Quarter 5 - Week 2

Maybe it's the one month vacation, maybe it's the fact that we're strutting like proud peacocks since we've finished a year, or maybe it's just that the workload from college and work was less last week... I dunno, I haven't figured it out yet, but I actually got some time EVERYDAY to read articles for my readings for this week. I'm so proud, I can't stop holding my nose up in the air for the entire time I'm writing this blog. Fancy that, I was able to read almost all the required readings for the week BEFORE Friday's class. Hah! I think I know what our class toppers feel like... or atleast what they feel like when they come prepared to class. Moving on...

MSP - This week we had some continuation from last week on the classic mistakes that can be made while handling software projects. I particularly got hooked on the 'project heroics' point, where it talks about how consistent performance are not being rewarded while those once-in-a-while-blitzkriegs are being given accolades and called the grand-chimps-of-the-company. And we've all seen our fair share of these kind of people, who knows maybe we've been grand-chimps as well. There were more points that seemed to point towards estimations, coding techniques, architecting code etc., so a good primer for what we were to see. This week was more in terms of risk management. We discussed how companies are now able to quantify the risk that they might face on projects. Apparently, most companies have such a huge graveyard of projects (both successful and unsuccessful) that they have enough data to determine how effective their estimations are, and how risky elements affected their estimates. They then use this to figure out the possible deviation that their upcoming projects can take, based on severity of the risk. So we started studying the Waterfall process, the Spiral model and we stopped on the Unified Process (?) model. Maybe we'll continue on that next week. But in any case, since I don't have a good idea of project management, and have never done it before, this course appears to be sufficiently enticing and smacks of being an eye-opener.

LOC - This week we focussed more on the differences between leaders and managers. We also tried to understand the funda behind a soft manager. The readings for the sessions talked about the importance of sufficient emotional intelligence in leaders, and that being a soft manager might just be quite important in today's world. It seems that managers are more often focussed on the short term, their goal is to meet the targets. Leaders on the other hand prefer looking long term to see what really needs to be done to "grow" the organization. There were three aspects to a person's personality, his need for: achievement, affiliation and power. Managers are those that have a strong drive for achievement and a medium drive for affiliation. That means they really like to meet their targets, and they really like hanging out and working in groups. Leaders on the other hand have a strong drive for achievement and a medium drive for power. Which means they REALLY like to meet their targets, and they like being in control and choosing directions where the company goes.

Our first session revolved around a case study called Linus Carver. Apparently Linus was this really awesome gem, who knew how to deliver his projects well within time, was able to think up of new projects that really brought money to the company and almost singlehandedly takes the company to new heights. (In short, he doesn't exist for real - that's why this is a case study... I mean, where do you really get such gems?). But the problem was the guy was a douche with his team. That seems like a given. If you get to act like God in a company, what's going to stop you from getting a God complex? His boss tries to convince him saying that "Your team is important, bring them along. Dont be an ass." etc. etc. But Linus tries to act cool and says that "Our figures are going up. If we go all sentimental, and do these group therapy sessions, then we're going to lag our targets. You brought me here because you know I'm a star, so let me light the way, and let's forget about these meager planets." (You've probably figured by now that I paraphrased it all). So his boss apparently is having a fit. He doesnt know whether to fire him, or hand over his current team to a different manager or create a new designation for him. Because you dont get these Linus' everywhere. You dont want them to go somewhere else! And you dont really like them talking cockily to you, but do you really have an option? As it comes about, it seems there are options. Which deal a lot with commen sense.

For example, give him an option that if he wants to move further along managerial responsibilities, then these are the additional skills he needs, else he can be an architect. And in some cases, you can send him for soft training and gain a commitment from him that he will try to work on his attitude. But in any case, that session saw a lot of interactivity from people in class. It was funny actually. First everyone was baying for Linus' blood... 'Throw him outside' they said, 'Hand over the team, make him an architect' they said. Then after the prof mentioned that maaaaybe the problem was higher up.. we went after his boss' blood. I'm sure if the prof mentioned 'Oh incidentally, Linus had a brother.' , we'd probably go after that as well and find reasons for the brother to pay hell. The second session was more on the lines of being a soft manager isn't about being wimpy, though everyone considers that. A soft manager is one who keeps his eyes on the goals and schedules and other technical jargon, and then when discussing issues with his team, he actually opens up to them. He's the i-bare-my-heart-to-you type. So people feel more themselves around him, and trust him. Which is the foundation of every successful group. Well, I'd love to say there was something CONCRETE I learnt here, but I am not sure if it was. I mean, this is stuff we really already know, right?

