Planning for non-business factors and for un-real candidates

So, the BGS class this morning was about how the non-business factors can have a huge impact on businesses in terms of revenue losses, reputation damage and so on. Jef discussed examples of how companies who fail to identify and react to these factors fail and while also giving an example of a company who has managed this balance of non-market and market components in non-business mix well and turned these factors towards their advantage.

Even while I was wondering about some of the new facts that I came to know e.g. the "Cheeseburger Act", it was time to prepare for the Talent Management class.

Yes, last night, I went out for a surprise Colombian dinner and could not do the reading for this class - I could postpone it happily though after seeing that the case is small and we have 40 minutes between first class and the second.

Talent Management class started with discussing the interview questions we would ask to the candidates described in case we read and our thought process for choosing these questions. Gradually, the discussion turned towards some other relevant and important concepts for interviewing - Prof Monika took us through the theory of it, by using a short video of a guy asking too many questions and his superior answering him even while explaining the concepts.

There was a good discussion on various types of questions and then we soon landed ourselves in the most wide spread aspect of interviewing that we find today - when candidates fake the information they provide, either slightly or completely.

We discussed results of surveys based on this, and a couple of ways to identify those who are faking and are un-real in terms of information they provide to the recruiters.

This discussion brought out some interesting information, I would say.

Our group met after the school to finalize our presentation for Tuesday - it's going to be a long weekend with holiday tomorrow, so everyone rushed into the meeting right after the class, and managed to leave early as well.

I spent rest of the time today working on first round of marketing simulation, again to ensure that there is no work during the long weekend.

Time to go for dinner, and those who have similar long weekend, enjoy :-)

Simulating businesses and OUR LIVES :-)

Well, the morning began with SCM session, where Daniel had already given us some excel sheets to play around at home. These sheets had some models designed around revenue of a news-stand -  he then used these sheets as a means to transfer our learning from simulating various situations in the excel model of news-stand into principles of SCM for perishable goods. The underage and overage costs and their significance when deciding whether to order lesser or more than the mean demand forecasts available, was an interesting take-away from this class today.

Then began a two-session Leadership module, where we continued to work on our vision. There were questions about how we see ourselves 20 years from now and so on, all designed to help us find the mission of our life. Basically, in this class today, we tried to simulate our life going forward and see if it provides us with the purpose of our existence. Too philosophical is it? Or may be too Psychological :-)

Truth is today was the day when both classes used simulation as a tool to help us understand and develop some of the concepts that would help us in the long run as we move ahead with this MBA and with our careers and lifes.

In the evening, we kick-started the Movember Madness, by shaving our beards and moustaches in MM31 launch pad area. And after postponing it once, we also had our section photo taken by IMBA today.

At night, while I was resting, doing "nothing", got a message from Martin asking if I want to go for Columbian dinner - Well, food is my weakpoint and I had never tried Columbian food before - So, it was an offer I could not refuse - went for a late night dinner with 2 other classmates and had amazing food, with tips and explanation from Martin all along.

Life is good :-)

The medium is the message

Well, the day started with talent management course, where we saw concepts like yield rates at work. While analyzing how different yield rates are affected by factors internal and external to a firm, Monika gave out a statement 'The medium is the message' pointing to how candidates form an opinion of the firms based on their interactions with the interviewer.
This statement was enough to stress importance of having a charismatic person as a recruiter.

Next was our group meeting where we kicked off the work for our talent management presentation.

In the Corporate Finance class today, Carlos summarized all the concepts we have seen so far, and the concepts we need to be familiar with for developing a good model. I think we will jump into developing finance models right away, starting next class.

And then, Gonzalo was back with a case on China. While it was an interesting case, where we got to know about the history of China, and the gradual economic reforms it has been implementing, the class also indulged into discussions such as how this relates to the way Russia and Eastern Europe went on with their reforms.

I think one of the important takeaways from this class was that the policies you implement as government talk a lot about what message you send to your population and to the world outside. Again, a common theme discovered in classes of today - the medium is the message :-)

Beginning of the Halloween week :-)

Well, a couple of Halloween parties planned by different student clubs, a halloween event planned by IMBA team, a secheduled photo shoot where we will all dress up casually, a shave-off party to launch Movember and a long weekend with so many appealing destinations calling ..

Sounds so good right? But then, this week also is the one when we need to be done with the first round of marketing simulation, our group needs to prepare for talent management presentation, there are lots of readings for everyday, I have some fellowship related work to be done by end of the week and probably all of us need to start squeezing in some time for job hunting and interview preparations. Add to it, this is a short week, if there is anything planned for the long weekend.

I know, I know suddenly - all that sounded so rosy about this week is not so rosy anymore. Add to it, we are still waiting on four of our grades, almost 75 credits, which has kept the anxiety within many of us still alive.

So, when Erik started his class today saying, the case for today about a company with innovative blood substitute nicely fits with the whole Halloween theme for this week, I couldn't agree more. At its onset, today being Monday, the week ahead does look scary.

