, and we've moved from chapter 2 to chapter 3, the funda still remains the same. When you're trying to sell something different, and want to know the price, see how much benefit is accrued to the customer because he uses your product. Then, based on that extra moolah he makes, you get to take a partial share in the name of "But, I've given you much more value!". This week started out no different. New product, this much savings, that much extra work, everyone happy, my share -> ka-ching!

The last session seemed to be no different. This was a cool guest lecturer, who had a different style of teaching. His energy seemed to be constantly high. Anyway, some yada-yada about how one company found an ingenious way to save some time and money for its customers by modifying the build structure of a tool being used. They then do a couple of field trials, and they can't believe their eyes when they see the amount that it saves their customer. Apparently, the previous tool weathered out quite soon, and had to replaced 40 times during a particular job, but with the new and improved tool, this came down to 1 replacement or so. And so, we get into how much money do they save, how much time do they save (changing the tool each time it wears out, and the increased effectiveness of the new tool), and then we find that for a piece that used to cost around 2$, our new costs are 25$. Bummer we say. But hey, look at the revenues for a second. We just got the client an extra 950$! OMG! Therefore, the benefits I'm giving is 950, the cost increase is 23, can you see the value? So, the final question turned out to be, "How much do you charge the customer now?". Here's the awesome part. The part for which I'm paying through my nose. (Why am I giving it out for free?)

The world is divided into different kinds of people. One kind says "Charge them 900$". Yes, let's take all the money and leave them the extra 50$ in tips. The second kind says "No, charge them 500$", some for me, some for you. The third kind says "Naah.. we don't need so much, charge them 200$", we're business guys who're anyway going to make shitloads of money here... serve the deal to the customer! And the last set says "Charge them 30$, we need to protect ourselves from new entrants!". The 'let's-be-caution' gang, that sees that market penetration is more important than charging premium. So which would you go for? And here's where the prof says, "If you guys are going to charge 30$, or 200$ or something low, then what the hell do we need B2B marketing for? Your job, as marketers, is to educate the customer about the value that he's making by using your good, and to take a reasonable share of it, because you had a part to play in it. Do not underestimate the power of marketing. Marketing is all about knowing if (1) Do you have a value proposition? (2) Can this be explained by you to a non-PhD? and (3) Having understood this thing, can this be converted into the required sale?"

Because, if you're giving away the value for cheap, then you're avoiding the whole issue of value just because you're trying to play safe. Don't be afraid to charge your price for the value that you bring to the customer, that's what you're there for. It won't be too soon before you're fired, because you're giving away valuable expertise and technology for peanuts, while drawing a big fat salary. You're in B2B Marketing, don't undervalue the advantage you bring to your customer.

I like this guy.

International Business Negotiation Skills

This week was more to do with negotiations, or atleast that's what it seemed to be like. Like I've said before, the prof's in "moral of the story" mode, at a 40000 feet level. Yet, he did come down to our level a couple of times. For one thing, he explained how the process works out. Negotiations start even before you sit at the table, there's a lot at play. We then spoke about the people part. About the fact that companies don't negotiate, people do. It's extremely important to be hard on the problem at hand, and soft on the people. While the typical memory of negotiations seems to be "I win, you lose, sucker!" right out of high-profile English movies, the reality couldn't be further. Turns out, we're evolving to a point where creative solutions which turn out to be a win-win are coming to be far more present. To which the following addendum is highly important. While persuasion is key to a great negotiation experience, effective persuaders can be themselves persuaded. To be able to bend another's mind, it's supremely important that one's own mind should be capable of bending. As such, it provides the signal to the other party that this person is capable of accepting my points and is not all out to be aggressive. And effective negotiators dont plan the sequence of what happens at what stage. Only the stage is set for the game, and relevant chapters identified. But checkpoints are not maintained, because doing so would mean you've already planned out what is to happen, and by direct derivation, there is no room to negotiate.

In any case, he doesnt say that aggression is not present in negotiations. When you have powerful parties at the table, maybe one party gets away with just being dominant. But the true flavour seems to come about with well-matched parties. That's when aggression by itself does not work, or flexibility might end up being disastrous. And hence, the next important point and one I remember strongly, you need to perfect your strongest negotiation influence style, and just maintain a moderate level in all the other styles. You can not afford to neglect any of those weaknesses under the shadow of your strength. Because you never know when you need to switch from one to the other. If you're unable to play a moderate game in one of your weak areas, how in the world would you then be able to steer the style towards your strong area.

Quarter 6 - Week 2

I knew that having four subjects would mean more books, but this is ridiculous. Just because two profs don't give us text books, it's cruel to give us such HUGE binders! Our hearts had been so light for those 10 seconds when they said "No books". Well, yeaaaaaaah, the articles might be good, but still... I reserve the right to crib! We also had the Product Management Conclave happen this week, so a few of our batchmates could be seen running around before class, sleeping in class, getting psyched out after class, I felt so bad for them that I almost went and offered help. Thankfully, lethargy takes control just in time, and I think "Next time. For sure!"

Entrepreneurship and New Venture Creation

A case discussion in the first session focussed on a scenario where people just got together to start something up, more often than not in their area of expertise. After doing something here and there for two years or so, they then begin to start focusing on what they really want to do. They had worked recently on things completely unconnected to their domain (which hints that you DONT have to work in the same field if you want to do something). Some lessons here and there.

I liked the second session a little more. The professor had invited a few incubatees from NSRCEL (The incubation centre at IIMB. For the record, you don't have to be a student to come here!) We had a person from our immediate senior batch out of PGSEM give us a talk on how he got started. We also had a much older PGP alumnus amongst this group. I couldn't help noticing that they all had some experience in that field before they quit to get into it full time, and that there had support from some powerful contacts. Networking apparently is a good thing! There was almost no time for questions, but I think people might go down to NSRCEL to get more doubts cleared.