PM - Today we discussed about how new innovative products need to be introduced in the market. It actually was quite interesting. It seems that in the 70s, people spent 25% on product, 50% on marketing and another 25% in other such stuff. However, today, in the 2010's, the companies are focussing 50% on the product itself, and the focus is decreasing in marketing. This points to the fact that today's companies are doing their research before they begin on such projects. Atleast the somewhat stable ones. We also studied how products that are doing well in a sector, might try to find new markets so that they can avoid the cost of ballooning towards the end. Sensible enough stuff.

Then we actually saw a few ads mainly of 'Rasna' where we really saw how the environment, the message etc. changes as the product evolves. Since we saw the ads in a span of 10 minutes, we had the luxury of sitting back and saying "This is the problem we're facing, here's a possible solution". This course too seems to be full of interesting options.

All in all, a good week. My necks's hurting, think I better keep myself level headeed. :)

Quarter 5 - Week 1

A month ago we were in the midst of exam frenzy. For the first time, we received an actual one month holiday. I had completely forgotten what freedom was like. Finally, to be able to sleep as late as you want, wake up as late as you want was... well... pure joy!

But it's funny how fast a month goes by, 'cos hey! Here I am plodding away at a keyboard about what happened this week. Before we do that, let's spend two blank lines (I couldnt find an equivalent for 2 minutes of silence) in the memory of the togetherness of the students of PGSEM 2009.

The thing is... for the first time since we joined together in May 2009, our class split up as we chose different electives. Some of your favorite mates and buddies in chaos were no longer around. Such is life, and electives. But at least we get to drop what we find to be god-awful-topics! And we can actually choose how many subjects we want to pick in a quarter, or whether we want to do the quarter at all in the first place! I hear we have some brave people who just dropped the quarter since they didn't get subjects they wanted. Anyway, on to my fav subjects.

MSP - Managing Software Projects. This is being handled by a known devil, one of our previous profs well known for his sense of energy and theatrics in class. An unconventional prof by any standards, he bring youtube videos, varied cases and interesting points of view to class. The subject by itself is considered by many to be a well-beaten dead horse, but our prof got it to romp around the lawn for us (dont spend too much time understanding what I said, basically I'm saying he made it sound interesting). This week we discussed how without requirements planning, enterprise architecture, acceptance criteria etc. large projects involving humongous architecture can definitely fail. And what case did we study? None other than the FBI. Apparently they made a big goof up with a system that was called the VCF (Virtual Case File). Try looking it up. Now, I did feel that since the project failed, everyone has something or the other to say about it. Apparently now they have something like a version two that is supposed to be a lot better and stabler, but I'm guessing that if it fails, people will have a whole new set of reasons to explain it. It's just so easy to do post-mortems.

LOC - Leadership and Organizational Change. Honestly, I was expecting this class to be dull. I mean, who doesnt have their two bits / twenty paise to talk about leadership. And to top it off, we've seen this professor previously too! In fact, the profs from both these subjects taught us in the same quarter previously. So, our expectations weren't way too high on this subject. I must say, I am pleasantly surprised. While half the fundas seem straightforward (Yes, I know enough of leadership, give me my MBA now, thank you.) this prof does tend to have a small surprise in each of his lessons. Some twist seems to be inherently present all the time. For e.g., a small anecdote from this week. He was talking about a theory drawn up by Henry Mintzberg. Mintzberg believed that MBA schools are useless and in fact dangerous. He said that true leadership comes about as a result of reflection on past experiences. And if you pick fresh engineering grads, pump them up with MBAs, fluff up their feathers, that doesnt help in any way! You're just giving them the technical education to try and game the system, not really helping. So give MBA education only to people atleast eight to ten years old in the industry. Apparently none of the MBA schools are happy and a huge uproar was unleashed. Obviously! You try coming and telling a prof that he should stop taking in the cash cow set of students who're coming in every year! However, it seems that people and companies are indicating that they'd like to give his theory a serious run, to see if he is indeed right. Good luck to him, I already made it through the door anyway. The rest of the week was primarily taken up by the difference between leadership and management (Yes, there's a difference), and how the PAEI model can point to which are you're more oriented towards. Good stuff.

