IE continues to rock :)

First day of vacation: I still have a few days before I reach my Home-Sweet-Home, and meanwhile I need to take care of a few things.

Topping the to-do list was moving to a new place. DFLAT decided to terminate my contract prematurely, and thanks to my friends, I found the new place without any hassle. In fact, I am taking place of Nishant who will now bring his family over to Madrid and hence is moving to a new house.

At 5 pm checked out of my place and got back the deposit money after many deductions by DFLAT. Anyways, highlight of the day was not just my shifting.

I also got a pleasant surprise in form of an email from Greg, our Technology Professor. Yesterday while he was teaching us about CRM, I had asked him a query. Even while he answered it, he admitted that probably his answer didn't resolve my query and I said that I will ask him later.

Well, in my IE mailbox today, there was an email from Greg, in which he asked me what my query was exactly. I replied him with the details and he gave a great explanation in a reply mail.

I mean, thanks to all the partying and the vacation mood, I had already forgotten about my own query. When Greg asked me about it, the very fact that he made it a point to clarify my doubt and sent an email for it, is something which I cannot stop appreciating and admiring about him.

What can I say, IE continues to impress me even during the vacation :)

And it's a Pack-up :-)

Today started with the Critical Management Thinking class - the last two sessions that wrapped it all up. First half - the case of Swiss Army Knife company - which could survive the adverse impact of 9/11 crisis on its business and diversify - thanks to the very very very high quality associated with its brand - and all of this possible due to its 120 years old policy of treating their employees as a key resource.

While discussing how most of the companies these days say "Employees are our key Asset" and then when it comes to cost cutting, their first move is to reduce the headcount, thus actually treating the employees as "liability"; Rolf pondered on the limitation of Accounting in its inability to express the important asset as employees, in the balance sheet - we don't write down anything in balance sheet, when we fire someone..

Next up was the Nokia case, which was a classic case to touch-base on all the learnings we have had in this class.
Growth as the only success parameter, Innovation as the only means to achieve growth, Formation of Narrative affecting the thought process of management [even of a large corporation], lost focus to identify where customer value lies: All these factors are the key contributors to the situation that Nokia is in today.
One look at the Nokia case and we know how all that we learned in this class cannot be forgotten.

Up next is the Innovation and Technology Class and then, its a pack-up for summer holidays !!

Happy Holidays to all :-D

One more day to go ..

Well, the Strategy final exam went well this morning; it was followed by our group presentations for 'Technology and Innovation' class, a group meeting to discuss plans for after-vacation assignments and a class for Investment Analysis to learn the Bond Markets. Credit Ratings was the hot topic of the day during Investment Analysis class :-)

Spent some time with my friends and in reading the cases for tomorrow. One more day at school and it would be summer vacations for a month. Can't wait for the vacations to begin ...

To Study or Not to Study :-)

Well, there was only so much material for studying strategy that was available that we finished going through it all on Saturday. So, When we met in school on Sunday, we revised the whole thing again; but by the time it was evening, we really had nothing much to do.

So, the question was - do we dig in some more material from somewhere, and keep trying to study or do we spend rest of the day doing something else?

Soon, the verdict was out - we do something else. I went to my place, got some groceries, and then cooked a Veg Biryani at Akash's place, while we were chit-chatting over some wine, about all topics not related to studying :-)

Exam Fever Returns !!

Well, after sleeping until 12:30 PM, I finally got up and came to school at around 2 PM to study for the Strategy exam with my study group. As usual, we studied until 10 PM, cooked dinner together and then got back again for studies. This weekend we got infected yet another time with the exam fever :-)

Life is Good :-)

Perfect answers that I gave in class, based on the Investment Analysis Home work done, a fun-filled pre "Christmas" Managerial Accounting Class, and a good lunch with friends - today at school, the day went really good.

No sooner that I came home to have some rest, came a mail from IMBA team with rankings for term one - a decent rank, and a good GPA, that I can live with. Wow !! And all of this on a Friday :-)

If this was not good enough, tonight was the dinner with my new workgroup - a Japanese Restaurant Hanakura, recommended by members of IE Japan Club.

Really enjoyed the chit-chat, the food, and the sochu [yeah, had sochu after a real long time]; After staying in the Japanese restaurant until the staff there signaled us that its closing time, some of us went on to Boggo for "one last drink"; Obviously, we ended up staying there until it was time to close the bar. By now our number had multiplied and everyone headed to Callejon. When Callejon was closed, we settled into Gabana only to return home at 6 AM. What can I say - Life is Good :-)

The boat that rocks !!

Remember the movie with same name? Well, let me put the disclaimer right away - NOT RELATED to today's post :-P

So, we had operational management class today, where everyone was told to make paper planes of desired quality, adopting TQM practices, followed by Managerial Accounting class by Luis. Today, Luis explained many concepts from cost centers, revenue centers to Inorganic and Organic costing, in real simple terms and with common life examples. It was an interesting session today where we got an insight on various cost cutting measures that company management adopts.