Social Entrepreneurship

The prof first speaks to us about NGOs, and how the vast majority are more known as NFP (Not For Profit) orgs. So he tells us about how they try to achieve buy-in from the community, not by approaching them with the solution and trying to find a problem, but by really looking into the problems and doing something about it. He also spoke to us about how NGOs are answerable to the donors. This tends to go both good and bad, good because we get money for the cause, and bad because more often than not the bad guys think they're God's gifts to society and have the right to interfere in every small thing.

In the next session, the prof spoke about Agriculture related issues, and went a little closer to explain to us the state of a majority of people in agriculture. Apparently 70% of India's farm land is rain-fed and not irrigated. Therefore, it tends to give much lesser yields and much more pains. He spoke about how money lenders and even micro finance team in these places charge far higher interest than banks. And he's quite sure that such a finance model can not be sustained. The poor don't have enough money to repay the principal, and here we're trying to charge much higher interest. He gave us his take on the typical happenings in a full year, and it was a little easier to connect the dots at the end when you realize that the seeds are planted in May, the harvest collected around Oct/November, and then for the next three month you clear off your loans and all that by migrating to the city and getting a job for these months! There is no money left to carry on the next year! And then you take loans all over again. Even if people want to charge lesser, they can't.. because there's a cartelization of moneylenders in most of these districts, and such an action can create a shunning of the moneylender by the others. So the solution is not clear yet. Today at least.

B2B Market Management

The prof is trying to cover the basics of B2B Marketing, we were talking the difference between value, price and fitting it all together nicely with frameworks. The frame of reference was the cases given for reading, and surprisingly a LOT of people read the case. I'm not saying the common lot, I mean the LOT, everyone! Well, almost, but you get the point.

It's quite nice to see all our classmates pitch in for the discussions when things are being written on the board. We tried to take it apart based on all the numbers assigned in the case. And low and behold! 5 minutes before the class ends, we've decided exactly how to go about this case. Now just put us in charge of the company. Or maybe not... next time, for sure!

International Business Negotiation Skills

Walk into class and the sudden burst in headcount just catches you there. Apparently even the prof wasn't weak-sighted enough to notice this. As new people kept walking in, his eyebrows kept climbing higher and higher. Thankfully, not too many people entered again after that. Anyway, the prof begins as usual at 40000 feet. BUT, this time he tells us at the start that it's our responsibility to bring him down when he goes higher. If we have any doubts, we should speak up immediately! In fact, he's quite open to interruptions. The fact that few people interrupt him is a different thing altogether. But those that do... they get his time, and doubts clarified.

He is still talking more from a high-level funda-types OB side. He was trying to get us to understand the important of an open mind. And so he spoke to us about what we need to do if we want to enhance our abilities of receptivity and reflection. Imagine that if OB is typically funda based courses, then this is funda OB. Get it? And yet, he didnt leave it all qualitative. He stressed on the importance of process and discipline, that it's important to have such qualities under your control. A lot of tips for receptivity (I'm guessing he thinks mere mortals like us incapable of accepting other people's ideas. Well, I dont accept that!). As a glimpse into the type of process he was talking about, he told us about how do we know what triggers us to perform better and faster, and what pulls us down (swastha and aswastha). His solution was quite simple. From the previous evening till this morning, mark down whatever you did with the minutest of details on days when you feel at your top, and on days when you feel really low. After three such occasions, you may begin to see a pattern. Learn from it. And then avoid what causes the drain. He gave us an anecdote of how it worked for him, a live example. I'd dare not repeat it here. What happens within the institute, should stay within the institute! ;)

A good week overall. A little hazy, but hey, other than a library of readings, not much else to complain about!

Quarter 6 - Week 1

I love the first weeks of the quarters. The profs summarize what they're going to teach through the courses during these sessions. So essentially, it's like sitting through a talk about a topic that you find fascinating. It's only when you're halfway through the courses and you grapple with some individual demons within the course, that you begin to tire of the load. But the first week is always the most scintillating. It is typically in this week, that you get to know if you're going to pay attention to the course or the professor, and whether this is going to be a much rougher ride.

This quarter I am studying under some of the most celebrated profs at college. Make no mistake, while some of these professors come with experience in the field, some others have the distinct power of roaming in the hallowed upper corridors of organizations at critical junctures. Therefore, what they bring to the class is the mindset through which the decisions are made in the upper echelons. Every time when they talk of one of their experiences with head honchos, their distinct art of almost bringing you into that room (like the pensieve in Harry Potter??) gives you a peek into what goes through the minds of those above. And of course, distilled learning. Almost makes the heads look... human, vulnerable, not invincible. Like even I could one day reach there.

Entrepreneurship and New Venture Creation

The class opens with a simple "How many of you want to be entrepreneurs?". In the true-blue comsi-comsa style(That's french, look it up), very few hands rise up. So the prof immediately attacks the rest of the class "Why are you here?". Standard responses, well thought responses all pour onto the whiteboard. Then the prof goes ahead and tells us that our batch is normal(phew!) since every other batch tells him this. And then he goes on to tell us that even if we don't want to start new ventures, the spirit of entrepreneurship is now rising in organizations. Call it intrapreneurship, innovation, whatever. There is a rising need for diving into the unknown in orgs too, and so this will help us understand better about HOW to dive in.

We had a case already in the first week, a simple one where we talk about a particular person and his company. Apparently it started off well, but now he's facing some crises, so how should we tackle it. Through this we got to understand some fundamentals about entrepreneurship. About what drives a person into it, about what the road is typically paved like, and how to increase value of the company. A good appetizer for what's coming.