PM - Product Management. I'm still a little undecided about this course. I have never met this prof before, but something tells me that further observation will be required before I can truly claim if this subject is as applicable as the syllabus dictates. Theory is one thing, practice yet another. Anyway, this prof started the class with telling us that the world is evolving... blah blah... the time for meeting people's needs is over... blah blah... now people don't know what they want. Wait, what? Yea, you heard right. People no longer know what they need! If I invented a flying car today, people might well take it tomorrow! I could invite singing shoe laces for all I care, people MAY get interested and take it! So what he continued on to do, was to describe a new product, figure out what goes into it, and drill it into our heads that case studies are good, but remember that they are written AFTER the shenanigans around them. In hind sight, you can always analyse what went right and what went wrong. But a product manager tries to figure out what the audience wants BEFORE they reject the offering and decide what can make it more of a success. and all this by following some sort of repeatable process. The class had its ups and downs, and the initial predictability. I hope it springs more surprises, good ones at that, as the quarter goes on.

It was also our first distributed session, so it was a little cool. We had a few guys from Chennai VC-ing in from what I think was the Infy campus. So questions and thoughts came in every now and then over the mic. A little disconcerting at first, but hey, it worked pretty ok. Atleast from where I was sitting! Now to see if we feel the same way when the prof conducts a few classes from there!

All in all, a good start to what appears to be a promising quarter. The second years have arrived.

Quarter 4 - Week of Exams

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

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

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

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

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

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

Yes, one year's over.

Quarter 4 - Week 9

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Quarter 4 - Week 8

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

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

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

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

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

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

Quarter 4 - Week 7

This week was by far the most hectic week we've faced. Or so I felt. I think my last blog entry is an indication of that. I seem to have written something about a website(?) and I was talking about the chapter or book I guess. Anyway, I was pretty thrilled (very wierd actually) to have made a slumber mistake, that's when you're hammering away at the keyboard but you are actually sleeping, that I didnt bother to correct it. Dont try this at home, or in your car. Bad consequences!

So why was this week so bad? Because we've just finished two exams and left college at 7:00! As if it wasn't enough that we were scribbling whatever little we knew from 2:30 all the way till 6:30, it began to pour cats and dogs and we couldn't even go home! And some of the more enthu mugpots amongst us were discussing solutions despite our dirty stares. The fact that I was paying keen attention through one ear to the solutions and listening to a project team mate discuss our next week woes through the other, AND that none of my answers matched the said solutions was pretty much winding me up. And the blasted rain..!

But enough about me and my general woes, close to one year into the course I should probably learn to suck it in and move along. You dont get an IIMB backing if you're solving exams with a smile now, do you? And so, on to this week's bhaashan..

OperMan - This week we played a game, not as fun sounding as the last Beer Game, but good fun nonetheless.... we had a case were we had to forecast the demand in the coming weeks and place orders accordingly so that our net inventory was as close to the minimum as possible. First some gambling when we were just trying to fool around, then some wisdom dawned when we kept getting screwed in our numbers and so we made a master plan.... which was supposed to work. I am still not sure how we arrived at it, just that it made a lot of sense at the time. The word 'delirium' keeps popping up in my mind.

The next day we discussed how we could have gone about the actual task and what patterns we were to look for. The prof mentioned that while it's good to forecast demand, you should also try to keep it somewhat stable.Why...? Because we have PEOPLE doing the actual manufacturing! Now what kind of a good manager would you be if you let your employees chill off one day, and slog like their life depended on it the next day! So, inventory optimization be damned, be a nice guy. Keep it to a minimum, but you dont have to be oh-so-efficient. Fancy my Operations Management professor telling me that!