Anyways, leaving behind this side-talk, today the in the BGS class, we discussed the effect that a political regime can have on economic situations in the country and how the policy makers can alter the faith of industries - of course, we saw it more from the perspective of the industrialists and analyzed what are the situations that we should not get our ventures into, when it comes to dependence and influence on policies.

Marketing Strategy class was about 'going to market' when we have an innovative product and how? We also discussed some numbers on finding the market size and potential market share.

A common theme - in both classes, we discussed ventures that have already been shut down.

Scary isn't it? Welcome to the Halloween week :-D

It's half time !!

Yes, if you have not noticed the number of posts in this blog yet, now is the time to look at the total count - the first post for introduction followed by one post per day - that will tell you that as this day ends, we will complete half the time of our MBA program here at IE.

"Time passes so fast !!" I am sure that each one of you will wonder - but what is more noticeable is how everyone is now thinking how time "will" pass quickly going forward.

We already have IMBA team arranging for our section photo, our class rep and a bunch of other folks are already planning some souvenir for remembering the class, many are packing their bags to go on a long exchange or on internship, many have begun looking for jobs, and many more are preparing for launching their ventures.

Life at IE, may not be the same again, for many of us. And that is exactly the reason why I thought of publishing this post early in the morning - although the earliness has been escalated a bit, thanks to the day light savings change this morning, where clocks went back an hour - nevertheless, it is Sunday, it is the day when we are all relaxed, and it is the day when we complete half the time at this program.

Just wanted to highlight this fact early in the day, so that we can all take some time to think back on all that is past, and all that we still need to achieve while we are all here.

Good Luck to all my fellow classmates and congratulations !! We are half way there :-)

Of Simluations, Surveys and the signal to get set ..

Well, today I spent some time, downloading all the material that was added to campus online by various professors - some have put in a lot of stuff, while others have put in documents relevant to past classes.

I also registered for marketing online simulation, answered the online survey for corporate finance and went through the course pack for next week.

Suddenly, considering the group work that we are already beginning to work on since last week, and all the materials, assignments, exercises that I found for coming days, I realized that it is that time of the term already - to get set - for the next lap of study and work load is going to start real soon.

Bring it on 'term 3' - I am all set now :-)

When numbers alone don't add together to provide value

Today, there was a double session for BGS, with first session dedicated to an online simulation and second to debriefing of the simulation.

We grouped to be 8 different companies, using water of a common lake, and trying to use this water, even while we were to take decisions regarding whether we will treat water after use or dispose without treatment. And then, there were flavors like rains, fines, awards. Overall, we had fun at the simulation.

Our group started believing that after the Strategy class, people now understand the concept of prisoners dilemma and will all treat the water. When that didn't happen, we played to maximize our relative gain.

While I expected the debriefing to be the same as what we had in the Strategy class simulation, it was actually different this time. With each element of the game, from lake to the fines to the awards, Jef discussed about how it relates to and represents some aspect of the business world and government norms and took inputs from the class about the hows, the whats, the likes and the dislikes.

I enjoyed this debriefing today. It gave us so much information, by referring to just a simulation, which I had initially thought to be just another form of prisoner's dilemma.

Later in the day was marketing strategy class. Today Erik discussed the Polyphonic HMI case - again a product with amazing innovation by a start-up trying to make its mark. The Plumber metaphor and question of 'who is the plumber in this case'? came up today as well. By the way, if I have not already mentioned this, this is with reference to the first case, where plumber represents a customer side stakeholder and an influencer, who needs convincing and converting, for successful sale of your product.

I have to admit, today I had only managed to read the case and didn't work much on solving it. But, even if I had solved it in all aspects, I could not have thought of using simple tools that we have already learned in the past like Bayes theorem to identify the value created. This was a good learning for me today. In fact, we saw a lot of numbers today, but none of them appeared out of place and they were actually relatively easy to do - reminded me of something which I have heard a few times in the past about cracking the case - that if you can't do the basic numbers on back of an envelope, you are not cracking the case correctly.

Today, I saw a demonstration of how to crack a case on back of an envelope. Not bad for a friday afternoon class, I would say.

And yes, the common theme in today's classes - if you only look at numbers, you may not be able to generate full value - for simulation in BGS, we had to look and think about what others are doing or will do and for marketing strategy, we had to identify the plumber and think on how we can engage this person to create value. 

Our group met right after the classes and at 6 PM, we finally concluded our work, and with that I also concluded my study for the day.

Last night was a long night with the Korean dinner and the after dinner gathering at a Turkish restaurant, so tonight I need some rest.

Enjoy your weekend readers :-)

Urgency, Optimism, Change and Innovation

Well, morning started with a class by Erik for the Aqualisa Quartz case - a innovative product, created with huge expense on R&D, as a newly minted MBA leading the company wanted to shun the complacency developed in this firm and sensed an urgency to bring in new product lines.

We discussed this case from a marketing strategy point of view and at the end of it, saw the measure actually adopted by our protagonist in form of his video that was available. I was surprised that when this innovative product was not selling, they did something very counter-intuitive when it comes to targeting the consumers.