Social Entrepreneurship

What??! TWO entrepreneurship courses, you say!? Well, yeah. Some effects are beyond our causes. What can I do? I'm interested, I'll take! In any case, the prof is in very high standing in the IIMB community, and there must be some reason for that. We caught a glimpse of it this week. There appears to be an obvious lack of complete belief in the government and its actions towards society, and yet that does seem tempered by some afterthought... like the prof believes that they're doing SOMETHING. While a lot is wrong, he believes some is right.

And with his position and authority on the subject, he tells us straight away that we're not going to get into an idealogical debate. I've come here to tell you what I know about the state of society today, and how the government alone can not perform miracles. You need to get into the trenches, see the environment for yourself. WE need to do something, so let's get started. So, no idealogical debates about "What is poor?", "God/Religion", "System should change".. I'll have none of that. You can't convince me to change my point of view, I wont change your inherent strong beliefs. It's upto you to see what you want to accept and imbibe, and what to leave. Agreed? The class just nods.

And immediately he dives right into some basic statistics about society. Information on literacy, monthly earnings, mortality rates, gender ratios, and those numbers hit you pretty strongly. It's in black and white (and a little colour) right there. When you see that the AVERAGE HOUSEHOLD gets Rs. 500 a month to survive on, and you think about the meal you had last night for the same amount per person, you just go a little slow. And you try to analyse what it's like there. Then the prof brings you back to class talking about female to male ratios of 900 to 1000, again average. And then you wonder, oh, so that's why most guys are not able to find girlfriends (Ok, that was unwarranted). And you see that some of the most well-off states are the ones that have such imbalance! And you wonder if saneness comes with capital, why does this happen. And then you go on to literacy levels, oh I can go on... trust me, you might not be shell-shocked, but you definitely will pause, and think.

And then the prof talks about how he'll not be talking about the movements like "Save the tiger" with a comment that "God bless them..", but that he'll talk about the social entrepreneurs who're making a difference for society, and that when he says "poor" he means "abject poverty", and he proceeds to widen the difference between poverty and "abject poverty" in our eyes. We also have a few exchange students in class (first time for PGSEM students), so they have clear objective questions... I wonder if they even understand the glimpse of stark reality that the professor is trying to convey. I'm sure they're trying hard to get it, though. Let's face it... quite a few foreigners have spent more time travelling through our villages than some of our urbanites, myself included. A lot to think about, and a definite understanding.. this course is not going to be like the ones before. We've already been told that for our projects, we're going to have to step into the trenches, not just read about poverty, but see it for real. This course is going to be like seeing over the shoulders of the professor, and the entrepreneurs he brings, the change agents... and then dabbling very mildly in those waters, for an instant.

B2B Market Management

Right, so if you dont know what B2B is, you're reading the wrong blog. Google it, and come back. The legend goes that no one should exit the PGSEM journey without undergoing this course. The prof has been hailed as one of the most influential ones in the minds of the PGSEM Student community. We heard him once before at our orientation, we've heard about him through our seniors, and now we're in his presence. Time to see if he's worth all that yakking.

And he starts off simply, and when he asks the expectations from this class... and hears all the above, he then tells us how it started off with just 6 students, and how he's happy to hear that students now consider this a rite of passage. And then, swoop! Dives right into the course. An immediate introduction to B2B and then we have a simple discussion about what is the difference between B2B and B2C. Then a message that we're going to see the VP(Non-linear growth) of Wipro the next day, and that we should read the case. When I go home and see that the cases are almost 50 pages... not to mention another 10 for the first course, and another 40 pages of reading for the second course, my heart just fell two notches. Anyway, I did what any self-respecting student would do... cram the case that was so important and sleep. Tomorrow's another day, let's face some risk then. And so we come for the second session, and we see the VP there, and we have a brief discussion about the aspects of the case. Apparently, this is our project.

You know, when you see the Wipro VP standing in front of you, like I said, they seem human. You actually know that hey, they're right here... they're people like you and me. There's a sense of confidence that just sweeps through you... God knows, Indians need it. But anyway, more about the case. After a little more discussion on why we need to start looking into the non-linear growth of companies, the time's up... and you come out thinking about the case. Very interesting that the professor is dabbling in a new method for the project. Making us all work on a live case does two things - 1, it gives us a chance to play with real data, and 2, it stakes our reputation as intelligent students and tomorrow's "leaders" (Ahem!! Cough, Cough!) on the line. Our profs like to take risks, I gather..

International Business Negotiation Skills

We've seen this prof before, he's our marketing prof! The one who some have found either MOST inspiring or MOST hateful. A little older, a little frailer than before, he went ahead and even broke an arm (flashbacks of me talking about him croaking come to mind, touch wood..) and then he just starts off with his usual mode of delivery. Constantly skimming at a very high level, he gives out these really vague statements, something that most people would consider common sense, but what most in this class write down. Especially when he says "Reflect on it". He's one of those profs who's not really shy about name-dropping, and he constantly talks about how this guy said this to him and how that guy said that to him. When I say guy here.. think the stalwarts in Indian business today. By telling us the circles he moves in, the prof indirectly also tells us the thought process that they have and how decisions are made.

But at times, I start getting a headache. His penchant for giving those heavy proverbial lines, and asking us to reflect on it takes a lot out of us. Because you KNOW that he's talking out of experience, and that he's skimming at the bird's eye level... and that it's upto you to see as far below as you can. And when you do too much of that, your head spins. Anyway, he does the standard "What do you want out of this course?" and proceeds to set his expectations.

He first says that even though there are no exams here, nothing for us to whine about, the load is still heavy. There's a personal learning diary he wants us to maintain, since we're going to learn from ourselves. It's seeing this that I joined this course. If someone could talk in high circles, and get a mix of spirituality, idealogy and fundas.. this prof is in that group. And when we talk about abstract things like "Learn from yourself", I cant think of a more formidable guide. Profs in economics and statistics are far more microscopic for this kind of stuff (Have I made my first enemies here??! :P). I also joined because I thought this was going to be light, but looks like I'm going to stay even otherwise.

