One sixth a Manager

One trimester over and here I am indulging myself in a movie marathon. After a bonfire and exercising my right to make a fool out of myself, I can’t help but think what has changed in the last 2 months!! (to what made me think of this, it was the dialogue “Its not who you are, but what you do that defines you” from batman begins) I can feel the change. Its in the form of jargons that I use, the way I break up the problem into concepts and the way I think letting your friend make a fool out of himself in front of a girl should not be stopped, since u never stop a competitor who makes a mistake :P But its extremely tough to study with nature’s breathtaking beauty around you :)

These are few truths realized in the trimester gone by in the most non academic way.

1) There are 3 types of people, the hard workers, the smart workers and those who think they are smart workers. I belong to the 3rd

2)Any professor who takes the time to develop his/her own theory, it pays off to paraphrase his viewpoints in class and ppts. Its not a suck up strategy but knowing your consumer needs say experts.

3)Professors who seem really friendly are the ones who are gonna screw you in papers

4)Any class, we can have A to Z varieties of DPs (Desperate Participation) and a combination of stuff too. I personally found it hilarious that people exhibit persistence, courage and a sense of conviction to ask such questions.

5)Bees love me. (Ph(f)oolish?) Courtesy of Keshav: With the number of bees around, tell me if this is a B-School or a Bee-School?

6)A smaller campus permits you to get up at 8.55 for a 9 class..

7)A 5 minutes ppt can be presented for 15 mins. If you have never seen the ppt before and u have to present it u can present it for half an hour.

8)Weekdays are better than weekends in terms of work load in a B-School

9)Exams that u need to write pages are the ones you generally don’t need to study much for.

10)All the horrible B-School experience based books, when they talk of staying up crazy hours, feeling you are slogging your posteriors off, are true.
Having said that, its a myth they actually work all that many hours.

11)Dilbert and Calvin philosophies work best in a B-School

12)After 4 years “Take it and Go” is again popular! History repeats itself

13) The key to reducing stress in an IIM is to have low expectations or be confident. I know, it sounds defeatist, but seriously, looking at a few friends slogging like crazy, its really tempting to tell them to google for some life and download the same!

After i slept off in front of comp while chatting with a friend midway thru post, i realized sleep is much more valuable than any movie, book or chat. 3 days of recuperation before the drill starts all over again.

Effect of a night's overdose

As i sit at 2 am with my thoughts filled with QT, normal curves and its variances (strictly statistics), two things strike me as odd
a) When stats can be interpreted in any way u want the data to read, why go thru so much trouble?
b) Which sadistic statistician abbreviated the damn subject QT!!!

Hence i decided to chuck thinking on this line. I'll embrace the inevitable outcome of a cruel experiment whose results will again be expressed as mean, distribution curve and relative ranking!

Now here's one more opinion that is doing rounds. That engineers will find QT a piece of cake. first any engineering student reading this would mutter a 'bullshit' under his breath. second, engineers are programed to think analytically in as narrow a term as possible. To substantiate whatever comes as answer, gather proof for the same. If statisticians collect data, engineers make them up! Hence on behalf of all engineers, its still a screwed up subject.

There was an interesting debate on ethics and social responsibility of Leaders in last BS class. I got reminded of an earlier mail chain in office on ethics (a rare intellectual one - thought of u ppl now). I believe, ethics are prone to change and history is written by the winning side. Had Hitler gone on to win the WWII we'd probably be talking of ethics that demand the Jews be persecuted. I don't know how many know this, but major leaders and writers like Churchhill, Roosvelt, HG wells, Bernard Shaw believed in a concept of Eugenics (wiki it). Which essentially was similar to ideology of Hitler. So who's the bad guy?? What is social responsibility is defined by the demands of a time.