What was more interesting was the Investment Analysis class which came after Managerial Accounting. Luis S. explained us the concept of Net Operating Working Capital and the entire session today revolved around this concept. Thanks to the fact that I was among the few countable folks who had done their homework, I could follow the session so well and almost all my answers were correct, the one which was different was correct in its own respect, and Luis was kind to explain me how his answer is different.

This has become my favorite subject of this term, thanks to the fact that we get to apply all that we have been learning - from financial accounting to strategy to decision making - and understand how investment decisions can be made for large corporations; plus it has so many numbers to play with :-)

Luis made an excellent comparison of liquidity and working capital requirement/efficiency of operations today.
He gave example of rafters and told how many people prefer to do white water rafting in rainy season instead of in summer. The reason being, the level of water is higher in rainy season, which hides the rocks that would be more evident during summer.

Well, his argument was that Liquidity is like the water level and rocks are inefficiencies in operations and spending. And the appeal was, don't wait for the summer to come when liquidity dries up and inefficiencies become issues - don't wait for the crisis. steer your company off the rough waters and get rid of inefficiencies now - when the liquidity is still high.

Amazing lesson for the day :-)

Media rules the day !!

Well, today the Critical Management Thinking class was in MM2, and there was a video recording done of the class, so that it could be added to the online video lectures library on behalf of IE. Supposedly, every elite B-school has a minimum quota of online lectures that it needs to make available for the collective pool by various B-schools.

Class was great as usual, specially the ending note by Rolf on the recent decision by APPLE management to buy back its own shares. Every time, we have this class, it gives us a push to think different.

Anyways, after this class, my new work group had an excellent one and half hour chat with Luis S, our Investment Analysis professor at Starbucks. It was a casual meet to get to know each other better and at end of it, I felt great about the overall meet.

Even while I was walking back to school, I saw a post on Facebook.

IIM-C is now consulting IE for developing its brand internationally, and Prof. Gonzalo [yes, my Economics Professor] is currently in India to do the required mentoring.

A moment of Pride - I belong to the School which is being consulted by one of the elite B-school of India, and this news is published in the leading Indian News media :-)

[News link: http://m.timesofindia.com/home/education/news/IIM-C-sets-sights-on-global-recognition/articleshow/21291011.cms ]

the other kind of day

Well, I didn't feel like coming to school for attending the Leadership class today - I needed some rest so badly !! This is probably the first time I decide to skip a class [what i missed earlier were mostly because I didn't wake up on time :-)

Anyways, I skipped the morning class for leadership, and instead spent the time writing my blog post for the Technology and Innovation group work, while lying down in my bed. Arrived in MM31 in afternoon to contribute to the group work. This was followed by some individual study that I did until it was time for an CMC update meeting for Indian students.

The meeting was good and I got to know about various activities that CMC is doing in Indian Market. I think this was the only highlight of today, which otherwise was a day, I just wanted to get done with.

What can I say, there are days and there are days - This was the other kind !!

Been there, Done that :-)

Well, today the Technology and Innovation class was about Web Analytics, SEO, and Google bots, etc.

What can I say? I mean I know I have a IT background, but I have not done any project work in any of these fields.

Having said that, for each of my blog, I have done the HTML Meta Tag inclusion, the SEO Keywords setup, Google Webmasters tracking for Analytics data and also attempted to have Google Ads on one of my high traffic blogs [which Google rejected saying its not enough volume of traffic :-D]

Needless to say, as every slide was being discussed in the class today, I had only one feeling in my mind - Been there, Done that :-)

I tried to refrain myself from asking any questions, and let others do all the talk. Later part of the day was spent studying in advance for Thursday and Friday cases, so that we can concentrate on studying Strategy during those days.

Not a bad day for Monday :-)

Watch and Read :-)

Well, its not watch what you want to read or read what you watch around - its just the turn of activities for the day - watch a movie online, read a case for tomorrow, again watch a movie online and then read a case..

Today was a relaxed day which I spent at my own pace and I enjoyed every bit of it :-)

A Weekend, after all !!

Well, after staying late in the Iftar potluck party hosted by Farhaan yesterday [for which I cooked Maharashtrian specials - Kande Pohe and Batata Wada]; after a real long time, today was the day when I slept without any alarm. I mean yes, I had fun last weekend in Pamplona, but I seldom had any sleep.

But today was different. Today, I slept the way I enjoy sleeping on a Saturday. And then, apart from reading some pages for Critical Management Thinking, I didn't bother to study much as well.