God help my soul this quarter. 4 courses, all of which have heavy binders of readings and reflection and introspection, sigh. My mind is going to get so !@%#-ed.

Quarter 5 - Week of Exams

This is probably the first quarter where I wasn't in shivers/fervently praying that I should pass. Probably due to a lack of quant based electives (either in finance or operations), I had quite little to actually mug up and run over. It was just about going over readings, trying to remember important notes/learnings, and second guessing where the questions might come from. Was wrong on all of them. But the exams themselves were quite different, one due to a prof with an innovative style of testing, another due to a prof who's serious about reflection, and a third due to a prof who's just had plain misfortune despite setting a remarkable paper.

MSP - Despite going through all the articles, I wasn't ready for what was about to happen. We actually had a case study that we had a full two hours to analyse. I confess that somebody who'd done brilliantly in our Strategy course in first quarter would probably have aced this test. I mean, we had the standard set of metrics with some additional ones that we learnt out here during this quarter. I was really expecting some brief answer types on "What's your take on Software Testing?" (To which I was not prepared), and "Give some spiel on Agile and when you would recommend it against Waterfall?" (To which I was vaguely prepared) etc. Anyway, I just submitted my scores and prayed to God that I get atleast a B. I'll need that for my electives going forward! Oh, and of course, it will tell me that I can be a halfway decent 'manager' who can blind his superiors by throwing numbers in their face while telling them why we estimated so high for the project.

LOC - Again, reading through all the articles, I was so sure that I was gonna be caught stunned (like the proverbial deer in the vehicle's headlights... why dont they run away again?) and that I'd have to rely on my inordinate ability to manufacture and string together words that would somehow convince the prof that I had an inkling of understanding of what I was saying. I was pleasantly surprised to find that we were asked to (amongst other options) summarize our learnings from the two books assigned to us for reading. We had already had enough time to reflect on our learnings, so we were able to easily make stuff up and put it on that. In addition, there was a simulation, if I can call it that, asking us to prioritize certain actions that we would take with regard to a situation. This used quite a bit from all our learning, so I could get away by saying that it was a "holistic experience" (Look Mommy, big words!). Writing this blog really helps me write spiel(hey, it's meaningful too!) a little more comfortably.

PM - Now this paper was more like what we've been seeing over the past four quarters. Some kind of mixing of whatever we've learnt and even then absolutely no clue on how to best attempt it (Caution: Average student talking here. Best students have already decided what marks they're getting when they see the paper, and are tweaking here and there to get more). Interestingly, the most important part of the paper, the exhibits, had mysteriously gotten delayed. This hasn't happened before! So our poor prof sitting in the New Delhi airport terminus doesn't have a copy that he can scan and send across, assuming he can find an internet connection there to send it from! So he came up with a different solution. One of the questions revolved around a case study (for which he had told us that he'd be expecting we prepare thoroughly and come forth with insights based on the question he phrases). This didnt need any other exhibits. So the whole paper was now only one question. And he clearly stated to go the entire mile, and explain in a detailed and yet direct manner as to what steps ought to be taken. Now this isn't an unheard solution. Some profs give question papers with only one question. It's a different thing altogether that the prof was forced to take this option without considering it as the actual paper.

Obviously, when the prof says study "THIS case", I misheard it as "THAT case". So when the case name is different, I spent half an hour reading the given case to analyse it. Time was enough, so I'm not complaining.

A very different exam week, one that will remain in my mind atleast till the next quarter begins. Oh, btw, 50% is done. I can tell my manager that I'm half-baked and ready to give half-assed solutions to all his problems. I can't wait to set the revenue to half of what it used to be! Wish my luck, half-heartedly! (Yes, I know, I'm just half-mad).

Quarter 5 - Week 10

The thunderclouds that were on the horizon last week, finally hung right over us this week. Literally too. It rained/drizzled through the weekend, and you had this constant urge that "Yaar, let's just chill for an hour.. the weather's nice". But after one year of successfully holding all temptations at bay, I can successfully, proudly and miserably say that we sat still and did our assignments/ projects/ test preparations. This weekend saw a bunch of PGSEM students yawning more than normal, far more red eyes, and a huge queue at the printer in the Computer Lab. We can take a guess at how badly it affected the latter, as when I asked the support staff at the CompLab to help me with the Novell login (we need this to print out stuff), he just muttered "Aiyyo, these PGSEM students..". While the manager-in-progress in me was sufficiently infuriated, the engineer in me was subsequently humbled bigtime when the required action was completed in three very-easy-to-do already-explained-before-five-times steps. Took the printout for the last project of this quarter, and beat a hasty retreat vowing to understand the damn login system next time.

MSP - The first session dealt with software metrics, and why they were necessary. I thought it was nice that this came at the end of the course, because when you ask yourself each week "Why the hell am I studying this?", at the end there's a "Aah! So that's why I studied all of that..". It's a perfect way to make you look at the entire subject from a high overview, so you realize the importance of all of the learning you went through for the last ten weeks. The last session had a quiz based on what seemed like half the course content, probably meant to remind you that you should study for the exam, and so I very proudly look at my 10% score thinking "If I leave this prep for the last day I'm so definitely screwed." I think our profs like to remind us just how dumb and ill-prepared we are. Their own way of saying "Just because you got in here didn't make you super-awesome. Morons.". Anyway, the course ended on a very good note, not much complaints or suggestions on what to improve next quarter. This was one course that was handed to us on a silver platter, considering we have just been taught what we should do at work everyday. No marketing, leadership, finance fundas... just plain ol' project management, done right with stats and metrics.

