The MBA Jargons

I am in the process of compiling the most widely used MBA Jargons. I will come up with the list soon. However, for a taste, the toppers on the list are

1. Value-add
2. Competitive advantage.

I personally feel more than the two stated above, the most frequently used jargon here is the 4 letter F word - 'Fcuk'. A conversation between two MBA students goes like this
'Fcuk!! we have Fcuking classes back to back tomorro. There are 4 fcuking assignments to submit and 2 fcuking cases to study man.. and fcuk can u believe the fcuking classes start at 7 in the morning tomorro?'

I have asked one of my colleagues in astonishment if he really didn't feel a tinge of hesitation before using that word. And bang goes the reply 'Y should I? Afterall all of us have gotta do it at some point in our lives'.

We will miss you

Though am not an aficionado of cricket, I for sure admire Kumble.
Seldom are the moments when the game becomes larger than life. The pic below speaks of one such moment..





Kumble gets Lara with a broken jaw !!!

50 best innovations of 2008

TIME's picks for the top innovations of 2008 range from a genetic testing service to an invisibility cloak to an ingenious public bike system to the world's first moving skyscraper. See the list.

FAIL Camp

This link has just caught my attention - http://barcamp.org/failcamp

Isn't it just brilliant ?? Will post more on it after I attend it.

a Nightmare

Four spoilt brats, a lavish Italian dinner and a long drive. Just when everything was looking so nice and beautiful, you bang into a press car at 12 in the midnight. Two damaged cars, 4 helpless souls and one opponent who is charging you with every possible crime, stares given by every soul who passes by were enuff to kill all the fun we had till then.. An hour and a half of negotiations with an adamant person who adds in weird conditions is even worse..

Whateva, all 4 of us consentingly decided to bury the incident and all the fears along. But how would I bury it without my blog knowing it??

Marketing eh??

I have asked Sups to get me an umbrella from Bangalore(dunno y i wanted if from Bangalore). She calls me in the evening to check out if I still need one and thus goes the conversation

Sups : Hey Siri.. Do you still want me to buy that umbrella?? (lots of noises in the background)
Me : Hey sups.. I wouldn't need one coz the locals say that it wouldn't rain any more in chennai..
Sups : Alright then.
Me : what u upto?? Marketing?? errr... (Instead of saying shopping)
By the time I realised the folly, disaster already stuck..
What followed - hehehehes and hahahahas for a long time...

I think am really havin nightmares now..

It’s a Mad Mad world !!!

Yes it’s a mad world out here.. Starting 7 in night and ending 8 in the morning here’s what we need to do

1. Read one marketing case and prepare for the end term of marketing management which is at 8:00 AM in the morning.
2. Understand how markets with asymmetric information work (meaning read read and read) and make a presentation for tomorrow.
3. Read a strategy case on ‘Orthoteks USA’ and make a presentation for tomorrow.
4. Read TWO cases in optimization techniques and be ready to solve them on some dumb software.. huh.. how I hate this.
5. Submit an end term report on one global topic before 5:00 PM tomoro as a part of evaluation for ‘Business government and society’

With so much on my plate, I am at my all time best. Believe me I am so glad and elated !! Buwwwaaahh !!!!

Stop the Earth.. I wana get off !!!

Life has been moving at escape velocity for sometime now. I am still trying to figure out what I have learnt and what I have not. In the mad rush of assignments, mid terms, end terms, projects etc etc I don’t think I have learnt anything in the end.. While this saddens me to some extent, there is always a silver lining. I have started liking the subject ‘Strategy’ so much that I am reading too much of it now. I am least bothered about what assignments I need to submit. I catch up with some book on strategy and enjoy away to glory.. Probably this is the only subject I liked so far and the only one am njoying reading..

Amidst all this academic chaos, E1 section has launched its T-shirt and it was so much fun… Picture Speak now

Is this what they call it these days?