I know Strategy final is approaching, and I know there is a shit load of group work to be done next week; but for once, I wanted to stop, and relax; and I did just that today :-)

Feels like a weekend after all :-D

Brand Matters :-)

Well, there was an Operations Management class today, followed by Technology and Innovation class, but the real highlight of the day was the Marketing Management Class, which was the last class for the day. Dilney had brought along two big bottles - one of coke and other of a local private label called Freeway, if I remember this name correctly.

He made half the class go out and told the remaining of us to pour coke in two glasses and freeway in the third. After that, he took out tins of Mahou, the highest selling beer in Spain and another cheapest beer that he found on the shelf - again a private label - we poured Mahou in two glass and this cheap beer in the third.

Of course there were many such glasses, good enough to serve at least 15 people.

Then the people standing outside were called in and told to answer two questions:
1. Which of the two glasses have same beer or cola?
2. Which of the three glasses did they enjoy more?

Most people got it wrong when they were told to match the two glasses and almost all of them voted for the cheaper non-branded products instead of Coke and Mahou, as the ones they liked.

Lesson learned. Brand name matters. People tend to enjoy Coke more when they know they are drinking Coke. Hence, as part of Marketing, it is important to keep your brand name constantly flashing before them.

Anyways, as I sit in the first row, and had served as the bar tender, I had my own advantages. Even while the beer tasting was in progress, I managed to try all the 3 kinds [although I knew they are just two types ;-)

The Beacon of Sanity - When everything comes together :-)

Well, I think I now understand the purpose of Critical Management Thinking Class in our curriculum as such. Today morning began with Rolf coming in to discuss, how "Narrations" influence decision of people [common men and learned executives alike]. To setup the context, he discussed various kinds of narrations that we could identify with from the simple Hollywood movie plot to the Christian Gospels. As always, the latitude of Rolf's knowledge impressed me today as well.

Among these examples, one was particularly interesting.

Rolf asked the class to give a few examples of an entrepreneur - Steve Jobs, Mark, Branson .. the names started to show up and then he stopped us, only to ask, isn't the carpenter, the plumber, the electrician, who takes risk of not getting a salaried job and starts his own little venture an entrepreneur.

So, why is our narration based on these few extreme examples? We keep hearing the word Entrepreneurship so many times in here at IE, do we really understand the meaning of the term.

Frankly that question was an eye-opener for me. Not because I thought whether I really understood Entrepreneurship - but because it made very clear to me, the very purpose of this class.

Innovation, Entrepreneurship, Social Responsibility are the core values of IE. And in last 4 odd months here, we have heard and said these words so many times; and we have developed our own special narratives around these buzzwords to such an extent, that if we would have continued on the same path, we would have made ourselves vulnerable to getting lost in our own little sphere of ill-information.

And even while I was thinking about all this, Rolf concluded - Remember the smart guy in ancient Rome with an attitude problem, who kept on saying "I know nothing". Only if you do the same, can you avoid the fallacy of narration. Remember to not only ask "Why" but also "Why NOT"? and only then you would be able to see both sides of the coin.

Today's case for critical management thinking was about the housing bubble in USA during 2002; but I am taking away much more from this class - a beacon of sanity :-)

K.I.S.S.

Well, We had the Managerial Accounting class today to solve some examples of normal and budgeted costs, combined with direct and indirect costs.

We had a Marketing Management Class, which was based on the Russian Standard Vodka case, so there was an interesting discussion in class today.

And, the morning began with Operations management class, with discussion on a case based on Operations flow of Dr. YB's clinic.

Class was good as expected and a pleasant surprise was when we found out that this Dr. YB was herself sitting at the back of the class through out our discussion. That was amazing :-)

I went to collect my NIE Card today. Finally, my student permit is here. Yippee !!

And now, as I am back in MM31 and am writing this blog - a little earlier that usual, I had shit load of readings to do for tomorrow - for Critical Management Thinking class, for Marketing management class, for our group discussion, and on top of that I need to work for at least an hour on my fellowship task for the week. Not to mention, I need to find enough time, so that I can write a decent essay for Critical Management thinking and submit it by tonight, unless I want to do it for the next case, which will also be our last case.

So, much work, is the reason, I have applied the K.I.S.S. principle, which was mentioned just today in the marketing management class, to this post.

Kept It Short & Simple :-)

Want to start a Internet based Business ??

Mola - a Spanish start-up accelerator for Internet based business - which is now gradually extending its wings in Latin America and the USA, happened to cross paths with IE today.
One of its office bearers had come over from their office at exotic Mallorca Islands to have a info-session with us, during our Entrepreneurship Management class.

The work they are doing is impressive and he invited all aspiring entrepreneurs among our class to share their ideas with Mola and they will look at it. So, for somebody out there in our class with a business idea - at least one funding source channel is now opened :-)

Next was the Technology and Innovation class - first session, and in this session Greg, our professor talked about how IT is an important factor by everyone who aspires to be an entrepreneur and also for anyone who aspires to be a manager in big corporations.

