Parrtyyyy !! Or may be just Relaxxxx !!

Well, although a couple of plans were made for today, none of them materialized. I was to go out with my cousin and his friends, but they canceled the trip; all the local friends decided to stay at home and celebrate the new year, considering the increased vigilance and checking by police on the roads - so I decided to stay home as well - and enjoy the last day of this year, by doing what I like most i.e. cooking.

Went to our regular mutton shop, and got some meat, and then to our regular grocer and got a good quality Basmati rice, and then to the market to get some greenies.
Overall, in this process, I got a chance to visit all of these people, wish them happiness for coming year and share some chat with them.

Once I was back, it was time to make "Mutton Dum Biryani" and so, I made the Biryani Rice, and the Mutton Masala, and then, mixed the two in layers, to finally give them the steamed "Dum" by covering in a big wok.

Everyone at home enjoyed it and that made my day today :-)

A day to rest and plan

After a long and eventful day yesterday, today morning was a lazy one. Afternoon was then spent planning for New Year's Eve.

Also spent some time reading some case analysis methods to help with mock interviews with CMC once I m back in Madrid.

Hopefully, I will finish all the basic preparation by the time this vacation is over :)

A park of many sorts :)

Well, the plan today was to spend the entire say at a water park some 150 kms away from my home town, and so we went there.

While I enjoyed the whole day with my family, what also impressed me about this park in a place called Akluj was that they had an amusement park, a children's play zone, a boating lake and add to it occasional sculptures and statues of traditional Marathi folks doing their daily chores like milling, pottery, gardening, praying, etc.

I think it's a nice place to take children and for adults to go, not only for all the adrenaline rush it has to offer, with all the fun at water tanks and all the games in the amusement park, but also for the fulfilling experience it offers. The thing about this place that I liked most, and this is something I have not seen in any amusement park so far, is that they had a special room for senior citizens to rest.

Yepp, I know there are shades and resting areas in many parks, but this one was specially meant for those grand-dads and grand-mas who accompany the children of house but eventually need to rest for a while.

Found a great place for dinner on our way back, by accident, and had a sumptuous meal, only to return home for a good night's sleep :)

Doctor Doctor !!

Completed another task for the holiday - to visit the eye specialist and do the routine checkup for my eyes. I have always found it better to have these routine check up visits instead of trying to find doctors in foreign lands if some problem arises due to my neglect of it.

Anyways, I also met one of my school teachers, I mean my secondary school teacher, not the IE business school, after a long time today. Spent some time chatting over past days and current happenings in our lives and in school. It was a good chat today.

Planning to go out with my family tomorrow and then my cousins would be here for some year end celebrations. I guess I will resume my readings only in the next year :P

Thank you Coursera :-)

Well, I knew that there is this platform Coursera, where each top B-School is adding some content in terms of classes and tutorials, for common benefit of students as well as the general masses.

Today, I decided to browse through - and I found an interesting series of classes on corporate finance published by Wharton Business School. Just the thing I wanted, as I am trying to consolidate and strengthen my know-how in the subject, as a preparation for some advanced courses coming my way in the next term.

Happy to go through these new found lessons and enjoying them to the fullest.

And yes, right on the landing page, I also found a link to course by Rolf, with the IE logo shinning bright on the top corner, igniting a subtle sense of pride in me for a moment :-)

And for all the good things I found on this page today, thank you Coursera :-)

Finally, the readings begin :-)

Started the day late today, thanks to the party which went on past midnight yesterday and after having a brunch, started my laptop to pick up on my pending tasks.

Apart from checking the time table for the electives I have opted for, I also began the readings I have planned for the vacation.

I believe if I can spare an hour or two everyday for these readings, I would be in a good state, by the time I return to Madrid.

Its already time to get serious :-)

Feliz Navidad - and - Happy Birthday Pappa :-)

Yepp, while the whole world rejoices on this day for Christmas, my family has one more reason to do so - it's my dad's birthday today!!

More of a reason why I came home for these holidays :-)

Best part about this day, many of our family friends, close relatives and acquaintances come down to our house to greet my dad - which means, I get to meet all of them, or talk with all of them [over phone] all in the same day. By evening, the house was full of guests and we had a small dinner party which went on till mid-night.