Erik reminded us of how this case can also be looked upon from a change management point of view.

And then after our group meeting, began two sessions on Leadership Vision. Well, our mentor for the session Jill, after introducing herself started talking about overall program structure. Turns out - this is also about how leaders can behave in situations that demand change - how important it is to identify urgency in a timely manner, how important it is to be optimistic about future plans and how important it is to communicate a concrete action plan to all stakeholders.

We looked at a societal case of Martin Luther King as first example and then at a business case of Sony in recent times, and discussed various aspects of leadership vision aspects.

All-in-all, a common theme across all classes of today, and that is something I am always amazed with.

Small Probability, Big Impact events rule the day !!

Well, first of the Marketing Strategy classes by Erik in morning today, began with a metaphorical picture of some people trying to build a bridge and reach the end labeled 'Customer'.
What began with the question 'what do you see when you look at this picture?' eventually landed up on 'Does it bridge to reach customer ever completes? Can business ever build that perfect and long lasting bridge?'
That is where the discussion actually got philosophical.

Anyways, to stress the importance of Customer from Marketing Strategy point of view, Erik gave us an example of Dave. Dave Carrol, a small time country musician, whose custom guitar was broken while it was checked it in united airlines and who struggled to get a compensation for this 2000 dollar guitar from the airlines, created a song and posted it on Youtube. Song was titled 'United breaks guitar' - and this relatively low budget video, went viral with current hits reaching 13.5 million. The company itself suffered a 10% drop in its share price on fourth day this video was out, and caused a market cap loss of 180 million dollar.

While it is also a case for Social CRM, the lesson this example provides is that events like this with small probability and very high impact cannot be ignored and in today's world of internet and mobile phones, every single customer matters :-)

While we were still pondering over our discussion in this class, in came Carlos for the Corporate finance session. His lesson for today turned out to be the same - while forecasting, we cannot just rely on most likely scenarios - and this is especially important in cases where the outliers with small probability but high impact create a downside risk - well, he did state that risk is better understood and quantified if we look at it as variability between the expected outcome and the most likely outcome. So, if an event with small probability and huge impact is present on both sides of the expected outcome, probably nothing with change much - but if the risk is only on down side, at least the expected return and cash flows will change and we have to factor them into our model.
And then, depending on the variance of expected value, we can determine the risks involved and also the premium we can pay for the risk.

Interesting lesson, yet counter-intuitive to think that while a down side risk will definitely impact the expected return, it may not necessarily impact the risk involved and hence the discount rate associated.
It is this counter-intuitive nature of this argument which invited so many queries and doubts from many in the class today and Carlos ended up answering these queries for a long time even after the class was over.

While we suddenly have a lot to decide as a group now - for marketing strategy report and for talent management presentation, and spent an hour doing so, the day only concluded after an over-stretched session of career strategy by an head hunter lady. I don't really remember her name, but she spent almost two hours giving us tips and tricks of the trade.

Spent time post-lunch to do the readings for tomorrow, and now I am thinking of also completing the readings for Friday, as I have some dinner plans for tomorrow :-)

From Internationalization of Businesses to Economics of Countries :-)

Well, the day began with a mail waiting from Luis S., waiting in my inbox, providing us with our group feedback, so already a happy note to begin my day.

It was a double session of Talent Management today with Lincoln Electric case - the classic example of a company with completely counter-intuitive yet successful implementation of piece-rate system, paying high compensation in a high cost location, and yet sustaining its market leadership for more than 100 years now. This case in particular was about discussion on whether Lincoln should go to China with same HR practices. Along the discussion, Prof. Monika provided us with some survey data as well - to provide trends on behavioral and aspirational influences in U.S. and China, the differences in them and similarities in them.

While it was an interesting discussion today, what I liked the most about this class was that Prof. Monika was not only moderating the discussion based on inputs by people, she was actually helping people by reading into their comments and helping them state their case clearly.

Our group did pretty much nothing as part of group work today, as it is a little early in the term anyways and then it was time for our first session of the Core Plus elective class.
Basically, this is an elective offered during the core period itself. While the choices included Strategy, Finance, and Management Control as other options [both in English and Spanish], I along with 56 others [yes, this class is full] chose 'Country Economic Analysis' - firstly because the cases and countries covered in this class are interesting to know about and secondly because the professors for Economics are really really good. Prof. Gonzalo, Prof. Gayle Allard and Prof. Patricia Gabaldon, each with an expertise in economics of different regions of the world. Not to mention, my decision like many others was also biased by the fact that we had already taken Managerial Economics class with Prof. Gonzalo and we all liked that class and Gonzalo's teaching very much.

Anyways, today's opening session was by Prof. Gonzalo where he discussed where the world is today, the history of economic development, the future trends in demographics [he doesn't really advocate economic forecasts, so only forecasts we saw were the demographic forecasts, which are pretty much accurate due to data availability] and how different countries and their economies have evolved and are are currently placed.

He used references from Malthus to Rosling to the recently published report [just ten days ago] by world bank on GNI and GNI-PPP figures of various nations.

