I am India

This is an amazing video called I am India produced by Bharatbala production. Beautifully captures the impact of rise in TFP, labor productivity and marginal productivity of capital to project the Indian growth--Am i reading too much Eco? May be--have an exam tomorrow

Worth taking a look

In the Markstrat world

The following is a sample conversation that goes on between most people on campus these days

Student 1: Hey watz up?
Student 2: Nothing yaar our company is not doing well at all. Competitors have started a price war and we have no money to respond.
Student 1: Why don’t you cut your prices too?
Student 2: We spent millions in developing the product. Now if we drop prices how do we recover that money?

Student 3 joins in. Looks as if someone has just beaten her up

Student 1: Hey looks like you are gonna cry! Wats the matter?
Student3: We produced 13 million units instead of 130000. We forgot that units entered in the software are in KUs . Now we have inventory till eternity and all our budget is getting spent in holding costs. We are dead

Student 1 and 2 : lol

Student 4 joins in. Another glum looking face.

Student 1: What happened to you?

Student 4: We spent $ 5 million to develop a product. It was ready last period but we forgot to modify the technology! Now our competitor is coming up with a better technology. We are finished!

And the conversation goes on. Everyone has totally gone crazy with markstrat. (For those who don’t know, markstrat is a marketing simulation game being played here with all of us divided into various teams and industries. It’s a part of the course work and grades would be assigned based on performance. Its an awesome way to apply all marketing concepts learnt in class and see how your decisions would have effected your company in the real world.)

Some buzz words on campus these days: Marketing mix, Competitive strategy, Sustainable competitive advantage, Sonites, Vodites, long term strategy, price war, Monte carlo simulation, Semantic scales, Perception maps, Brand awareness, Sales force allocation, advertising mix--------Commanding heights :)

Arabian Impressions

Some arab businessmen from Dubai ( thanks to my connections in the middle-east) recently visited the ISB. They were visibly impressed with the infrastructure and the amazing talents and capabilities of the student body.
One of the business tycoons has asked me to put his picture on the blog. He just wants to be famous in India. So to judge his fame levels ( aka brand awareness in markstrat lingo) he wants people to identify him. In case you get it right you can claim a prize of 1 million Emirati dirhams!! ( thats about Rs 1.2 crores at current exchange rates but its peanuts for this guy)

Take a shot. best of luck

Commanding Heights

Commanding heights is a video series being shown to us as a part of the Global Economics coursework by Prof Krishna Kumar. Today there was a special 2 hr screening.

It is a video series that talks about emergence of global economic thoughts like the Keynesian vs Classical, early macroeconomic developments, emerging needs of reforms in the mid to late 20th century and the way forward in the global economy.

A very interesting watch. Click here to view it online

When Arjun got dunked

There could have been no better start to Term 2 than accomplishing the impossible task of dunking Arjun. (Those who know Arjun would know why!) arre I just meant he is so clever that he escapes every time.

Arjun has always wanted to feature on my blog and get dunked. Both wishes granted my friend.

Term 2 begins today. Copious number of pages to be pre-read. I have already lost track-------But I guess after having faced the initial tremors in Term 1 we are pretty much prepared for the earth quake.

Last 3 days: 3 trips out of the campus, 1 boring movie, lots and lots of squash, one hell of a cricket tournament, Chinese food, football matches on wide screen, a couple of movies from LRC, futile attempts to pre read.

Next six weeks: Competitive strategy, DMO, Economics, Markstrat, GSB elections part 2, infinite number of assignments, impossible number of pages to be pre-read, a few parties, a few dunkings and a lot of exams!

Has any one heard about work life balance out here? Oh yaa its about WORK and life

Term 1 over---A salute to wizards

I had taken a mini break from blogging to give due respect to the end term exams which got over yesterday (not that it made any difference but nevertheless---). Term 1 is officially over and as someone said we are 1/8th MBAs already!

A lot of blogs have talked about professors and now its my turn say a few words. I would list my favorite Profs of Term 1 in that order

1) Prof Bob Stine and Prof Waterman from Wharton, who taught us the Statistics course were the best teachers I have ever seen in my short life! Although my grades may not reflect the same but they made me fall in love with the subject. I have studied basic Statistics before but never had such amazing concept clarity and the managerial view of the subjects. Absolute gods those two--
2) Prof Jagmohan Raju, also from Wharton is totally impressive as well. His stint with us is still not over and he comes back to teach Marketing 2 in Term 2. His style of case analysis makes us wonder why we cant ever think like that. There is so much depth in his analysis and the way he teaches the subject is just awesome. An then there is cold calling! Your picture appears on the screen and you are supposed to answer the questions! Pure fun!!( as long as you are not cold called)
Apart from these, we had many Profs who were very good in their own right. A big thanks to all of them.
Term 2 starts in a weeks time. The course pack looks absolutely scary. After the pain of exams it’s the pre-reads we have to deal with—
A lot of people have gone back home for the term break. So were missing home so much as if they ve been away for years. I think the grueling schedule here adds fuel to the fire. I am staying back enjoying the serene beauty of the campus. I can’t seem to have enough of it—