LOC - Both the sessions were presentation sessions based on the book we were supposed to read - "The India Way". You should read it too! It makes you feel good about the way Indians work. The subliminal message of what we need to improve on requires more reflection, but even if you don't get it, you will atleast have understood what many of India's current leaders think and believe about us. Assuming that nobody had read the book, this week they had for certain assimilated the gist of the book. Every batch came forward, every batch explained their understanding of the India Way and every batch took longer than the time they were assigned. Oh, we Indians! (false laughter and disapproving smile/grimace), We will never understand the concept of time... Either it is our "baap ka maal", or we have very important stuff to share with the world since enlightenment just dawned on us, and only we hold the true key to life in the future. Yes, I was pissed here! We could have finished everything in one hour and gone home! But no, we sat, we listened, we yawned, and then we left.

Leaving the last week aside, I thought there was enough interesting material this quarter on what constitutes effective leadership, and how we can enable people to not just work but be empowered. Make leaders and followers out of everyone. That's what I took away.

PM - I would just do a copy-paste here. While we atleast had the mercy of the presentations in LOC being done in two distinct 1.5 hour sessions, this was a long drawn three hours! Dont get me wrong, I liked listening about what the different companies do with their products, but listening to product diffusion and the Kano models 10 times just makes you go "Why dont we have other models? The Kano model is just dripping out of my head now!" Luckily, there was a semblance of time control, as one of our classmates enthusiastically and loudly reminded each presenter that "YOU HAVE TWO MINUTES LEFT!" or my absolute favourite "TIME UP!!! (Pause for a second) TIME UP!!! (See if presenter is ignoring you) TIIIIMMMMMEEEE UUUPPPPPP!!!". Very effective. At the last one, the presenter finally gives an acknowledgement and wraps up in under 30 seconds! I wonder if people were just struggling to stay propped up in their chairs when the last presenter came on. I know I was. Finally, after that, the prof also came up and you could see the happiness on his face. He thanked us for our participation (apparently we were the most involved class thus far, woohoo! Awesome!! Yes, it dawns on me that he might be telling it to all his classes...) and then proceeded to give us a very short comment on how he wished a better future of us. And then... wrap!

I have never seen a class empty up that quickly at the end.

On to the final leg of the journey and into the storm! Exams next week!

Quarter 5 - Week 9

The penultimate week of classes, and even after having two guest lectures, an entrepreneurship fest on the side, the soft-closing of one of the three subjects, there is a nagging feeling that all of it was oh-so-ordinary.

MSP - We had a couple of guys (actually one guy and one gal) come over from Thoughtworks and explain the Mingle tool to us. Either the prof must have thought that we (being the lazy bums that we are) wouldn't be exploring the tool, or he thought spread the word about tools like Mingle. In any case, it was a pretty good thing to do... they took the class with aplomb! Sometimes, I wonder what's going through their mind. The fact that they're talking at IIMB to a bunch of apparently "high-value" students (information asymmetry at its best), must definitely want to make them ask for a promotion or hike at office. Or maybe they have loftier achievements in life, and are hopefully not truly living out the delusions that I have.

The next session was about Software Testing. The prof took us on a recap of the readings of the day, and before we knew it, the class was over. But throughout, I couldnt help thinking that he was pulling a Trojan Horse on us. He was still quite hung up on metrics, and how that should define how we run our projects. I wouldn't be surprised if we one day saw a paper that explains the exact way to estimate project, complete with the dels and the phis.

LOC - The first day was a pure discussion on how to handle the difficult parts of running a company - the restructuring effort, and how you would communicate the message to the others in the company. We pulled out all the plugs on compassion and ethics, etc. in this one.

The next session, surprisingly, skips my mind. I briefly recollect something about how the company should handle the transition after delivering bad news like job losses and continuing by tracking the changes implemented in the system.

Anyway, after the class - feedback forms were distributed. Now, this is a little out of the standard protocol. We all remember that just before / after the last class, survey forms are brought in to give feedback on the subject and the prof. This is typically added with applause. Those who like the guy will give a standing ovation, those who dont think the same will politely acknowledge his hard work.

In any case, our prof was pretty good - and when giving the standing ovation by the majority, a simple smile came on his face, and he reciprocated by acknowledging it lightly. It feels good when you make someone else happy, his smile was worth it.

PM - We spoke about brand management. I really dont remember any ahaah moments from this. But in session 2, we had the former director in a large apparel brand come and talk to us about the role of a brand manager. While everything went fine, sometimes you still feel like sometihng's missing. That's what it felt like. Oh well... quarter's almost done.

And even after all the classes, all the students could be seen scurrying towards the EB lounge to put the starting touches on their assignments. Too bad that we had the Eximius fest running at the same time. The only slot we could attend was the Panel Discussion on Going Green. A few interesting personalities, and you enjoy listening to what they have to say. Kind of reminds you that talking from a position of power, isn't that easy to imagine. You really have to see it, to understand it.

I'm way too sleepy too. I think I remember four rambles in this post. And the eternal question rises again: What did I drag myself into?

Quarter 5 - Week 8

The excitement that surrounded this week pretty much drowned out the thunder of impending doom. The juniors (I keep thinking of kids concentrating on their gold-digging activities, wonder why) brought out the first fest of the year - 'Pehel'. Heralded as the first fest of the PGSEM calender year organized by the first year students, it's name pretty much suggests how original we are. Or rather how original our seniors were. The elections for the SAC are in progress, so there are some very interesting things that the nominees are doing to get votes. All of a sudden, a whole bunch of people have come forth, articulating how they'd like to change the way things are run. Good thing for us that there is enough to be improved. Maybe next year, our juniors will have some work left... in fact, I'm sure our batch will somehow manage to double whatever work we can hand over to them next year. In any case, all of this seems to have allowed everyone a chance to conveniently forget that this quarter will be done in 3 weeks, including exams. So if you haven't realized it, then you should atleast wake up now.