As usual, a lot of ground was covered in this class, even though this was the first session. We also got to know the overall syllabus, what countries we will cover in details, what are the grading criteria and other logistics stuff.

Anyways, by the end of this class, Investment Analysis grade was already out and I am really happy about this one.

Spent the rest of today reading for the first Marketing Strategy class by Erik tomorrow, and doing the Financial Forecast simulation as part of online exercise that Carlos has assigned us. This exercise was fun as it helped me revise the concepts of both financial accounting and investment analysis together in same exercise.

Need to apply to one more company today before I call it a day, and needless to say, it was a good day for me today :-)

Leadership, Businesses, Politics, Cash and Income :-)

Well, today started with the leadership module session for us to give feedback of term two to our work group and receive feedback from the work group. It was a good start of the day, talking about things we liked about each other, things we would our friends to improve on, and so on.

Then came the Business, Government and Society Class. Our professor for the class - Jeffrey Timmons started the session by telling us about himself and the course structure in general. And then, he took a poll on how many people like successful businesses and businessmen and how many like successful politicians. Obviously, the hands raised for second question were much lesser than for the first question.
And then began a series of questions, triggering a discussion around what makes business successful, what is it that we like about businesses and what we don't like about them and Jef established a correlation of all these things with politics and illustrated to us, how both are similar in so many aspects.
Discussion then built into economics and free markets and invisible hand and role of government.
He concluded the class by stating briefly how government is required for a market to work properly. IN absence of government, there are ways to ensure free market, but these measures ultimately cause efficiency losses.

Interesting class, with a very engaging discussion on various aspects. I know I am going to enjoy this class.

As BGS class ran a little over time, Carlos was already in the class. He saw the slides for BGS while Jef was closing them and during discussions in the class, he actually referred to that last slide on which Jef left us, and explained the concept he was talking about in terms of example that we studied in the previous class. That reference he made of something which is not his subject and not his slide was really impressive.
Today's class also had some of the slides with movie characters and quotes used to refer to basic concepts of finance. We had clickers distributed in the class and Carlos made a good use of these clickers to illustrate before us how bias of market participants don't cancel each other as put forth by some economists, but goes on adding to each other. He also related this to why we need to work with intrinsic value approach to find value of our investment, rather than going for market based approach - because true equilibrium doesn't really exist in the market.
One quote said by him, when he was explaining the different aspects of balance sheet, which I liked the most today was "Cash is the only fact. Income is an Opinion. And the future cash flow is also an Opinion."
Gave me a better perspective of things.

After classes today, I worked on a job application, and then after finishing readings for tomorrow, worked on my fellowship related paper, which has received some review comments.

A good beginning of this week and with classes for some of other subjects also starting in couple of days, I am hoping this week will be interesting one.

A2 goes Karting :-)

Started the day early today, so that I could complete the readings for 'Business Government and Society' class. And if you think that name of this class is long, you should see the reading for the class tomorrow - it's 60 pages :-)

Anyways, today me and many other people from my section are going for Karting at the Carlos Sainz center. Jacobo, who is a native from Madrid, initiated and planned the whole thing and as the place was a little far from city center, I started at 3:30 PM to reach there. Turned out that Google Map was not accurate in terms of the total time and we reached the place within 40 minutes. So, I spent some time taking pictures of the place before our karting began at 5 PM.

It was real fun with all of us taking three rounds of 10 minutes each. To say it upfront, I was the one who came in last in all rounds. But, I was not really targeting to race anyone and am really happy with the fact that with each new race, I met my targets and from initial time of 43 seconds per lap, I was down to 37 seconds per lap towards the end.

This was the first time I went for karting and I enjoyed the whole experience very much. Thinking of dropping by some more times while I am here in Madrid, so that I can train myself further :-D

After karting a few of us crashed a dinner planned by Nadjya and Ilya with their guests in Sol. Enjoyed the drinks and dinner with this group till mid-night and came home to rest before the new week begins. A fun day, this Sunday was :-)

Holi Run :-D

Well, I had registered for the Holi Run event along with some of my friends in the class. Basically, the organizers have picked up the Indian festival theme of Holi to play with colors and celebrate as a group, and created an event around it. They go around the world to different cities organizing a five kilometer Holi Run Marathon, where the participants basically enjoy being with each other and playing with colors while passing through the 5 kilometer track.

This event today was absolute fun. I played Holi after a real long time, and that too outside India. This event also gave an opportunity to visit the practice ground for Real Madrid team, as the venue was this ground, located a little away from the city area.