He then talked about current trends, resources, challenges in the IT industry and the way his class has been structured.

So, for those who want to start a internet based business - IT requirements analysis - can now be done after studying this course :-)

Last was the cost accounting session where we discussed different costs - direct, indirect, etc that product and service based companies incur and common fallacies in the costs calculated.

Well, that just about provides just enough information to someone keen to start an internet based business - how to calculate costs of services and products, what IT infrastructure is needed and how to get it and how to fund the project - all in the same day.

At the end of class,  I was curios to know how many people will actually take advantage of this study today :-)

From Cacophony towards Symphony

Monday morning started with first session of Operations Management. Amrou, our professor, started with laying out basic rules of the game. He looks like a cool guy. He was in the class 15 minutes before it started and struck a conversation with everyone as we came in. He knew everyone by their name, and he knew exactly where we all studied, what did we study and where we worked. And his first session had not even started. WoW !!

Then there was a round of introductions - he wanted to call out names of everyone to know if he says it correctly and in response we had to say one interesting thing about ourselves [something which was not on our CV]. Then, the basic guidelines of the class were mentioned and the class kicked off. While he asked us what Operations Management is, and people gave all sorts of reply, I was beginning to think, that people are going to make this all about grade, talking and repeating and bullshitting. Soon after he heard us all though, he started to take control of the conversation and the class turned out to be really good. Repeats and irrelevant comments were put to halt and flow of discussion led to learning by all.

It was like, from a Cacophony, a symphony was created. Looking forward to attending more of this class.

Then, was a double session of Critical Management Thinking. Rolf had asked us to read and prepare summary of one book among many, that showed up in google books search for "Innovation".

When he asked who read the book, my hand was up before before could get over their hesitation.

I talked about a book by Robert Tucker 'Growth through Innovation' and got the first entry on board. Many others followed. Some talked about books they had read as part of their homework, some talked about book they had read a couple of years ago, some browsed quickly in the class and talked about books with titles fresh in their mind.

Well, Rolf was quick to bring down any arguments [of the authors of course] that were real bull shit. It was impressive to know that Rolf already knew about most of the books people talked about. I mean, 56 random people talking about 56 random books and this guy knows more than 80-90% of these books!!

Eventually, after there were lot of buzzwords out there on the board began the real exercise. Rolf randomly combined a few buzzwords and told us a company which has implemented its innovation strategy around them and he did it like 7-8 times.

Finally, he bagn to present his arguments about this whole Innovation business and very soon, we were all convinced that "Innovation is Over-rated. Adaptation is what matters."

At end of the session, he asked about Beethoven's symphony. It was also part of our homework to listen to it before class. He heard and replied various responses from people about the symphony and the responses were from yes, it is catchy to yes it has these 4 notes - meant for layman to experts in music.

And then he explained why the symphony was relevant to today's discussion.

"Beethoven used only four notes, retained all the grammar of a symphony, eliminated all the melody from his composition and based it entirely on rhythm, and came up with a composition which impressed the whole world. Now that's Innovation !!"

Well, is there anything you don't know Mr. Rolf?

The point he wanted to make was that if it takes a Maestro like Beethoven almost 20 years to come up with this innovation, can we really be innovative in 28 days, just because a book says so??

From the chaos and cacophony of all those books and buzzwords on internet, Rolf took us to a symphony of success and survival.

Next up was a mock workshop arranged by IMBA team to test it for the next LAUNCH. I was one of the volunteers there and as it turned out, we were made to be a part of an Orchestra. I won't reveal too many details, but in this workshop, the 20 odd people that took part, created a music which was a cacophony in the beginning and advanced to create a symphony at the end.

"From Cacophony to Symphony" was the essence of the day :-)

San Fermin, Pamplona :-)

Well, we got up at 6:30 AM, and were already on our way towards the bull running street by 7:15 AM.

After reaching there, got a nice spot to watch the run and take pictures of the bull run, although had to spend some time looking for it, and had to struggle with too many people around. Most of them had been partying all night and looked like were at the venue for a long time, to secure better view.

The actual run was around 900 meters, which got over in a little less than 4 minutes time. We were amazed by the fact that this 4 minutes run by itself drives a party which goes on round the clock, and seven such days of run support the economy of an entire town for the whole year !!

Well, I know what you are thinking. It was never on my agenda to run with the bulls, mostly because of the sheer crowd that participates - it is a stampede and I didn't wish to be a part of it - I was just curious to see it :-)

Anyways, I have taken some nice pictures of the whole thing and will post them on my FB.