Feliz Navidad readers. I wish everyone, all the joy and prosperity on this day of Christmas :-)

Meeting Friends :-)

Well, I had a list of things to get from the market, so I took out my bike from the garage, and then after I was done with all the list, it was time to have some chat with my friends.

Surprised a couple of them by showing up without any notice that I have got holidays and will be in town and then enjoyed sharing updates about each other and many others for almost three hours.

Didn't follow through the agenda of reading anything as per the plan, and I know it ain't happening tomorrow as well - but then, the holidays have only just begun :-)

One Vacation - Two Agendas

Yepp - this vacation brings with it its own agendas - one of them - to do some sightseeing with the family and take care of a couple of personal matters, the other - read the books for case analysis frameworks and for corporate finance, to make myself ready for job preparation and for electives season beginning after the vacations.

Today I started on both of these.

By the way, also showed the class videos to my parents and family members and they all liked it :-)

And every time someone likes the video, I feel great - being involved so much for the past one and half month in making it :-)

Change is in the air

Well, today morning I reached Mumbai and then reached home at around 5:30 PM. But that is not the change I am talking about.

For starters, this time I took the Emirates flight - and the first thing I noticed [being a movie buff] is the wide screen that this airlines has - impressed at first sight :-)

And then the next surprise - among the many movies this airlines had in its library, there were seven, yes seven Marathi movies [Marathi is my native language in India] and yet another change - this time I traveled watching Marathi movies :-)

Baalak Paalak, based on how sex education is need of the hour and Ek Divas Majha, based on how a chief minister of state changes the way administration works, although only for a night, to ensure that an old singer gets his long due accommodation.

And then, I saw a Hindi movie D-Day, again based on fiction about how a group of India agents bring back Dawood to India - again change was the theme of this movie :-)

Anyways, may be I will write a separate blog soon on all of these, but for now - considering that I am home after so many days, I just want to relax :-)

India Calling ..

Yepp !! It's time to take a flight and get onboard to fly to India - to my home in Satara.

The journey that will begin shortly today, will comprise of two flights one from Madrid to Dubai and the second from Dubai to Mumbai and then a six hours drive to Satara - totaling the travel time to almost 24 hours. But then, who cares - I just wanna go home :-D

Shopping, Shopping, Shopping and some Quick Packing :-)

Well, past few days have been real busy for me - so I couldn't really do any shopping for things to take back home.

That is why, I feel good that even though my term ended yesterday, I have a day before I fly back home - yess - I am going home :-D

Spent entire day today shopping - at IKEA, at ToyrUs, at Zara, at H&M, at El Corte Ingles - a busy day; and in the night, it was time to dump it all in a bag - a real quick packing I would say :-)

Excited to be going home tomorrow :-)

CORE MBA: Been there, Done that :-D

Yess !! With the Corporate Finance exam today, concluded our term 3 of the International MBA program - the last among three core terms :-)

And while we will resume our MBA after vacations, it would be an electives period. Speaking of vacations and electives after vacations, today we spent almost the entire day with those of us that didn't fly immediately to their home countries - having celebrations, drinks, lunches and a good Ethiopian dinner. 40 People from our section showed up to the dinner - the rest are anyways already in a plane or at their homes outside Madrid :-)

Felt good about all the celebratory mood also because today is the Marriage Anniversary of my Parents, and even while I am not at home, I am a part of some jubilation, celebrating their anniversary in a different way :-)

And of course, it is going to be a long night, spending time with friends not only form our intake but also from the previous November intake, as they will graduate tomorrow and move out of Madrid real soon.

As of now, the just enjoying the relaxed moments. Soon, it will be time to look back on the core MBA, but then, that's where this blog will help us, isn't it? ;-)

The day before tomorrow :-)

Yes, the best way that I can describe today is that its the "day before tomorrow" and what is so special about tomorrow? It is the last day of term 3 :-)

By the way, today marked the conclusion of another great class of Business Government and Society, a class which provided us with so many insights about day to day political and business happenings around us - the factors that influence them, the reasons why they occur and the impact they can have.

Excellent way to complement our Strategy understanding by introducing an element of non-market analysis to it, I would say; and Jeff was too good, handling all the case discussions, providing inputs on why certain events took place and getting us to generate so many ideas when it came down to analyzing the non-market environments in cases we did.