It was fun 3 hours spent with lots of colors and then I got back home, took a bath and started working on some of the reading for Monday and the tasks given on Friday.
Tomorrow we have a class event planned, so I am going to be out from afternoon till late. Although my legs are shouting their pain from all the walk and some running done this morning during the Holi Run, I am planning to cover most of my readings today before I sleep :-)

While the photos for Holi Run are already floating all around facebook, for those curious to know how I ended up looking after completing the Holi run, here is a picture of me for your amusement :-)

New term, new teachers, new classes - yet connection with old one remains :-)

So, today began our term three and it began in its full swing, right from day one - three classes of Talent Management, Corporate Finance and Supply Chain Management with an hour in between for group work.
And as the subject line suggests, we have three new professors for these three new classes, yet each of them builds on a class we have already studied before.
Is Talent management same as OB? No, but a part of it does build on OB, not to mention Supply Chain Management is an extension of Operations Management course and Corporate finance will need knowledge of WACC and NPV and excel models. And these are not things, which I am assuming or guessing, these are the things, which we have been told about in our classes today.

Speaking of assumptions, let me start with the Corporate Finance class. I must say we have been lucky to get really good professors for Finance related subjects so far, and term three maintained this winning streak. Carlos Bellon is our Professor for Corporate finance and he is an interesting fellow. With experience in Investment banking, and current pursuit of research, Carlos also has his unique way of convincing others and getting his point across. Today, he gave examples of a shirt problem and his conversation about this problem with his mother, and by the end his example ended, we already knew what he is talking about. Its good to innovate, but there is a learning cost involved; and its good to know how things are done, but its also needed to ask 'WHY' and not just rely on 'because that's how it is done'. I am penalize any statement which says "That is an assumption" was his declaration in the class. If something is on paper, it must have a valid reason.

His slides were full of many examples and characters from TV shows to movies to his family and through them all, he conveyed the message of what this course is going to be all about, what we need to do, what we can expect and what benefits this course will provide us. And yes, he makes "Investment Banker Jokes" in his class :-)
There is a new seating arrangement in his class, where we sit as per our level of understanding of finance prior to the MBA, so that he can interact with the gradient accordingly.
I know there is going to be a lot of work and assignments and number crunching and decision making and modeling stuff for this class, and I am already excited about it.

By the way, the day started with Talent management class and our professor Monika Hamori was quick enough to clarify that this is not an OB class. This class may build on people interactions we learned in OB, but it is a different stream altogether. I found her quite enthusiastic about her teaching and she maintained class participation well by giving chance to new people to speak and at the same time asking people about examples they have seen or experienced in their own past. Looking forward to get insights into that ever eluding stream of HR - who knows when these internal details will help us in our jobs :-)

Our group meeting was fairly informal, no housekeeping and ground rules like the last time although we did prepare a common excel with required deliverables and deadlines for the group.

Supply Chain Management is yet another interesting class that started today. Although a short class of 10 sessions, the syllabus covers a lot of aspects and Daniel Corsten, our professor for Supply Chain management explained us the overall structuring of syllabus today. He also provided us an outline for group work. Before that, he made good use of the class time to explain what supply chain management is all about and why should we as future managers learn it. When discussing these aspects, he asked us examples we could site of various components he discussed and also examples when failure to manage these components or having knowledge of them has created problems.
Considering the diverse group that we are, many people came up with many different examples, and I am quite impressed that Daniel knew most of them. In fact he actually rejected a couple of them, explaining what happened in those cases and how it was not relevant, and gave some more information about many examples to show how they fit the topic under discussion. This is going to be an interesting class as well.

In a nutshell, the first impression of this term has been great !!

In the evening, I had meeting with Prof. Alvaro and Manan for fellowship related work, and we discussed our way ahead on our paper submitted for one of the upcoming conference.

And then, the EM grade was out. I am not really happy with it, but at this point it doesn't matter anyways - the grade is out already. Went to see a movie to get rid off thoughts about this grade and am writing this post at late hour tonight. Good Night readers. Happy Weekend :-)

The Train the Trainer Marathon :-)

Well, today was the day when finalists for 'Making Change Happen' presented their proposals to the ATK Consultants that were jury for the day.

While each of us identified with certain solutions, we also found some areas that we could have done better on.
Overall, a good learning by knowing what other teams have done.

Found one common theme across all teams - and yes, the teams were made to wait outside the hall before presenting so that they don't know what others have already said and can present and also face the QnA with their own ideas - yet, all of them had the same phrase - "Train the Trainer" approach.

May be it was too obvious to have as a plan, may be these teams did think on similar lines, and hence came out as winners in their respective sections - either ways, I have heard this term so many times today that its still ringing in my head.

During the wrap-up, ATK presented their solution to the case and while the consultant presenting this made it clear that this is just an abstract and not the entire solution, I did feel it was too generic and did not reveal any real details on how they addressed some of the technical issues evident in the case.
Of course, they did get the job and so we have to assume that the original proposal was strong enough to get the job done.

And now, as the 'Making Change Happen' week ends, begins term 3 - our seating charts, work-groups and new group allocation for room bookings are already active and its about time we jumped into the next phase of our MBA :-)

Classes in two days !!

Well, the fun is about to get over. We are done presenting our proposal to IE internal faculty today and got a grade for it. Our team did not go through for the final pitching which is going to be tomorrow.
So, now that we don't have anything to do, for the making change happen, apart from attending the finals tomorrow and peer evaluation submission of course, there was a moment in time, when we felt relaxed.