And strategy seems to be on everybody's lips here! but the one live strategy that is reaping benefits is my roomie's, i must admit. After a couple of pens and markers that I took for granted and borrowed on a long term, now he's gone for the pink strategy. A pink pen and a pink marker and all pink highlights makes it impossible to borrow without being caught red handed(ironically) :P Move over Blue ocean strategy, here comes Pink strategy! (sorry da, had to mention this)

Now that i have successfully piled on work load, thanks to the match(awesome) and some more essentials, here i'm in classroom ready to take the plunge. Bye for now, sleep and all :)

When values are held accountable

Though tempted to use accounting parlance thanks to two HBR cases over the weekend, i restrain myself. Plan to do so sometime – accounting for dummies :P

Last Friday we had a day long marathon of Business Communication, a subject akin to dupatta for our bollywood heroines – Required, but no one cares. However in the first hour, there was a value judgement question on values and it kind of set me thinking. I’m not sure if there are any copyrights in this, but since it is not said so in so many words, i’ll risk the question anyway.

“One beautiful girl on an island wants to go the next island to meet her lover who is going away for many years.She approaches the ferry boat and requests the captain to take her to the other island – the ferry is the only means of communication. Since she does not have any money the ferry captain refuses. However, the captain says he will take her across, provided she sleeps with him. She refuses. She approaches Hermit 1 for advice. Hermit 1 tells her to decide on her own. She approaches the captain again, and agrees to his terms. She fulfils the conditions and reaches her lover’s island. The lover is happy finding her, and wants to know how she came since she did not have any money. She tells him, and her lover rejects her. She is tired and goes to hermit 2. Hermit 2 comforts her and gives her food. She wants to know how she can repay him. Hermit 2 says – you don’t have to repay me; I did my duty as a human.”

The question was something as to who we like the most and hate the most, without mentioning ethics or values. Of course a lot of people said a lot of stuff, but i thought there was much more to this than a simple discussion. The opinion of people kind of smoke out either the logical aspect or theatrical aspect of ppl (DP not included) that mirror the persona or so was the intent. But my point is what you perceive to be good does not mean that is a value for you.

The majority wanted to believe they liked the hermit 2 a lot. From a previous behavioural science test I also noticed most of them were type A personality, extremely competitive and more and more goal oriented.

The romantics wanted to believe they liked the lady a lot for she did what she did because she was in looveee. Somehow most of these people do not seem the type to subscribe for compromises. Most of them persons who get offended at the slightest hint of unfavourable situations.

The philosophical ones wanted to like hermit 1. Ironically most of them consulting aspirants!! I wonder how that option sounds in business decisions – do what you want, its your business. Since i actually know a hermt 1 character who’s only job when u are confused is to confuse you more by saying high fundu philo crap, I didn’t think it was a great idea. But again everyone is free to have their own opinion.

Ironically, no one liked the lover. Honestly, How many of us would have done the exact same thing under the circumstance?

The one character, who liked the captain cos he gained the most, somehow was extremely harshly judged. She being a good friend of mine, the line of thinking was apt for a very practical manager. But again, the “perceived value” part of it kept people from acknowledging the logical flow i guess.

Now here is my question. How can your perceived value be related to your actual values?! Its like saying just because u know what is good, u are good. If i were the most corrupt person who is trying to manipulate people the first thing i need to know is to identify the ‘good’ ones. So when people are actually trying to find out ‘good managers’ who can manipulate people in the best possible manner, i guess these tests hold good  (Did u notice i never said what my answer was? :P)

Now just the other day someone commented on how judgemental I am. I totally agree and further confirm that the person who commented on me must be crazy :P When u are interested in people, u tend to draw conclusions extrapolate behaviours and finally come up with misconstrued opinions and land up with belied expectations. Its ok. Its perfectly natural, since every third person i met here say’s he/she likes to observe people.

There was a beautiful article on Sustainability that i wrote in the mid term. Not by marks, not by the handwriting, but by the honesty of the content. I meant every word of what i said and felt good writing for long with the flow not dictated by books. If only i can say everything i want to say  Lot of small beautiful moments studding my vast sky of monotony and hardship. Reminds me of something i read recently.
“Ralph Waldo Emerson once asked what we would do if the stars only came out once every thousand years. No one would sleep that night, of course. The world would become religious overnight. We would be ecstatic, delirious, made rapturous by the glory of God. Instead the stars come out every night, and we watch television.”