MSP - Estimation. The art of convincing your boss as to why a task that looks like it can be done by a one-handed monkey (who's on a unicylce) in 2 days actually requires 12 monkeys a whole week to do. With free bananas. Naah, we're studying consensus building. That means the TEAM together decides how long they'll need to complete the task. So basically if the schedule slips, everyone's chill because you cant put the blame on any one person. Either that, or the entire team gets fired. Moral of the story: Leave a couple of bananas for your boss as well.

Jokes apart, what we actually did was learn more about Poker planning and how arriving at a team-based consensus can help figure out any issues unknown to individuals. Power of group thinking and all that. This was even tied in to historic data, so we knew on average how much time a particular project might take, given the number of employees and lines of code. This is pure empirical data, so you can't really argue too much. This also helps you figure out (to an extent!) if your team's trying to pull a fast one on you. The next session, we actually did a hands-on, wherein our teams sat together with poker cards and estimated the projects we were going to be working on. A little slow at first, but once people got the hang of it, the project actually came to life. We got to know what others thought the project would look like (the nitty gritties), so now everyone SEEMS to have very similar pictures in their head.

LOC - The first session involved a study of Goldman Sachs. These guys have a pretty good leadership development strategy. First, they make sure they get awesome people. Next, they dump them in the world of finance, in the care of an older person and call the newbie "The Apprentice". Newbie better learn well, and imbibe culture of the company, because these oldies are an experienced lot in the world of finance. Keep up or stay out of the race! But looks like they've been doing quite well, so no complaints. The problems that Goldman Sachs seem to have faced is that they started growing really quickly, which means too many apprentices and too few gurus. So they were wondering if there's a way that leadership could be propagated through the organization (because that's today's mantra!). A council was tasked with trying to figure out what to do, and they studied other organizations known for their leadership training, brought in some quant so that they could actually measure any tangible effect of this training, etc. So the case discussion was about how Goldman Sachs should propose such a plan to senior management, so that leadership is nurtured and training sustained in the organization.

The next session was a guest lecture by a senior head at Cosco India. He spoke about the leadership development practices there, and tried to help us understand what goes into the grooming of a leader. Very intelligently articulated, it was a very thoughtprovoking talk for us all. His reliance on a bunch of models actually made it seem a little too educative, but in the end, his frameworks might end up being something we'll all be needing.

PM - I was actually quite disappointed with PM this week. I really expected a guest lecture from a head at TVS. Yet, the class dealt more with the practical problems faced by a company which was in TVS' position. We had a case study, and people discussed the pros and cons about the relevant exercise. The standard issues about expansion, product placement, branding etc. The prof brought in a very specific instance to the classroom. He spoke about how he had been part of the organization and had gone about a product launch. You remember the Conjoint Analysis from last week? well, this time it was implemented for real. So they do a whole bunch of things and then release the product.

Say what you want about this prof, but from what I've seen so far he's probably more interested in the broader level picture than explaining the intricacies of the numbers to us. He actually tells us that you can't just run a Porter's analysis as and when somebody asks you to come up with a strategy. He says use your tools as and when you need them. Most of them have a specific purpose, use them wisely. He's more like that entrepreneurial guest lecturer, who comes in, talks a lot about some very focussed thing and then tells you that keep theory aside, and THINK. There's no doubt in my mind as to why our class finds it so easy... he just makes it so. I'm just hoping that all the unspoken words that he has is atleast finding some place in my head (somewhere far behind), because it's obvious that he knows quite a bit. What's not obvious is... are we getting it?

Three weeks left.

Quarter 5 - Week 7

It's getting closer and closer to the end of the quarter, and you begin to think "Now's the time I'm going to get started with preparing for my end terms! I'm going to do much better this time!". Slowly you realize that all your project submissions, assignments and quizzes happen to fall over like dominoes for each coming week. And then you realize that the "preparation" you want to do won't happen this quarter. And then you decide "I'll do better next quarter". Considering we're almost half-assed managers right now, I'd think we should be able to plan our schedules better. Wonder whether we'll feel like complete asses by the time we're done with this course! That'd be a total transformation. From complete techie to complete ass.

MSP - Negotiations. That full stop tells us how important this is going to be for us in our coming future. Looks like we're going to be negotiating for better deals on all aspects of life, and so our prof thought it vital to be a part of our course. And what a way to handle it. The first session was the general gyaan about what are the different aspects to negotiations, what a BATNA(Best Alternative To Negotiated Agreement) is and what are the different types of negotiations. The second session was a fully blown practical, hands-on approach. Our batch was split into three teams, and we were made to act out a negotiation with each other. So we had around 10-15 minutes to decide (within our sub-teams of course) about what we were willing to consider negotiating on, what we were unwilling to budge on, and what we could let go. Thanks to some information asymmetry, it was made a lot more fun, and sure as hell was an action-packed session! If this is something I'd have to do every once in a while, hell, management sure sounds like a lot of fun! Who said geeks don't know how to have fun? (For the record, PGSEM students are cool, in fact, they're the epitome of cool.)

LOC - This week, the first session was related to the formation of tribal groups (Me Manager, You secretary! Them all chimps! Grunt!). We're told that there are five different stages to this group-isms. The first is when people think that "Life sucks!". So they find each other, get together and tend to do whatever they can to get out of the pitiful existence they have, if need be, even resorting to anarchy. The second is when people think that "MY life sucks!". So they feel that some people in the org are getting to be successful, while they're not. Typically, these guys will find out more like them and wallow in self-pity. However, there is a nagging thought in their mind that "Things CAN change". So they're not really in as bad a situation as Stage 1. However, it's extremely simple for people to slip into that. The third stage is "I'm awesome, you all suck!". Here's where everyone's doing pretty decently, and the person tends to think that he's an irreplacable wheel in the organization, and that if he leaves, the whole company collapses. Standard ego traits that you might see or even have within you or your company. The fourth stage is "My team's awesome, the other teams suck!". Muccchhh better. More like what we all think. Here's a stage when people are not really insecure, and there is scope for betterment of life, and almost everyone seems to be satisfied, for the most part. There's a team based approach here because of which you tend to identify with your team as part of your identity. The fifth stage is "My company's awesome". This one's very interesting, because apparently, you can't stay in this stage for long. This is the stage you'd reach if the entire company's working together on a project that means a LOT to them, maybe it opens up a new market, maybe the company's last chance to avoid total breakdown. But ultimately, the people come together from various teams to ensure that the dream is converted to reality. And maybe due to the inherent nature of the transformation/co-ordination required, the teams just gel together. After the project is due, it's very much possible that the company goes back to stage 4. Pretty interesting session.