Soon, I realized that term three classes start right away in this week on Friday and checked our classes for day one. It is going to be a full day, with lots of readings - so, either today or tomorrow, real work for term three has to begin !!
Speaking of work, did I gossip about this person in our section, who has no clue of what work means or how it is done, but he still ended up spelling the word 'work' correctly and not only that, he used the word in a phrase correctly in one of the class chats. This MBA is actually making people familiar with unknown concepts :-P

Stayed back in school for a while to see if I can do some of the reading today and succeeded in at least skimming through the syllabus and cases for day one.

And yes, finally, one of the grades for term two is out. I am not sure when all of them will be out, as it is already close to two weeks since our final exam. Anyways, I don't wish to think too much about this one.

Will try to catch up some sleep tonight as yesterday night ended up with me going to Kristina's birthday party. What tomorrow brings, we never know :-)

Bringing it all together :-)

Well, for almost the entire day today, starting at 11 AM until 8 PM in the evening, our Curie group worked to bring together our individual inputs, have a solution proposal for the case we have been assigned, get the presentation ready and practice it once after deciding who is presenting what.

It was the day to bring it all together, so that we can present tomorrow morning before internal IE faculty.

A good news arrived today when I got an email indicating that our paper, which I am working with Prof. Alvaro and Manan, as part of my fellowship work, has been selected for presentation in the WISP conference.

There are a few review comments and areas of improvements though, but it felt so good to see that all our efforts are showing up good results.

Frankly speaking, this news made my day :-)

It's time to put on the Consultant face :-)

Monday morning, specially a Monday after a week full of relaxing moments. It had to be tough to get myself out of the bed and make it up until the Aula Magna.

Somehow, I managed to do so just-in-time [well, I was a couple of minutes late, but the session had not started yet, so technically, I was on time :-) ].

After the briefing about part B of the ATKearney case and a connecting the dots session by Erik, our group had a brief discussion at Starbucks to decide our plan of action.

We divided the individual work and areas of focus and agreed to come prepared tomorrow with all the details. We also agreed to put in all our work in a shared google doc by 8 PM today, so that others can read through what we found :-)

All-in-all, the pace was set for all work to be done. And then, after posting the Toledo photos on facebook, having lunch and a brief siesta, I came back to school, my consultant face on, to do the research and analysis needed and 'crack the case' :-)

Its the finale of change modules and we want to give it our best shot :-D

Photos, Coverletters, Readings and the warm up :-)

Today, after having a good rest until noon, when I finally woke up, it was time to start working on the case for next week.

Did some reading of the case material provided by the IMBA team for the 'Making Change Happen' event.

At the same time, batch editing of Toledo photos was in progress. These will be posted on my Facebook real soon :-)

I also did some research for a couple of companies for which we have received job postings from Magali, so that I can write an appropriate cover letter for them.

All-in-all, a day spent to warm up to the next week and to the next term :-)

A day of explorations and voyages !!

12th October, the day when Columbus arrived in the Americas; the day when Spain currently celebrates its national day; and a day in weekend just after the exams for term two are over :-)

So, a though came to me on Friday evening - why not go somewhere and do some sightseeing and what can be a better spot for sightseeing than Toledo - the Imperial City?

Well, it was the Spanish capital city for a long time; it is something doable in a day and it is a place I have not been before :-)

It was me and Anoud who made the plans and when I asked around to a few other friends - some were not too keen to travel on this weekend, most of them had already seen Toledo [Yeah, I know I am a little late to visit this place]. So, it was that the two of us booked our tour with Viator on the Friday evening and decided to go to Toledo.

So, this morning started at 8:15 AM when I met Anoud on Principe de vergara and then we went to the travel office. We took a bus at 9 AM which got us into Toledo in around 40 minutes. There was a English speaking guide accompanying us, so the whole experience was so much better.

I am seriously impressed with the grandeur of the Cathedral in Toledo, the innovative way the local authorities have turned the ruins at Alcazar into a Museum and the historical feel that we get into this city. Both of us enjoyed the Toledo experience today.
This tour concluded with visit to a factory which makes ornamental things out of the old craft here at Toledo, to do golden carvings and decorations on processed steel. The only difference, In olden days, these works were done on sword handles and armors of royalty; in current times, its done in a reduced scale on all kinds of souvenirs :-)

By the time it was 5:30 PM, we were already in Madrid. Stayed around at Sol for a coffee at Starbucks and then took a bus back home.

Exploring the Imperial city of Spain and its history, even while Spain celebrates its National Day and the day of its greatest historical exploration, was a great, great experience, which made our day today - not to mention, it helped us get rid of usual school talks and reset our brains to take in the term three :-D

Not just Change Management .. but, Life Management !!

Today began the 'Making Change Happen' module of our IMBA program. A week of team work to solve a change management real life challenge, prepared by the consulting firm ATKearney and IE.

So, even while there was a briefing about part A of the case, with a great video featuring the IE staff members doing a role play, and a short introduction to how change management is handled at ATKearney, the part which I most enjoyed today was the opening address by our Keynote speaker.