Most of our revelations, realizations and enlightenment happen at the chai tapri. Oflate there’s something that made me so glad and at the same time gave me a feeling which you would understand by the time you finish reading this blog…

Scene 1 - At the tapri

KD’s wife to KD : Chalo chalo, tumhe BGS ka assignment karna hei. Kal presentation hei…
Rest of us : Eh???


Scene 2 – Again at the tapri

DB's gal : I am not getting the name of the prof who says ‘…………………………’
Me : Who the hell is this? I don’t know any such professor..
KD’s wife : Why, isn’t that Prof Nagarani, HRM systems prof?
Me : May be (totally zapped)


Scene 3 – At the tapri

Gan : Hey, you need some info on Assessment centers, wait.. My gal is working in the the HR team. We can get some info from her.
(Before even I could take stock of things, he dials in the number, starts with a kuchi ku talk and hands me over the phone. I was preparing for giving her an intro, in the meanwhile)
Me : Hello
Gan’s gal : Hey Sirisha. The list of books that you have sent across to the class is so impressive. I need to get my hands on these books sometime. I ain’t getting enough time to read oflate, you see…

Is this what they call ‘Women Empowerment these days?’

Same old shit, Just another day

The last 2 days has been maddening.. For the lack of a good diction I am unable to use any other word for the state we are in. Or may be there's no such word so far in the English language to explain our state of helplessness.

A cursory glance : While I try to recollect, the last time I had a couple of hours of sleep at a stretch, I vividly remember all that we did or rather had to do in the last 24 hours. 3 Case studies in Marketing Management, One Marketing PPT, One OB exam, One Operations Management Exam, One OB Presentation, 2 HRM assignments, 6 hours of classes... What People gotta say - 'WTF'. We were all earnestly wishing a day had 48 hours instead of 24 hours. How we managed to do all of em in 24 hours is the best kept secret !!!

The OTHER side : Night outs @ Lake Veeranam are absolute fun with gyan sessions all around, people running helter skelter in a wild goose chase. The craving for small naps of 10 minutes is baffling. Wait for the dawn and catch the anna at Tapri and demand ur mug..err.. cup of chai, reading the 'Omnitel Pronto Italia' case at the tapri and while walking on the road when the sun is jus about to wake up.. Wow.. a scintillating feel it is.. A sudden peep into one year down the line when we would be missing all this craziness.. These are enuff boosters to continue our maddening endless journey.

Let me check my schedule and figure out when is the next possible slot for my sleep..

33.33% MBA - Still live and Kicking !!!

I feel like giving the expression of a newly crowned 'Miss Universe', thru which she tells the world that she didn't expect this rather she doesn't deserve it.. However, I refrain. I refrain coz we all sweated our blood and broke our bones to reach the 1/3rd MBA stage (C'mon xgerations are allowed on my blog).

Whoeva said 'Actions speak louder than words', would feel sorry coz I say 'Pictures speak louder than words'.. So, all the intelligent lot out there would hav guessed what my blog is gonna b about.. It's just a picture speak of the first 1/3rd MBA.. Watch on...

Hosted shows

 

United we stand

 

All the pappus who can dance

 

Travelled in disco lighted busses

 

Photo hei tho hum bhi haazir hei…

 

Sweet revenge on my B'day

 

@ SWIM '08

 

All Gals party - Theme : Haunted afterall, Y shud bouz hav all the fun?

 

Watched movies... n neva let anyone else in the theatre watch the movie..

 

Doing what we do best

 

Learnt some coercion and threatening techniques... (All part of MBA)

 

Roamed around.. jus like loafers...

 

And as they all say 'last but not the least' - Studied for a change...

 

THE 'Gang'

 

 

 

 

  Salsa at its best ;)

Disc, Dinner and a play

Last couple of days has been fun. They were damn screwing too. It’s like that ‘Ceteris Paribus’ clause. Life is damn screwing here but if u wish to, you could have fun.