At around 11 AM, after having a good breakfast, we started back for Madrid. Reached at 3 PM, and then after resting until 8:30 PM or so, started reading the cases for tomorrow. It's going to be another long night, but considering all the fun we had at Pamplona, its worth it :-)

Work Hard, Party Harder !!

Well, the plan for the weekend was to be a part of the famous San Fermin Festival in Pamplona, which features running with the bulls. But the party began last night itself. After finishing school yesterday, spent time till 2 AM bar hopping and partying. Came home only to take a shower and pick up my camera. By the time, I was ready, Hitesh was already downstairs with his Merc.

All of us started from Madrid around 4:15 AM on a journey of roughly 470 KM. As I was sitting in the front, I enjoyed nice views of the road, including the sunrise at the Dawn, although this came at a price of not getting to sleep the entire night.

We missed the bull run of Saturday by only a few minutes, as we arrived at around 8 AM in Pamplona. There was still time for check-in at the hotel, so sat in a park outside, continuing with the party.

Had a couple of hours of sleep in the afternoon and then went put for seeing the Pamplona town, after having a sumptuous lunch. Party was still on. At 11 PM in the night, there were amazing fireworks and then after staying out partying until 2 AM, we decided to finally sleep.

Well, what can I say, we had a tough last few weeks, we needed to party hard :-)

Strategy Classes Conclude !!

Well, while the case discussions for Strategy were completed two sessions back, we had a session yesterday for group presentations of Strategy projects which went on till the session today. This was the last Strategy session. Next one is directly going to be the exam session at end of July.

Luis gave a small personal message to the class at end of the class, and we could all see him getting emotional.

The Managerial Accounting and Investment Analysis classes today were fun, as both involved playing with numbers. I enjoyed participating in both these classes to the best.

Today was also the first meeting of my work group for term two - casual meeting to get to know each other and each others expectations better. Well, what can I say - after knowing the group participation grades for the previous term, I have absolutely no expectations from this mechanism of working, so had nothing much to say today.

Weekend is around the corner and while we all have a lot of readings to do, this one is going to be a little more relaxed than the previous one. Looking forward to the weekend :-)

The Peez and the Ceez :-)

Well, today was the first session for Marketing Management. Our Prof. Dilney started by explaining the grades breaks-up, syllabus and rules of his class. "When going for a posh business meeting, as you take your seat, you keep your phone on the table with its face down. That is a basic business etiquette. In the same way, keeping your phones and laptops away while seated in my class, is a basic learning etiquette." Point noted :-)

The participation grade has most weight in this class. Reason - with help of our participation, we are also helping him get a sample of knowledge that our brain has in store.
He started throwing in Marketing jargon already :-)

And this went on even while he explained the rules of his class using the Five Peez and the basics of marketing using three Ceez, etc.
"This time I am not going to use the "A" company examples" - he said referring APPLE. Of course, if students need to use the APPLE example, they are free to do so :-)

Anyways, this course is something I have never studied before and hence another course to look forward to.

Lessons from History :-)

When Rome sustained a city with a population of over a million residents, continuously for 500 years, without having any catchment area of its own, we can only conclude that the way in which Romans handled various aspects of the city administration and the food supply chain etc had to be the optimal way of doing it.

Agreed, and now there is no confusion why we read a case on Roman Grain Trade, before the first class of Critical Management Thinking.
This was one of the statements made by prof. Rolf who is going to teach us this subject.

Some of the highlights of this first session - Our professor distributed freely a lot of apologies before hand - so that we can refer back to the history of this class, and use those apologies whenever we feel bad that he cut our comment off, saying it as irrelevant, or whenever he makes fun of comments made by us and someone gets "offended", etc.
Facebook to Twitter - everything is allowed: and the reasoning behind it: We have already paid huge amount as a tuition fee to IE, so if we prefer to use that spending to browse facebook when sitting in the class, he doesn't care. His salary is secured anyways :-)

I specially found one thing more interesting than others - the way he said he will grade class participation. If the class participation is good and contributes to improvement of overall grade, it will be included. If not, it will be considered neutral and not be considered. In other words, the message sent out was "don't participate for sake of grades."

This prof has his unique style of teaching and any stupid comment made in his class got shot in the face. I think even though Rolf is way too different than Garen, thanks to him, we will not miss Garen so much :-)

Another class to look forward to :-)

Double Dose and the Aptitude !!

Today, we had a double dose of Strategy. That was part of the reason why we had to stay back in School yesterday for so long - apart from all the other work, we had to read two long cases of Strategy.

Well, frankly, I could maintain my enthusiasm during the first case, but lost it towards the end of second case - and I am talking both about the reading last night and the class today. Three hours of Strategy class - its just overwhelming!!

This double dose was followed by the in-class visit by CMC, where-in Magali came in to talk about the Career Fair we will have in October. It was good to know about this career fair.