Mr. Frederico Tejera, CEO of NH Hotels, with rich previous experience with Disney and P&G, was the keynote speaker of the day and he started his address by getting right into what change management is, how he has handled it previously and is addressing it currently.

He did mention a couple of books and had some slides on theory of change management, but was quick enough to say that, "this is all what you find in books anyways, so let me not say it here, as I won't be adding any value then". The message was clear - No bullshitting and jargon talks with this guy :-)

I liked a couple of themes he acquainted us with today.
"Change cannot be fake. It has to be honest" He then shared some past experiences explaining these concepts.
"You cannot bring change by giving speeches. you need to show people concrete steps taken for bringing the change, may it be change in working capital allocation or may it be change of marketing mix."
Point duly noted :-)
Frederico was concise in his address and at the same time made sure he addressed us in the right direction. He also connected with the audience and kept them engaged by throwing challenges at us and asking us how we would have handled some of the situations he had faced in his past experience.
All the great skills we learned in communication skills class were demonstrated by Frederico today.

During the QnA, it was interesting to see him comfortably answering all questions including the one where someone posed a question about quality of NH hotels and whether "he knows his products". Frederico gave a convincing reply without any hesitation.
Another such reply which I found interesting was "It is not the crisis that is changing our business [of hotels]. It is the internet. People no longer go to travel agents and pick brochures. They search online and book accordingly. Crisis is never bad, as it helps us to put things in their rightful place."

Before concluding today's post, I would also like to mention this one quote by him, which he emphasized a couple of times, and stated that he believes in it the most.
"Change management is no longer a limited-time-period thing. Today, change is everywhere and change is needed everyday for any organization to survive and compete and stay ahead. Change management has now truly become life management"

The Beacon of Term Three ...

Well, for some time in morning today [while I was still asleep after staying up late watching movies last night], IMBA team published the term three work groups on Campus Online. Those who were awake, posted them on our section's whatsapp group.

And then don't know why, but the group link disappeared !!

Nevertheless, the short time for which it was available was good enough to sound the beacon of term three for all of us. Greeting new group members, forming new whatsapp groups and other rituals soon began all around and this short publication surely created a buzz on a day when we are all enjoying the last day of our vacation a.k.a. the career fair :-)

Tomorrow onwards, for a week, we get to be consultants, and we will 'Make Change Happen' :-D

Chores time :-)

Well, there was no company today at the career far that I was interested to go for. So, a day spent at home, buying grocery, doing chores from washing clothes to doing dishes.
All at a leisurely pace :-)

But the real chore which starts today, and I am hoping to enjoy it rather than doing it as a chore, is that of exercising.

Yes, my gym membership starts today and I am hoping that I find enough time everyday to enjoy it. Else, I will do it a couple of times in the week [mostly on weekends] anyways, but then that would become a chore, which I am not too much in favor of.

Time to inspire myself and make sure that the subject line for today 'Chores time' changes itself into 'Fitness time' :-)

A day in Madrid with no reason to go to MM31 .. really ???

No exam, no classes, no submissions, no events, no agenda to go to MM31 today !! Yes, there is the ongoing career fair which is based out of Serrano 99, but MM31 has got nothing to do with the event !!

So, did that stop me from going there?? Nah~

I went there anyways and sat in the launchpad preparing some cover letters and researching companies :-D

Yet another thing which I noticed today. When walking towards the school, I made a stop at Zumus as usual to get a chocolate drink  [it was almost noon, so not really a time for the regular coffee :-) ] and a croissant - and then I began walking towards MM31 sipping on my drink and eating the croissant as I walked.

And then, suddenly I realized - I have no rush today - I don't need to eat this croissant and sip on this drink as I walk - I can go to the school, sit back and enjoy my breakfast sitting calmly in the launchpad !!
But then, sometimes some habits catch up with us so much, we never realize all of this :-)
As I had already eaten most of the Croissant when this thought occurred, I decided to finish it on the way anyways :-D

Another term concludes ..

With the Technology and Innovation exam today, another term concluded here at IE. I also wrapped up the technology blog some time back to officially be done with all the work for term two.

Exam today was very similar to the mid-term, where we had to answer two of four short answers and six of eight multiple choice questions. I think I like this flexibility, as it ensures that we submit answers for the topics we know best, and this improves chances of everyone putting their best in the exam. Of course, the curve will form itself anyways :-)

Today is also the day when Career fair began. After having a siesta in afternoon, I reached to the venue at around 4 PM. It was a decent crowd of students all dressed up to impress and that included me as well ;-)

Anyways, of those companies I was interested in and had done some research, two turned out to be hiring for Spain - so needed working visa for Spain, two had international openings and the representatives told me to apply online - and there were two which I was most curious about - where I could not only talk about various aspects of the company and positions available, but also succeeded in exchanging contacts and handing over my CV. Not bad, I would say.