Friday night it was Opium, the disc @ Accord International. I was skeptical bout going to a disc in Chennai, and on top of it a disc which has entry fee and cover charges. I entered and immediately banged my head as the DJ very proudly announced ‘This is DJ Arpit with you folks tonight and lets have fun on this ‘Desi night’. I saw the small ray of hope disappear in the darkness of the disc. We slowly settled for some initial round of drinks n hit the dance floor (coz we had no choice). By 2 in the night, we were all drop dead and couldn’t shake a leg anymore. From Bacardi to Tequila, name it n it was there. From those stares and glances for our stupid dances to the DJ liking our train dance on the floor it was craziness unlimited. We didn’t stop there.. we were at our creative best when we were dancing salsa, jive, the local tapangothun dance, train dance, folk dance, lion dance, tribe dance.. Boye!! we rocked !!!

Now the dinner – For the last 3 months in Chennai it has been sambar n rice during the day n even in my dreams. Last night it was dinner time, real dinner. Went to an O’some restaurant called ‘Spikeys’. The punch line of this place - ‘Never trust a skinny chef’. Their menu – American, Mexican, Italian, Chinese……. It would be an understatement if I say the food was excellent. And the place was so damn different. For the first time in Chennai I think I saw someone who cares for their customers, a place everyone would smile at you, a place with amazing marketing and branding strategies… Simply put – It’s Brilliant !! I have decided I will do a project on this restaurant. So, I get to go again, Hurray !!!

N Today it was a play – ‘The Electronic city’ by InDeACT, a German theatre group. The theme of the play is – ‘A look at humans coping when technology fails them’. It’s about Tom n Joy, Tom – a consultant who travels across the world and Joy works for an airport super market chain. Bitter true life facts I’d say it’s about. Somewhere down the line it gets too abstract and you would very inadvertently sit on the edge of your chair. The hard work the team put in was so evident in their play. Kudos to them. The theatre fest runs for another week with some more brilliant plays. Hope I would take out some time for some of em atleast…….. Ceteris Paribus again..

It's not you. It's me.

The free time I had towards the end of my second term explains all my movie / T.V. watching episodes. With enough justification of the subject of my latest blogs, I do not want to dilly-dally too much on it.

My recent watch was a series of the American serial ‘Coupling’. A much needed cheap slap stick comedy for our mundane lives here. The very first episode titled ‘Flushed’ was an eye opener. The scene was between a guy and his gal friend.

Guy : It’s over between us
Gal : You want us to split up?

Guy : Yes, it’s over. Look it’s not you. Ok? It’s me
Gal : Then why am I the one who’s getting dumped? You should be the one that gets dumped. (I loved this answer)

‘It’s not you. It’s me’ - From whatever experiences I have heard of so far, this is so TYPICAL of any break up. Or even worse, when people use this polished way of saying ‘SORRY’ to some one. This is heights of timidity. So many things in life are so much beyond logic and rationality and it makes absolute sense for them to remain so. And I never understand how someone tries to attach logic and reasoning to it. All I can say is ‘C’mon grow up. And face the facts’.

Other than the contemplating episode there is something that I am so excited about. I was never good at my grades all thru. And the trend continues in MBA even today. But for a change I got an A+ grade. The best part is I need not write my exam and yet I get the highest grade in ‘Managerial Accounting’. My dean has conferred this grad upon me and am sooooo glad about it that I might not end this blog here. Though I do not want to I am.. ending the blog..

When a pair of sneakers is all that you want

I was watching ‘Children of Heaven’. I do not intend to tell the story or write a critic coz I think it’s a must watch for one and all. But I need to blog about it anyways coz it put my thinking caps on..