The next session, we had a speaker come from Deloitte, and talk to us about the issues of ethics and conformance that organizations face. He chose to take the recent sub-prime crisis as an example, where questionable decisions were made. He and a co-author (nice guy, at the start he kept mentioning My co-author and I together thought of this... My co-author and I together worked on this.. etc. Rare to see such people) came up with some sort of model that tried to penetrate beyond the layer that dealt with ethics. They were trying to see if there was something deeper to the entire issue of what led to such debacles in the industry. They had a triangle that covered three essential features that need to be handled together for decisions to take place effectively. I'd tell it to you, but it's hush-hush managementy stuff, which we paid a lot of money to hear. Naah, I'm just messing with you. I just dont remember it right now, and I'm too lazy to take ten steps to pull out my notes from my bag.

PM - This week was all about conjoint analysis. Before you go "Woaahhh!! Awesome management jargon!", let me clean this up for you. Even though we had done this in the Principles of Marketing course (Refer Quarter 3), either I was sleepy or something, because I didn't really get it when the guest lecturer taught us. But today, for some reason, I was wide awake (OMG! Surprise!) and I got a good understanding of the funda. So please, allow me to explain something that I seem to understand.

A conjoint analysis is typically used to find out how consumers respond to different attributes in a product. Take for example, a toothpaste. Now, you'd think "What's in a toothpaste? I dont really think too much when I take it.", and I'd say "Ahaah! You're wrong!". You might THINK that, but subconsciously, your mind's pretty much thinking it all through. Let's pick a few attributes - Brand, Quantity, Taste and Color. Brands - Colgate and Pepsodent. Quantity - 100g, 200g. Taste - Minty, Salty, Tasteless. Color - Red, Blue. Trust me on the math, there are 24 possible combinations here, like (Colgate 100g minty red paste, Pepsodent 200g salty blue paste), get it? Now, what we do is, we get a person to sit patiently (maybe by offering him a free movie ticket, or some free food etc.) and ask him to order them all up based on his preferences. Now he might not just be quantitatively figuring "this has x value, that has y value, add, subtract etc.", he might be making some qualitative judgements here as well. Which is what we want! So after doing this with quite a few people, you analyse the data to find out which attribute seems to mean more to people when compared to the others, and what could be the apparent sensitivity that a particular attribute brings to the table. Conjoint analysis tends to bring some sort of method to the madness by trying to quantify the perceptions, likes and dislikes of the consumer. So then you'll also know that if you were to knock 10g off your product, or change the flavour, what's the possible outcome. Maybe you'll find that "Brand" is a highly sensitive thing, and that changing it can majorly affect the uptake of your product.

I'm a little pleased with my intake this week. Maybe I'll prepare for the exams early after all! :)

Quarter 5 - Week 6

I miss the constant buzz of familiar voices that I was used to in the last year. Now most of the time, the classes are reduced to a very low hum. The faces I see are new, and there's a glazed look as people think about which classes they need to attend next, which assignments they need to work on, while they attempt to understand what the prof is saying. Maybe it was just one of those weeks, or maybe it's just Bangalore's weather, but it almost feels impolite to not drift away in class nowadays.

MSP - We had a guest speaker from Thoughtworks over with us. Since we're beginning with studying Agile (What?! Weren't you supposed to have been doing this all along??), we had someone represent one of the first (if not the first!) companies to implement Agile in their organization. The people who proudly strut around telling anyone who's willing to lend them a ear that they're 'doing Agile' will probably keep their mouths shut for a while now. The speaker today was way ahead of us. They seem to have modified their work environments to facilitate easy movement of furniture. It's almost like they've got small cells of 5-6 computers put together as Agile teams. The whole place is adorned with Post-its, and there's even talk of setting up one full wall as a video screen - which would in a way act like a visual portal into the client's site. Why? So we can spy on each other under the pretext of doing Agile. Ha. Ha. Kidding! (Ahem!) I couldn't help wondering that to save time and costs, we're willing to waste Post-its and keep a wall-sized screen powered on all the time. Nature's always the loser in the corner. Anyway, our speaker spoke to us about how they implement Agile, how it came to be, and described some of their advanced practices. It was an eye-opening talk. I'm no longer telling people I do Agile... why? Because I know what Agile is now.

LOC - This week was a little interesting, it had quite a bit to do with ethics. We had a guest speaker come over from TI. Apparently, Texas Instruments has been around for a very long time, and they've strictly adhered to a no-shifty-antics-and-stay-ethical strategy. They're so serious about it that if someone gifts something to them, they actually dont accept the gift personally! They'd probably stick it up on a wall proudly proclaiming that their customer gave them this. That way, it becomes a property of the company, and not one person anymore. And it sends across a good message to the guys in the company. The whole session was all about Ethics in organizations and how they ensure that this is nurtured and inculcated in every employee.