And yes, we could not resist ourselves from playing the class video before and after the BGS class - looks like at least for a few more days, we are going to be addicted to watching it over and over again :-)

Last case discussion class as A2, and finally the A2 video goes live :-)

Today, we had the last case of term 3 and last case we would all discuss as the A2 class. This was for Talent Management finale session.

Although the class was at noon, our group met before to finalize details of the Business Government Society final report and presentation. Turns out that I am one of the two people presenting tomorrow :-)

As of today, we finally released the A2 videos - which did not happen on Friday night due to technical issues.

So, here's a small compilation that I did that takes us through the making of this video:

And here is the A2 video - the best International MBA video so far:

Being the person behind camera, shooting every member of the class for more than a month now, with one or two people everyday, at different locations in and around IE and Madrid, today I feel so much fulfillment, so much happiness, its beyond description in words.

I would just say - check out the videos and join us in the "good times" :-)

Another day, another assignment off the charts ..

Well, I did go out last night and took some pictures of colorful Madrid, as it gets ready to welcome Christmas.
As for today, as I had stated previously, these days, everyday is different, and everyday is dedicated to one thing.
Today was all about Business Government and Society final group work  - a report and a presentation to be made, on which me and my group worked for almost the entire day.

Anyways, at end of it, we are all happy as the last group work is now done, and so is another final assignment !!

One presentation and one exam to go now, for this term to close :-D

Another Exam done :-)

Yes, yes .. it is Sunday today and the school is not open. But we had one exam as a take home exam and today I spent most of the time understanding the questions and analysing the related case for answering these questions. By end of the day, this exam, of Supply Chain Management, is finally done. Feeling happy considering there is one less thing to worry about now :-)

Plans are now to go out for some pre-Christmas night time photography of Madrid central area. Lets see how it goes :-)

Cleaning the house ..

Well, after a long time, a long weekend, when I don't have too much of workload, or even if I have a workload, I am not exactly in the mood to worry about it :-)

My brain is thinking more of the term end, and in my mind, I just want to be home :-)

Anyways, so today was the day, when with help of a maid I got from owner of the house I stay in, I got the entire house cleaned. All the garbage, all the dirt that was lying around for months is now out of the house. The internet connection which has been extended from owner's house to mine, and which always tended to get screwed up as soon as it was rectified, is finally up and running, thanks to owner opting for a new fiber optic movistar line now.

And after all of it was over, indulged myself into some cooking :-)

so, all-in-all, a day spent in cleaning up and improving my habitat here in Madrid and relaxing :-)

Happy Friday :-)

Last Friday of the term - a Friday with only two sessions making the school finish before noon - a Friday when our section will have its grande finale party - a Friday when we release our section video - yepp, the secret project that me and some others were working on, from more than a month now - video shooting every member of our section, putting the videos together as per the script we had, and editing the final video !!

This is going to be a long day [and night] preparing for the party and the release, yet its going to be a really happy day - so, while I get ready to do all the work, just thought of putting today's post early, as who knows how the night will end up :-)

by the way, I will post links for our section video here tomorrow, once we release it officially tonight :-)

Happy Friday, everyone !! Have fun :-)

Wrap Up of another great course

Yepp - with a double session today, it was time to wrap up the Business Government and Society class.

A different perspective on various market happenings, implications, reasons and influences behind them and a lot more insights on how a non-market situation can influence a company's business.

I liked the overall theme of this class, and Jeff was excellent in carrying the class discussions.

Today, we also had a class on supply chain management, with Daniel discussing financing options based on supply chain management, e.g. reverse factoring, etc. Interesting concepts I would say.

Anyways, stayed after school to work on the BGS final report - I guess the next couple of days are going to be dedicated to the BGS report and final presentation, followed by the supply chain management take-home exam for a day or so and then the corporate finance exam on last day of this term. Plan for next week has already been laid out and I can't wait to get through this week :-)

that extra space ..

Well, today was all about marketing strategy presentations by our section. We spent the morning preparing for it, making sure that the flow is correct, and the people presenting did their rehearsals.