The lead role of the movie who is an eight year old lad, with a bright twinkle in his eye, misplaces his lil sister’s shoes. As it happens to all of us, at that age, they were too scared to tell their parents about it. And then comes the silver lining on the dark cloud. Or you may call it icing on the cake, I wouldn’t really mind. The gleam in the eye of the lad grows brighter jus like a sparkle. An announcement on the notice board mentioning a running race catches his attention. What’s interesting is :

First Prize : Two weeks at a holiday camp and a set of sport suits.
Second Prize : Two weeks at a holiday camp and school supplies.
Third Prize : One week at a holiday camp and a pair of sneakers.

With a strong resolve to win THIRD prize, nothing more and nothing else, he enters the race. All for the want of a pair of sneakers. A long and tiring race and he keeps missing the focus in between but he suddenly remembers his sweet lil sister waiting for the sneakers. In the end we see him running toward the finish line and Bingo he hits it. The first line that he utters to his principal after the race : “Did I come in Third Sir?”. His principal explains that he has indeed stood first and there’s a glow on everyone’s face except the lad. He sobs uncontrollably for not getting the third prize and getting the first. Tears start rolling down his eyes. I would presume, you do not have a heart if you don’t cry when he tries to overcome insurmountable grief of winning the first prize and not the third.

After a few minutes, I gave a sheepish smile to myself for I cried too. Infact, may be not for that, I did cry jus like that cute lil fella wheneva I won the 1^st prize coz I badly wanted to bag the 3^rd. May be all of us do without realizing it. Ain’t it? Didn’t we want just a pair of sneakers and instead we got a ‘two week holiday at a camp’? And didn’t we feel so gloomy about it?

India – We are like this only

It was 7 in the evening. Hot pakodas n yummy tomatoe ketchup in our plates, eyes glued to the TV. This was worse than the India Pakistan cricket match. We were awaiting the ‘Ayes’ and ‘Nos’ of the trust vote. It was a nail biting moment and every second seemed like a virtual hour. Bang and the count was announced.

Ayes – 253 Nos – 232 Abstained from voting – 2

There was an awkward silence for a moment. UPA didn’t win the motion but was on a lead. There was some banging the table, hushy bushy walks across the parliament.

Suddenly it was a Eureka moment for Rajdeep Sardesai when he screams – ‘There’s something wrong with the numbers. The votes are not totaling to 541’. Some serious speculations follow. Was it the fault of the technology or the MPs didn’t know how to vote, meaning either they were color blind to identify Green / Red / Amber / Yellow or they didn’t know that they had to press a button. At this stage it gets more interesting.

Our man Rajdeep puts on air people from parliament n they start debating if it was a technology or a people issue. All the while the parliament was too busy to notice this felony. After a much awaited drama, the speaker calls for manual votes of the 54 missing votes. Amidst this confusion, the new 7 young MPs who were sworn in just the previous day should be rubbing their eyes and wondering ‘Are we in the Indian Parliament?’.

As expected, the drama was like a bollywood bubble gummy movie which takes its sweet own time to end. The MPs running haywire across the parliament, not letting the officers count the vote, the speaker imploring the MPs to sit down n let the officers work. Boye! this is ‘Indian Parliament’ for you. Lemme tell you wat Rajdeep was upto during this time. He put on air some political commentator who is a media man as well. This man makes blatant confessions like “The Market value of MPs has come down terribly from 34 crores to 3-4 crores. Mr. Singh has been successful in keeping these prices under control” and then comes our smart news reader who proudly announces – ‘India – we are like this only’. I was baffled and had no thoughts running in my mind whatsoeva.

After a few hours of drama, the speaker announces. “Ayes – 275 Nos – 256. Ayes Win. The meeting is adjourned. Vandemataram please”. He was so scared that he just says all this in 4-5 seconds and keeps the viewers guessing what he just said. I can understand how scared he was.

After the win, Rajdeep continues to brutally interview the party men who accuse rigged voting, technology issue etc etc.. Whateva finally ‘Singh is king’ and more importantly ‘India – We are like this only’