Then was the class for Investment Analysis. I had already come prepared - although one of my assumptions turned out to be wrong, my methodology was correct. Yippee !!

I am seriously impressed with the knowledge this guy has. When somebody mentioned inflation, he started talking about nominal and real productions, when someone mentioned if assumptions in the case were right, he started talking about risk analysis and sensitivity and simulations and base cases. And yes, he threw in so many concepts of Accounting while working on proformas.

Its like he already knows what all stuff we have learned in term one and is leveraging on that knowledge to take us a step further and at the same time, he is knowledgeable on all these topics to the extent that he can steer us comfortably through this process. Amazing!!

And at the end of today's class, Luis said an interesting thing: "In the next session, I want you all to come with a decision. I don't care, if you like numbers and take this decision by using this excel exercise, and I don't care if you don't have a finance background. As Managers, YOU WILL HAVE TO DEVELOP AN APTITUDE TO TAKE DECISIONS, no matter what"

Well, that sums it all up. Statement of the day :-)

Step Up 2

Well, we had already stepped up in term one, trying to cope with getting back to the student mode and working on assignments and projects and reports and exams.

Today began Step Up 2. And it is indeed the next level - I had never imagined that I would be so very busy on first day of my term, but here we are with assignments piling up even before the term begins.

First session was that of Entrepreneurial Management, so Rachida was back in action. And as if the current workload wasn't good enough, she gave us an additional one-pager to bring in for Wednesday :-)

After this began the sessions of new subjects in term two. First it was Investment Analysis and then Managerial Accounting. Name of both professors - Luis.
That's right, we now have three professors named Luis :-)

However, all of them have their unique styles and you cannot fail to notice this. Luis S. for Investment Analysis - when he walked in to the classroom and started talking about the subject and about the way this subject will be graded, I could sense that "Don't try to bullshit me" message embedded in all his statements.

In fact it wasn't long when he actually said "During Participation, don't try to impress me, try to add value to your class". When he made one statement, he made sure he supported it by stating all possible known outcomes, the consequences of these outcomes and the one which was appropriate. It's like he was reading minds of the entire class even while he was talking to us, or its just that he has done this so many times, he knows what we think.

I know I may have confused you by my observation. Let me give you a simple example, related to class participation itself. First, he started by stating "Yes, the grading for class participation is subjective", then he gave two examples of class participation in his slides, then he told among those characters in his examples, which ones are above average and which ones below average and why, and then he also told us that there will be a feedback given to us at middle of the term, and that this feedback IS NOT for arguing about it, but FOR us to know how we are doing.

No scope of error, no scope of speculation, no scope for assumptions. Every aspect that one could think of, is addressed.
So, a subject revolving around numbers and a professor like Luis - I think this is going to be an interesting class.

As the first Luis walks out, in comes second Luis - who will be teaching us Managerial Accounting.

While we are still busy in observing him and trying to compare him with Garen, he declares "Good news and Bad news - Managerial Accounting has got nothing to do with Financial Accounting".

Well, that stopped the urge for comparing him with Garen.

Luis had his own way of sending the message across. First he showed us a video to make us sympathize with the state of accountants in general, made jokes about accountants, then told how he himself is an accountant and finally came down to the statement describing his job here at IE "As Managers, you should NEVER trust your accountants. And my job here is to make sure that you ask them right questions every time they bring some numbers in front of you".

Ahah !! So now, we dig deeper :-)

And this game works on two rules.
"NO Computers, NO smart-phones, NO monkey business of looking down at your desk [trying to read/send messages]" First rule of the game.
You will HAVE to do your preparation, solve the practice examples given in the textbook, and be READY to SOLVE any example under discussion ON BOARD when called upon. Second rule of the game.

Given that this subject is also going to be all about numbers, I am already looking forward to it :-)

Spent rest of the day preparing for class of Investment Analysis tomorrow and doing the assignments of other subjects.

And yes, First day of the term and I was in school until 2 AM, when we finally decided to call it a day.

Resuming the Reading

Well, term two begins tomorrow. So, things are almost back to what they used to be. Preparing for class by reading the related technical notes and cases, etc.

Not to mention this time around, we also have carried over subjects of Entrepreneurial management and Strategy, for which we need to do prepare some reports and presentations.

Well, Today I spent most of the day in school to do all this reading and preparations.

Came home to clean up the mess created after the party last night.

I know I am stating this again in the same post, but tomorrow begins classes for term TWO :-)

IE Swadeshi Party

Well, in one of our previous get-together I had told the Indians from our intake that we can meet at my place this Saturday and I would cook something for all.
I decided to go ahead with the promise and we had a great party tonight.

Lots of drinks, some Indian singing, chit-chat, and loads of fun. As for the food I made, let me put down the same words as the invite I sent out, and yes, I did manage to cook all that mentioned in the invite below[photos on facebook page 'United Expressions of Parsooram', plus the Egg Burji, in response to the on-the-spot demand by Rishi and Nishant.