And then the marathon of marketing strategy presentations began. As it turned out, I could see that there were two distinct types of presentations - ones which are for established companies trying to do offer a new product or go to a new market; and the other from teams with a member or two devising marketing strategy for their own ventures in venture lab.

One notable observation was that apart from one team, I found that all venture lab related projects, were pitching more about their venture or their product and making people familiar with their business model, etc. In fact the questions they were getting were also based on how they will operate and hw they will overcome entry barriers and things which made it look more like a QnA for entrepreneurship class than marketing strategy class. Anyways, that's just me :-)

As for our presentation, despite being 8th in the queue to present, we did a good job I think. Erik also had a unique system for peer evaluation - entire class rated each presentation, except their own, both quantitatively and qualitatively and this feedback will go anonymously to the groups for improvements in their work beyond the course. A good idea I would say.

What I and many others would remember more though was the closing note by Erik, where he made us all stand up first and relax and then told to fold our fingers together. In a while, he told us to change hands and then what we realized that it was actually a little painful to do so. And then, he told us to go back to our usual way of fingers of two hands, and suddenly we felt much more comfortable even more than the original attempt.

And then, he gave the message - this is the extra space that is created by this course, a space of knowledge - use it to your advantage :-)

Well, when I relate the statement to all the work we have done in this one class of just 10 credits, the meaning becomes so clear. We were in our comfort zone and could have stayed so, if the work was supposedly justified for 10 credits - but we were pushed beyond our comfort zone, we came out of our usual self and worked harder, and now when it is all over, and we are all back to our normal life [or will be soon], we have learned so much by that extra load of work we executed - learning as we were doing the work !!

That extra space which we achieved in terms of knowledge expansion is surely going to be a help for a long way ahead !! Great conclusion to a great class :-)

First online exam for both multiple choice and subjective questions :-)

Well, it is not that I haven't taken any online exams before; but today was the first IE exam where we took the country economic analysis exam online, and this was not only a multiple choice exam, but also had three subjective questions to answer - all online as well. In terms of exam, it was more open ended questions that we needed to answer based on what we learned in the course than straight forward questions, and they were all random for everyone, selected from a question bank.

Anyways, another exam is now done and its time to prepare for the next day - to prepare for the marketing presentation.

There hasn't been a time before when I have actually lived the doctrine 'take everyday as it comes', but somehow these last few days have been just that for me :-)

Every day brings with itself a new deliverable to be completed, a new exam to be studied for or a new presentation to be delivered, and all these things being spread across two-three weeks, there hasn't been any preparation or studying that I could manage to do. It is just revisions and nothing more. While its not really bad, I think I may have to spend some more time on corporate finance, after the term, to get in speed for the electives coming up.

Yes, and on that note, our final bid results for electives are out and I got all that I had bid for :-)

it IS your problem :-)

Well, the Business Government and Society class today was about Nike and its reaction to the controversy in Indonesia that it recently faced, with regards to the working conditions, and the labor employed. What was going on, was it right - for the company, for the people, for the share holders, how did Nike react and how should it have reacted, what did Reebok do differently, and all other aspects of this discussion today stressed one point - as long as a firm is past of your supply chain, or as long as you own a firm - no matter where it is located, any problem in the firm IS your problem. Shrugging off shoulders is a real bad move when it comes to media attention on issues that are not even critical to your business model, and hence knowing what is critical and not critical and preparing to compromise on non-critical matters early-on is a key to a good media image.

After this interesting class, it was time for studying Country Economics, or shall I say revising all its classes, to be ready for the exam tomorrow.

Our group did meet for marketing strategy report final-final read, and we submitted the 50 pager to Erik once the review was done. But it was a short meeting today, and my major focus is on revising country economics.

I know I will be busy with it for a while tonight, so for those who don't have any exam tomorrow, good night :-)

World War Z :-)

Seriously, I mean who comes to school on a Sunday and in such a number that it almost feels like we are in a movie where there is an outbreak of zombies occupying every meeting room in the building, every chair in the study rooms and every table in the launch pad?

And who are all these people - so many with faces I don't know? Are they the old November trying to work on their final presentation, or are they the new November getting a hang of things, right in the first week of school, or are they MiM, whose exams may be around the corner !!