CorpFin - Miller and Modigliani seemed to have a lot of time on their hands, they kept coming up with new nuances for their theorems. Maybe they weren't doing the PGSEM. Or maybe they just knew that they ought to come up with some cool theorems with the unterior motive that people all around the globe would be burning the midnight oil just to understand what these guys were trying to prove.

I'm just cranky from the exams I guess, it wasn't really all that bad. The prof really knows how to make it all sound like fun. From what I remember, we were essentially talking about how taking too much debt can be bad for the company. The whole principle goes as follows, you can take up two times the equity(or share value) as debt. Yes, you're allowed to take loans... no, it's not a bad sign. No, your Indian uncle and aunty won't look at you with pity... Yes, you can marry your neighbour's daughter, this is not a financial problem. But. If you cross it like 4 or 5 times, then the equity shareholders start beginning to think, and they think really hard because they've seen this happen before, and they all hightail it for the exit! So, be responsible and dont hide the bad news was what was coming across.

The next session seemed to roam a little bit around the point, we even had a nice looking graph that told us at what time we should stop pushing for debt, or even if we were, try and buy some companies who were profitable so that your equity value goes up... SO you can take more debt! It keeps coming down to one fact. If your company goes bankrupt, your equity shareholders are able to limit their losses to their investments, but the debt guys, sure they get all the assets repossessed.. but they'll never be able to get their true value.

MPPO - I am getting a little more bored than usual now. The topics were all good, Performance Appraisal and all that... how to appraise, what kind of interaction to have etc. etc. etc., but I just kept getting distracted... maybe because of the exams. But even the cases seem to be so obvious, I am not sure how much new stuff I learnt this week. We saw a video in the second session, it was all about how you conduct an appraisal and what can go wrong... there were a couple of interesting points in it, but I dont know, it all seemed so.... general! This was supposed to be common sense, how could we miss this? And sure, it was nice to know that everyone seems to hate appraisals... the fact that I'm being given a letter grade and in a way rebuked like a child, is not something that everyone felt pleasant about. And here we are getting As, Bs and Cs...

All in all, a tiresome week. I'm just glad we're done with the exams.

I really am.

Quarter 4 - Week 6

C.K. Prahlad passed away this weekend. The person who brought our attention to the fortune at the bottom of the pyramid, and who campaigned and spoke eloquently on the topic tirelessly left our world at the age of 68. On Sunday morning, our prof spoke to us about this, and for two minutes our class stood in silence, in respect for the man who drew the world's attention to the strength of the poverty stricken masses. I am sure that students in management institutes worldwide gave him the same mark of respect, and personally I can't help but be awestruck at the respect he commanded.

In comparitively lesser news, we had our second and last three-day session for this quarter, yes, that's right Fri, Sat and Sun. So essentially, we've completed seven quarters. This week saw a change in profs for the CorpFin subject, more on that later.

OperMan - Well, nothing really stood out. This was more about inventory management and how and when to keep safe stock, or in regular parlance, buffer stock at optimum levels to ensure lowest possible costs. Really, nothing so important in my opinion.

CorpFin - Our prof just shifted since we've embarked on Act II of our elective. This prof seems very different from our first prof. He somehow managed to bring some liveliness to one of the most boring subjects I've ever studied. We recapped a bit into the first quarter to discuss balance sheets and P&L statements. We then went on to discuss the Miller-Modigliani principle. And the rest I have to read. However, I know most of what we skipped in the Website,so I think I could explain that.

A firm's beta, is the risk premium of the individual stock, above the safe Treasury bills/G-secs. Meaning, if u were to take the stock in the firm, it has a risk/cosy of capital associated with the general tendency of the market as a whole, and another part that is associated with the unique risk of that stock. So this way, we can calculate betas of a bunch of stocks in a portfolio. It was interesting to see the connections between betas.

MPPO - Performance management and appraisal. A lot of people felt that the current system seemed inherently flawed. A lot of discussion of what happens in our companies, and the advice also seemed similar. Too much theory, wish there was similar takeaway.

An abrupt post, but when you have a lot to study, efficiently prioritizing everything, well there's so much to do. The actual jumps now will begin this week. Time for me to and prepare for the quisses. Until next week....