Invite:

Swadeshi party tonight.
All members invited.

Venue: Parsoo da Dhaba
Madrid

Menu del dia:
primero:
Roasted Paapad, Paneer Tawa Fry, Chicken Tangdi kebab
segundo:
Achari Baingan, Chicken curry, Daal Paalak, Steam Rice, Tortillas
Bebidas:
Beer, Cheap Wine, Soft Drink, Tap Water
Postre:
Mini Cup Cakes, Ginger Tea

notable:
Food serving begins at 8:30 pm.
Outside food and "drinks" are allowed :)
Ignore this message or be late "at your own risk" !!

Indulgence - the best remedy

Well, I don't remember how many Tequila shots I had last night. Yet, I was sober enough to attach my mobile phone to a charger after coming back home. I didn't wish to have a dead phone in morning and miss the alarm like last time. But guess what, I still missed the alarm. While I did plug in my mobile for charging, I did not check if it was working or already dead. And, thanks to Murphy's law, the phone was dead even before I had plugged it in the previous night.

So, I woke up at 10 AM, half hour past the time for our sections final presentation and knew I was too late already. As an absence today meant reduction of grades in C.i.A. module, I thought of option to check with the IMBA team if I can attend the presentation of other section which started at 11:30. I however dropped the idea and continued with my sleep.

Today I indulged in sleep for most of the day. Woke up only occasionally to have some food. I don't remembering sleeping so much in past many months now. By the time it was evening, I was so relaxed and had already gotten over the group grades disaster.

Gimme a break !!

I know that the phrase in subject line can have two meanings and today I mean it both ways.

Imagine this: Group meeting for finalizing C.i.A. presentation from 9:30 AM to 11:15 AM; C.i.A. presentations from 11:15 AM to 12:45 PM; Entrepreneurial Management group meeting from 1 PM to 3:15 PM; C.i.A. feedback session between 3:15 PM to 3:45 PM; Meeting with Alvaro from 4 PM to 5:15 PM; meeting with previous term work group for Strategy report discussion from 5:30 PM to 9 PM !!

Today, there was no class, but today was the day when I did not get a single half hour break, so as to have proper food from morning 9:15 AM when I started from my home until evening 9:15 PM when I reached back in a cab. After half the day was past, my mind was almost craving for a break.

One other thing happened today. Even while I was in meeting with my previous term work group, I got my group grades. These are not something which get factored in to my MBA grade, but are a feedback from my work group [who was surrounding me while I got it on campus online].

I saw through all the numbers for me and then compared it with group average. Frankly, I was disappointed at what I got and somewhere deep inside, I was hurt. On one hand, I was not happy with my numbers, and on the other hand, the thought that by giving 5's to all freely, I am the one responsible for this high group average was killing me.

These grades shattered my perception that I did good work in the group. While I was in the meeting, slowly disappointment took over my mind, and I phased out.
Today was the first time, I felt low during my tenure here at IE. Lesson Learned, my mind was saying and yet it was not convinced.

Ultimately, I decided to just drink it all in and forget all about this group grade. My mind needed a break. Soon, I will be going out again and start the drinking spree.
 

A Day 4 Group Work

Well, there is a reason why I have the number 4 up there in the subject line. Of course, it looks kool, but it also has some meaning.

Today, we had this chance to ask all our doubts and queries about the ongoing C.i.A. project to Andrew during his office hours. While these office hours were between 11 AM until 1 PM, our group work was not scheduled until 3 PM.

So, we decided to come early, were in MM31 at 10 AM and got started with our work. Purpose was that in an hour or two, we will come across sufficient things to ask Andrew.

At around noon, we came to Launch Pad where Andrew had created a temporary office for himself and got ourselves registered in the long queue for meeting him. Andrew was a wanted man today :-)

After our discussion with Andrew, we decided to meet at 3 PM and continue with the work. Within this time, there was a chat going on between my Entrepreneurship group members about when we can meet and what was the agenda for next meeting. It was decided that we meet at noon tomorrow.

Well, this discussion regarding my second group work for the day went on for some time and I stayed back in school reading my previously submitted E.M. opportunity report to get ready for tomorrow and to avoid delay in coming back by 3 PM.

After we worked and completed our C.i.A. presentation at 7 PM, it was time for my previous term work group to become active. It was decided that we need to finish our part of Strategy project by tonight, so that we can discuss and finalize it tomorrow.
So, I went home and worked on this.

Then at 10 PM, I came back to school - and worked with Manan on my fellowship project. This work, with my fourth group [although it's just me and Manan in this group, apart from Prof. Alvaro of course] went on until mid-night.