It took me 15 minutes just to get a seat in launchpad, and then after passing my time on some non-school things, I finally began reading economics :-)

This is of course after I had spent an entire morning at home, doing chores, and cleaning my room.

Surprisingly there was no pattern for the crowd today, as usually groups meet for only a few hours over the weekend and then the building can be reasonably empty on a Sunday evening. At least for now, the world war Z, to get a seat and maintain it, so that we can study, ignoring all the discussions and talks and crowd and buzz that is going around, is still on !!

By the way, on a positive note, today marks the 250th day of my MBA journey :-) Yeah, I know, time flies !!

And here's the section picture for my class that IMBA team took a few days back:

 

Yet another day - and the saga continues !!

Yes, today was again a day when my group worked from 11 AM in the morning and is still working on the marketing strategy report fine points, reviews and for preparing the presentation for this class.

While, we are not yet done, I just thought of sneaking out for a bit and write this post of the day. Nothing different done today that we didn't do yesterday.

That being said, I won't say that I did nothing special in the school today. Today marked the final day for one of the secret project that I am doing with a few other people of my section.

More details on this will be revealed on the 13th when we disclose the project to the entire world. Till then, just know that I am having a real good time, working for it :-)

A day for Marketing Strategy Report - and the dilemma it created :-)

We have spent last few days meeting occasionally for this report, and making some changes or other to the material we gathered for marketing strategy final group work.

As we have a long weekend, today was the day designated to work only for getting this report to its final stage - after all it is due on Sunday :-)

After spending from 10:30 AM untl 8:30 PM in the night, finally a group of 5 of us got the report in its final version - there are some formatting changes to be done, but that's now :manageable"

So, the question which kept haunting me whenever we got stuck today was - is it worth spending so much time, to create a report that is almost 50 pages long now - for just 3 credits in this term [30% of 10 credit course]? But then, each time I had this question, the answer came out to be the same - YES :-)

And the reason - this is probably the only time, I would create a full scale marketing strategy report for any product. So, while I am at it, why not go through the process properly, prepare a good report and get a hang of it !! After all, you never know when this knowledge will come handy :-)

While, we are now thinking about the presentation based on this report, that is scheduled for Wednesday, I wish all my readers a great weekend ahead :-)

Longest exam so far: now a history :-)

Well, today was yet another interesting day at IE :-)

While, I started the day thinking that most of my time during classes would go thinking about the Business Government Society that I need to write from 4 PM onwards, the case discussion on welfare state in Sweden, during the country economics class proved me wrong. It was an interesting model of economics that Sweden followed as a complete welfare state, and is following after it made some changes to it. Patricia also discussed prospects of this model - being replicated in future in the EU and in US, the timeline it would need and so on. All in all, the final day of country economics class turned out to be yet another interesting day :-)

And then, finally at 3:55 PM, we received a mail from Jeff providing us the exam case and the question that we had to answer. We had time until 10 PM; yes - that's 6 hours. While I spent first hour and a half to read the case, and then another hour to think about what it is all about, when I finally began writing I kept getting more and more thoughts.

I had already booked a quiet room for myself to be able to concentrate on the case better. As I went on writing, I never realized that it is already 9:25 PM, by the time I was done :-)
Gave another read to the analysis, made a few cosmetic changes and mailed the exam back at around 9:45 PM. I have taken long exams before, but this has been the longest so far.
Yet, I didn't feel exhausted after writing it, as the case was interesting enough to keep me occupied with my thought process for a good 4.5 hours, after I had read it. I liked this aspect of the exam - it was challenging, but not to the extent that it would lose me mid-way :-D

Anyways, after that Operations Management exam case that Amrou shocked us with, in the last term, I think any case based exam would never be too bad :-)

And now, it's time to relax for the day :-)

One more down :-)

Yes, after a class in the morning on how emotions and cultural elements can affect negotiations, and how these can be either avoided or employed favorably, it was time for the final exam of negotiations.
IT was a traditional way of exam, with a small case and 6 questions on the case to see how we applied the concepts learned during the course; and 4 questions testing the knowledge of these concepts directly.

We had to rush a little to make it in the time of 45 minutes provided, but eventually I could write it all. Happy about my performance during this exam.