On that note i end a somewhat disorganized thought process.

Marketing - The courtship exercise

As I have come to observe, thanks to 5 different books we were asked to read and a class which gives the 6th view, that everybody has a Goddamn opinion on Marketing! Agreed they are experts and have done some research to coin words that’s accepted as buzz word. So I thought let me also try to put into words how I understand the current consumerism works from the perspective of a consumer.

We have changed from adjusting with what you get to demanding what we need. Its more like a shift in the marriage trends - from arranged to love- making the best out of what you get and choosing what you want. Now comes the complication of what in the whole wide world does a customer/consumer want?

Earlier people used to 'buy' commodities. Now a days they go shopping. What is the difference? The consumer is no longer a person who has needs to be met but wants his needs met in style. He now likes to be wooed, to be impressed, to make businesses put an effort to please him - visually(packages), economically(pocket friendly), with 'value addition' and in other words to be courted. And how does the consumer react? Like the most unfaithful lover, he basks in the attention and blatantly sidelines the last product that made him feel special!

Now comes the concept of brands. Someone captures the attention, engages you in multiple 'dates' manages to win a place in the heart of the consumer. Its like a speed dial on your mobile, the name you automatically remember. The consumer is willing to go for your brand despite the other brands that try to woo him with offers and features. That’s being in a relationship - brand relationship to be precise.

As every relationship grows, there comes expectations. Expectations from the consumer for lower prices , increased features, more attention and being made feel special. Now if the brand cannot do that, thanks to pressure from competitors or their own constraints, you're looking at a marriage on the rocks. Brand loyalty needs to earned and trust me, businesses are working hard to save the relationship. Thankfully, atleast here, insecurity is not the spoil sport :)

If you look at the trend of brand loyalty in recent times, its dwindling at a rate more than the skirts of bollywood heroines! Add to it the amorous tendencies of both, the brands and the consumers and you have a concoction with more potency than gin and tonic to give you a high. However, the stress in this field is so much that more and more marketing managers are tiring out much before their finance and operations counterparts. But the adrenaline rush, the uncertainty, the glamour coefficient sure hooks most people.

At the end of the day, its all business and everything is fair in love and war. Whether you see it as love or war, the subject has its appeal. Hope the enthusiasm doesn't get curbed with too much definitions and theory, that I basically suck at :)

Disclaimer: I'm a novice who has probably read a few pages in books and blogs and fallen for marketing hard. All views are my own and not to be related with the classroom teachings (my prof will kill me!). All types of inputs are welcome :)

When things suck the most

Of all the things i wanted to write, from curve analysis to sustainability, here i'm writing yet another sober piece. As someone who had a realization that life gets you immaterial of how much on top of it you see yourself, I've never been carried away in happiness. Gives me a look of sensibility they tell me, but more often than not I end up making a mental note to say a prayer not to 'balance' it out.

The reason i'm in this sober a mode today is that my mom called me at 12.00 am to tell me my bro fell from his bike and has a wrist fracture which needs surgery tomorrow. Its not a major one and hope to God, he will recover fast. More than the news, I got hit by the pangs of guilt for my 'busy'ness and a feeling of impotence that comes from the knowledge that you can't help how much ever u want!

I've been there before, for my grandparents, right outside emergency halls, waiting for doctors to give me some news. Answering calls of worried relatives, comforting my mom and dad that things will be alright while I myself have had to call up a few angel friends for that mental strength. But then, I was doing Something! Here, far away from home, listening to my loved ones worried, just doesn't let me carry on with my work. I read up so much on net and and found its pretty normal surgery. Still doesn't help.So much so that I'm pouring out here where I least expect to expose myself.

God, seriously forgive me for the jackass I might have been to anyone. I'm not gonna be asking for good grades or beautiful brides to be. if need be i'll work for them. For the next 2 years, all i ask is peace of mind, in the comfort of the knowledge that my loved ones are really fine, hale and healthy. a simple enough prayer i guess.

Seriously!