Key take-away from day one of career fair - when a company is hiring for Spain - you need to have a valid work visa for Spain - language is not a rigid constraint, as the hiring managers know that we can and will pick it up in next few months - if we really want to work here in Spain :-)

Anyways, had a group dinner with lots of variety of Egyptian style fish recipes at Yehia's place. I supplemented the dinner menu with chicken curry I made, Chris got her specialty Brazilian Desserts and Jon n Sara came with the best Chocolate cake in Madrid. Sophie got wine and beer to complete the menu - overall a fun filled last night of term two spent merrily with my term two group :-)

Wanted: Big Data Processor :-)

Seriously !! Yesterday, I didn't even think of reading anything about Technology and Innovation, partly relying on my IT background that I can manage this one, and partly because I assigned a higher priority to research of companies coming down to Madrid for Career Fair at IE.

Anyways, after I opened the folder of documents that I had downloaded for the subject, and saw the sheer number of technical notes, slides, reference readings, videos and webpages I needed to go through, I knew it's going to be another looooong day and longer night.

Speaking in technology terms, I just wished that I had some Big Data processor installed in my brain, which will take in all this data from various sources, merge and integrate it and make it ready for me to use in exam tomorrow.

By now, you must have guessed by my lingo that I have been reading too much about the subject already !!

Anyways, last exam of term two tomorrow, so looking forward to it :-)

Cover Letters, Cover Letters, Cover Letters !!

It's Career Fair at IE next week and tomorrow is going to the day for me to study for the Technology and Innovation exam of Monday. So, today is the only day when I can prepare the Cover Letters for companies I am interested in - that will visit the campus during career fair.

There are also a few emails from Magali for some openings.

All-in-all, today is the day when I am doing nothing but preparing cover letters for various companies that I am interested in.

Not bad for a Saturday, I would say :-)

Clacks, Units and Consumptions !!

Today was the final exam of Managerial Accounting. Multiple Choice exam - where I found there was a little something for everyone.
Some questions from previous year exam, some from practice test, some theory and definition questions, some needing number crunching and then around 5 to 7 of them, which will truly make the curve :-)

It was a good exam to write on a Friday morning, and as the next exam was only on Monday, began our drinking spree.

Luis has already made his clacks for unit consumption popular amongst us. So, after giving the exam for his subject, each beer that was ordered resulted in a clack from us. People were still talking in terms of units consumed and budget for today's drinking and actual consumption so far. This is one class which we will remember for a long time :-)

[for those not from our batch, think of the Oriental lucky cat with its palm moving up and down. Each time the palm comes down, its a CLACK :-)]

Afternoon was spent shopping for the exotic dinner planned by our group. Akash used his expertise to find some great Italian wines and special cheese varieties for the three course cocktail planned and then we went to the Indian store to get Paneer. Tonight, I made special Paneer Tikka Masala for the group and it turned out really delicious.

Night is still young as it is Friday today, so lets see where it takes us :-)

True test to check what we learned !!

Well, an open book, open laptop, open internet exam of Investment Analysis today - and we were all not sure what to expect from it.

When the exam started and I read the questions - there were two prominent things that struck me:
1. there was nothing which would need anyone to access internet for, if someone has paid attention in the class - in other words, it was relatively simple exam.
2. It tested understanding of the topics more than ability to do number crunching - so, a level field for all whether they are good at numbers or not; and a test to see how much we grasped in the course rather than how good we are at MS Excel.

This exam went quite well for me and I am really happy about it, as I write this post. Some more respect for Luis S. after this exam, as he stood true to what he had said in the concluding class - he doesn't care if we cannot find NPV after this class, but he wants us to know that life presents ambiguity and multiple choices for decisions to make. Exam today reflected this thought process so clearly and that has earned Luis my respect.

Tomorrow is the exam for Managerial Accounting - biggest exam in terms of credits it carries and tonight is going to be a long night :-)

Eighteen is the new Eight !!

Well, two sections - mine and one more - were told at least five to seven times - the case for today's Operations Management exam would be 7.5 [let's say 8] pages long. Our minds got programmed accordingly in past week.

And so on the D-day today, the case which comes for test is actually 18 pages long, considering all the exhibits.

Damn !! Not that it was something impossible to be done in exam. Its just that our minds were not expecting this.

Anyways, after going through this loooong case for almost an hour and a half, finally, I could answer the related questions and manage to finish the exam in time.

This exam proved to be exhausting rather than hard or lengthy. Tried to relax by doing one of my favorite activities of cooking and came back to school to resume studies of the next subject - Investment Analysis.

An open book exam tomorrow - lets see what it brings along :-)

Term Two Classes conclude ..

With the solo Technology and Innovation class that was scheduled for today morning, all the classes for term two are now finally over.

Tomorrow begins our final exam - one final per day up until Monday.

Apart from the one class that we had, I spent most of the time studying today. Although tomorrow is the OM final, which is a four hour test with a case to analyze, thus needing not much of studying, there is also managerial accounting and investment analysis coming later. So, most of the time today was spent to study for those subjects rather than studying OM.

Lets see what tomorrow brings. Until then, Have a good night :-)