But there is not much time to relax or rejoice, as tomorrow it is going to be the next final exam for Business Government and Society. So, its time to revise the technical notes and slides for this class, so that these can be applied tomorrow in the case-based exam.

This busy week is almost about to get over - one more exam is done, one more hurdle towards vacation is now down, and I can't wait to finish it all soon :-D

Take-aways time :-)

Well, a session before final presentation for Marketing Strategy and a last session before final exam for Country economic analysis - so, sessions, which elevated the learning experience to a different level, sessions which gave us something beyond the usual theoretical concepts, sessions which discussed what we can use and what to watch for in the coming future :-)

Too abstract right?? Let me elaborate :-)

Today, it was last session by Gayle, and she used it to debrief on the simulation of unknown country analysis that we all did. It was interesting to know the general parameters, a template to analyze economy of any country irrespective of its location, its history and our bias towards it. The anonymity was successful to the extent that one of our economic experts in the class from Egypt ended up selecting to invest in a country, that was revealed to be Israel in final few moments !! Interesting, ain't it?

Anyways, as Gayle said, she wanted us to take away a framework to help us decide in future, whenever we are taking decisions pertaining to investments, start-ups and expansions to any country - and she delivered us that framework today. Another interesting class, I would say :-)

And then, it was last class of marketing strategy by Erik - or rather, last class before we meet one last time for group presentations. Erik today took us away from the usual framework of the C's and the STP and the P's and we discussed the Inbound Marketing concepts, with relation to the HubSpot case.
Interesting case related to application of technology concepts, the web 2.0 and the SEO - all of that combined with marketing strategy aspects of the business :-)

The owners of this firm, and their confidence to create a disruptive technological innovation, was worth knowing and applauding.

And towards the end of this class, Erik gave us a sneak peek into what are the futuristic trends in marketing from the viral social media campaigns to the 'No marketing' campaigns to the Islamic marketing on the rise. Not to forget, the neuro-scientific marketing:-)

As a take-away from this last class, we were advised to keep an eye on these trends and watch out for them to take over the world of marketing as we know it :-)

After two great sessions this morning, spent the afternoon to give finishing touches to the economics group report and submitted it; this was followed by a meeting about my fellowship work and our paper to be presented in the conference next week; and then, after a brief siesta, it is now time to study for tomorrow's negotiation exam.

Buenos Noches Amigos :-)

Now I know how they choose people for the Colgate Ads :-)

Well, first things first !! This morning began with the Talent Management exam. Prof Monika had structured the exam to reflect more on what we leaned throughout the course through various technical notes and case studies, and how this learning can be transferred to the Mission Hills case which we had for exam, what can be improved, what is good already, and what can be learned from the Mission Hills case itself.

It was a good exam I would say :-)

And then, in the marketing strategy class, we had a case on Colgate-Max Fresh, aiming for a global launch in the US, China and Mexico.

Even while we discussed various factors and aspects of the marketing strategy for these three countries, the part which I would remember the most is probably where the class discussion centered on why they choose the actors/models/celebs that they chose for their ads.

The target, the concept, the message, the adaptation cost, and the decision whether you want the people to remember the model or the message - all these eventually help us decide what actors to chose.

So, all those back in India, if you are wondering why they chose Shahid Kapoor and Genelia for their ad-campaign, or those in US, if you are wondering why they chose Emily Proctor, here's your answer - so that their message is spread by someone who is known to most people through TV or movies or sports, but by someone who is not big enough that people end up remembering only the celeb and forget the message - Instead, these people help to make people remember the message.

Interesting isn't it? From now on, I have a reason to analyze every TV commercial for various factors that we studied today.
Not sure what is better though - to just sit back on the couch and enjoy the commercials while swapping tv channels or to take a pause and try to dig deeper in to each one of them :-P

Exam Mode On :-)

Yepp !! Tomorrow being our Talent Management final, I spent most of today preparing for this exam. There is already a case that we have to prepare for this exam, so I spent the day reading the case, and trying to figure out various dimensions of talent management associated with the case, that can be asked tomorrow.

This was of course not before I completed the initial write-up for my economics group work :-)

The busiest week of term three with three exams and two group submissions to do, is now ON, and today marked its beginning :-)