The next session was about the growth of managers in stages. There seemed to be five steps to becoming an effective manager. It went through the motions of how you observe and follow whatever you're being told, then you tend to follow the norms, then you tend to think for yourself and take some risk with management, then you think for both yourself and those around you, and finally you begin to think for the environment. This theory seems to be drawn from a general theory which can be applied to individuals in general. But the whole point of this was to explain to us that it's possible that your behaviour and mindset are different. That would mean that you might be in a role of a project lead(behaviour) but you're always thinking that you'll use these projects to climb higher(mindset). The behaviour is an indication of probably a stage 3 manager, but you end up acting like a stage 1 manager. Therefore, be careful of such people who seem to exude a different management stage than the stage they truly are in.

PM - This week was about how we involve the customer's wants into our product's requirements. By using the Kano model, we can check a lot of parameters against a lot of others. It was extremely comprehensive. On one dimension, we could see what features mattered most to the customers. On another, we could see how much certain technical features meant to the customer. It was also possible to see the correlation between various technical requirements. A couple of the groups were required to prepare their presentations for today, and they did a great job! There was also an element of Consumer Behaviour. One of our classmates who was presenting today has also taken the CB course, so his excitement was quite infectious. He was actually explaining the funda behind that section in the Kano model, and it was unfortunatethat he had to stop because there of the time constraint. The rest of the class went about on the theory of this topic, which could actually be boiled down to this paragraph.

Funny how we can avoid the hefty fees of the PGSEM by just sharing what's on the blog, it's just a pity that we cant claim the professors' wide and varied experience as our own. If it wasn't for our professor's experience, our class would have gotten over way earlier. Oh, what I'd do to get some of that cool experience!

Quarter 5 - Week 5

It never fails to thrill me when we hit the five-week mark. It keeps saying "50% of that step you're taking is done... now all you have to do is drop that foot on the ground". You'd expect that the act of raising your foot against gravity to leave it hanging in the air is the difficult part, and letting momentum take you forward to easing it on the ground is easier. Considering how a similar effect DOES NOT happen in each quarter, it's obvious I've drawn the wrong parallel. Does that make it perpendicular? (You'll be glad to know I'm not sleeping enough each night. That will probably explain this past paragraph. Oh, the joys of an executive MBA...)

MSP - Making the excuse that "I didn't prepare for the class" begins to get old, even when you're telling it to yourself. Now I understand that convincing yourself is the easy part... so that should be a sign that goes "Isn't it time you read those articles?" Anyway, this past week I was woefully unprepared for the classes. Luckily, it had to do with the Agile process, and what makes it different from waterfall. Now I thought that if I'd heard it once, I've heard it a million times. And I've heard this spiel almost five times now. Everyone from my lead, the guys from another of our company sites, our annual conferences, to a 'certified' Agile coach has told us about this magic pill. So I'm pretty sold on it, in fact I sell it everywhere I go. But when you listen to the same thing in a class, it's a different thing. All of a sudden, it is no longer about the practicals that you associate it with. It's about the theory. It's about WHY people use Agile. It's about who all are using Agile. It's about how it's no longer a fad, and that my clients, YOUR clients, and their clients are all saying they want that silver bullet. It's no longer about having the maximum number of people working low wage jobs so that work can be outsourced to you, it's getting to be about the quality and reliability of the work you do, and the associated accountability, so that the clients will require MINIMUM maintenance from you. Managing Software Projects, an art in so many people's eyes, is slowly but surely making its transition to a science.

Beyond the general theory of "Why Agile?", we had a guest speaker come in from (top secret) company working on a (top secret) project for a (top secret) client. I am not supposed to be saying this out loud on a public forum, but I couldnt hold myself back. Act like I didn't tell you anything. But in any case, this person described to us as to how they went about implementing Agile. The best part? His diagrams were convoluted and you could point off his problems so easily, that you realise, the theory that the prof tells you is one thing, practically whatever we're doing is still sufficiently unstable, just a little less so. The difference is that now we can observe where we're truly going wrong. There is a minor debate going on the side, that Agile requires outspoken team members, being given the opportunity to be self-sufficient and self-moderating. The argument being put to that is if you can find so many such people who want to be that way. It's one thing to be given the power, it's yet another to accept the responsibility. Thankfully, most of the experienced guys in class say that their companies have such responsible people.

LOC - Yet another class I wasn't prepared about. But listening (or trying to listen) to the discussion in class, I gathered that it's about the attempt to do a turnaround within an organization. The first session was about HCL, the second was about Surat. I dont really know if HCL's was a success, but I hear Surat's was downright amazing. Apparently the leader (S.R. Rao, I hear) empowered his team, put the whip in the hands of the common man by giving him the right to question and tracked his team. I remember a few words out of this week... cynicism on the parts of the IT employees on whether the company's promise to 'make the change' was going to hold, and accountability in the other where 'the ones making the change were being policed by the ones who had to live with the change'. Maybe there's more to these cases, let me get back to you on this. But if you want to take something away from this paragraph, remember: "Get the people on board, so you can make the change with their help... because if you fail, it will be easier for you if you fail together, than be the lone person being judged by everyone for having caused increased irreparable damage."

PM - I met a couple of old friends again this week 'Segmentation' and 'Positioning'. Did I tell you that Product Management is apparently actually an advanced Marketing course? So these sessions were all about how you target the appropriate customers for your product. And how you let them know about it. We started off with understanding how a market is segmented - basically split it up into four areas, where you dont have a product, have a product but either dont want to sell it to a particular segment (conscious choice) or dont even know that the segment exists, lost one of your segments, captured some segments, or had some from the very beginning and didn't have to fight for them. So it's important to know what the customer wants, and what your rival's customers want, so that you can use them like trading cards depending on which strategies you employ to garner more market share. The next session was about how you let the different segments know more about your product, and constantly keep giving out the same message so that it's imprinted in the customer's mind.

Since a few of our classmates were cursing that people like me don't have enough exams and assignments, I have some great news! We have two assignments for this week, two assignments for NEXT week, a quiz this week, another next week, so I too now have reason why I shouldn't be getting even the bare amount of sleep that I claim to be getting right now.