After the required deliverable was ready, Manan went home, while I stayed back in MM31 to give finishing touches to my Strategy group work.

All-in-all, today, I worked on tasks related to four work groups, with most deliverables expected by/on tomorrow.

Long day it was !!

Workshop Special :-)

Today, we had a long four hour workshop in an institute of architecture, called La Sede. It was a nice building with kool interiors and we got to work on the Quetsol case, going through various stages of design thinking once again.

Thanks to the fact that we had four hours to work on the case today, we could all churn out many ideas and put our thoughts in a perspective.

Tomorrow, we meet within our group and work on creating a prototype, and a presentation, based on outcome of our brainstorming today.

So, not much of a learning, but extensive application of what we learned yesterday - that was the agenda for the day.

Came back home to work on my part of Strategy Report, and to take care of some pending chores.

C.i.A. : Tilling minds afresh

Today began the Change in Action [C.i.A.] module for us. This is basically the sequel of the L.A.U.N.C.H. module we had before term one began.
While L.A.U.N.C.H. was all about making team players out of us, demonstrating action learning and gearing us up for the IMBA program in general; C.i.A. as the name suggests is all about Change-in-ACTION.

We need to work in our alternate work groups and come up with solutions to some of the questions currently faced by Quetsol - Best judged solution wins the event :-)
To describe the activity we will do over this week in the words I heard yesterday, "This is the real thing. You have a real life case to work on. There is no Part B, C etc to it and no Harvard Case Analysis to refer to. What you do here in this week, can help Quetsol change the lives of millions".
Amazing, isn't it?

Morning began with some briefings and addresses. Juan Fermin, the CEO and Co-Founder of Quetsol was first to speak and he provided us with various details of the case. Well, while he was speaking, suddenly all that we had learned so far came together.

He talked about "elimination of negative externalities" [economics], and about "importance of trust on his extended team of executives" [Organizational Behavior] and about "venturing for the people" [Entrepreneurial Management] and "market entry strategy and differentiation advantage" [Strategy] and "decisions and uncertainties that he is currently facing" [Decision making]. And the words in quotes are what he actually said. I was amazed with the fact that we just happen to know everything that he was talking about, thanks to the courses we all took in term one.

The project in itself is another wonder - a sincere attempt to create a positive social impact.

Well, if the case briefing by Juan was not impressive enough, in came Richard Banfield, the CEO of "Fresh Tilled Soil" to offer us an unique perspective on addressing corporate issues and on creating successful ventures. The more we heard him, more we got impressed - with the concepts he talked about, with the simple yet effective presentation he had, with the way he personalized his discussion around points mentioned earlier by Juan and with the sentiments we identify with - from the soccer game last night to the basics of human biology and behavior.
[and this is what I have always admired about these change modules - the speakers just keep impressing you more and more as the time moves ahead]

It was interesting to know how the knowledge and awareness of very basic and very irrational human behavior can be a great source of strategy to create the big success story in business world.

And, as soon as Richard concluded, in came cTodd [that's how he likes to call himself], member of IE faculty and I must say an impressive speaker. He started by making us give a little shoulder massage to our neighbors and introduced us to various nuances of design thinking. What Design Thinking is and what it is not.
Do I need to state here that his address turned out to be the one which most of the people I met think was "the best"? It's obvious from the statement I made earlier, isn't it?

By the way, for those who missed Financial Accounting during Juan's address, cTodd made sure that they won't. "Remember, you don't have to answer all questions that Juan has raised. And you don't need to get everything right. This is not an exam where you are either completely right or completely wrong" .. Then there was a pause and like me everyone in audience thought of the Financial Accounting exam last week, where we had to put the final number for each question in a box - full grade if this number is right, no grade if this is wrong .. and after that brief pause, he exclaimed "this is not that Financial Accounting exam".
Boy, before I knew I was clapping in applause. Did he read our minds, or was he just too good a speaker? The hall burst into a roar of applause and laughter.

I have no doubt this coming week is going to be so much fun.

These addresses were followed by a screening of a movie on Design Thinking and then we had a quick one hour workshop with Andrew [the same guy who mentored some of us during L.A.U.N.C.H. session of Revolutionize your Space] to practice design thinking using a simple and quick - Wallet exercise.

After the day concluded at school, my previous-term-work-group met to discuss task allocation for strategy project and then, it was a meeting with all Indians to discuss about India Trek event.

Long day, but worth every moment spent.

To sum it all up, today C.i.A. began with Juan's address spreading the foliage of knowledge learned so far, all around us; which was followed by Richard tilling our mind to open it up for a new behavior and biology related perspective on entrepreneurship; cTodd then spread the seeds of Design Thinking in these freshly tilled minds and Andrew nourished these seeds by a quick sprinkle of a demonstration.

I think we are now all set for reaching the light of success.