digging deeper in to online business

Today I had scheduled for the second session in the series of "DBMS for Entrepreneurs". So, the morning was spent in preparing for the session. In the afternoon, we had the Internet as a Sales Channel class, where Fernando took us on a tour of various SEO and SEM techniques and also introduced us to various firms and companies helping in web analytics and SEO implementations.

Learned about a few cool websites and Google products today, that can really help to get that competitive edge in the field of e-commerce.

After a good lunch, it was time for the DBMS session, where I taught the budding entrepreneurs of our intake about how to use MySQL and MS-ACCESS. Yes, today's session was about hands-on. I was especially happy because after this session ended, Danny presented me with a problem he was facing in migrating his website from Korea to Spain web hosting server, and I could provide him with a resolution.

And then in the evening, I came home for a quick one hour siesta. Right now, I just woke up and got ready for a long night ahead, which begins with the Japan Club's event 'IE Japan Cultural Night', where there is going to be Japanese food, drinks and dance performances from 9 PM until 12:30 PM.

The coincidence of the day is that I am going for a Japanese dinner on the Chinese New Year :-)

Anyways, I know that I am in for a fun night ahead, so enjoy your weekend readers and Hasta Manana :-)

A day to just sit back and listen :)

Morning started early today thanks to the city hall appointment. Yes, it's that time to renew my NIE already. Anyways, in school, we had the simulation debrief during applied corporate finance class, nod apart from registering our strategy, it was just a class to sit back and listen to what everyone has to say. By the way, we were the best group when it came to the acquisition offers that went through yesterday, buying the other company in least price.

And then, it was time for the IE Digital Forum 2014. Various panels with discussions ranging from SoLoMo to digital identity to big data to innovation models from companies ranging from Oracle to IBM to ideagoras to Deloitte to Indra occupied my day from 3:30 pm until 8:30 pm. An entire day spent listening to latest trends in technology and innovation. Was a good experience to have, and this experience was then followed by a small cocktail.

What can I say, some days are just good to have :)

Portfolio management & M&A, all in the same day

Today was a stressful day - we did programming of finding efficient portfolios for various market, regulatory and organizational constraints, both in excel and Matlab in the morning using Mr. solver and some Matlab function creations, and then we played the simulation for M&A and managed to get a deal done, buying one of the two probable targets that we're playing along within the available time of 75 minutes.

It may sound like just another day but the whole thing was not only exciting but also stressful. 

Thankfully, there wasn't much to be read for tomorrow's classes so I could come home early. Tonight I will sleep early, after missing a lot of sleep in last two days.

Feeling relaxed already :)

Some Old, Some New ..

While the applied corporate finance class today was all about why Mergers and Acquisitions are done, how can they create value, what are the types of M&A and what can be reasons that these deals fail, a premise which is quite new for me; the Internet as a sales channel class in the evening was all about how a typical internet platform development cycle, which resembled a typical software development life cycle from the RFP and requirements gathering to production roll-out and post release support.

So, a day with classes discussing some new concepts and some old or rather known concepts.

We also managed to finally complete the pre-simulation report for corporate finance, today being the last day to decide our reservation prices to be offered to other players for the M&A simulation to be done, and so all the brain storming between me and Hitesh for last few days finally concluded with a strategy for the simulation based o calculations in past few days.

All-in-all, a good day and a shorter one as well, compared to yesterday when we went home at 3 AM after a real long time :-)

Creating Efficient Frontier and valuating real options

As technical as it sounds, today's day was all about technical calculations in Finance. Antonio started the day with Portfolio theory and gradually, we all went from learning basics of portfolio analysis to creating the efficient portfolio envelope curve, that we had all only seen in the textbooks and reading materials so far, for the portfolio we had under consideration.

Day of course started with a quick look at the markets this week, and a brief discussion of what we can expect in the near times.

And then, Conchita took us into the world of real options. We took a look at evaluation of a patent, evaluation of a market diversification strategy, evaluation of whether to continue or to abandon a project, among some other theoretical details.

I also got started with my fast forward Spanish classes today. And after reading the technical notes for tomorrow's class, it was time to take some rest, only to resume working on corporate finance simulation.

What can I say?? We are back into the IE mode once again :-)

By the way, on a passing note, two news for the day - IE Business School is now ranked 13th in the Financial Times Global MBA list - down from 11th in the previous rankings. Was involved in a lot of talk around this topic today, with many folks form my intake and the November intake, hence thought mentioning it here.
And yes, today marks completion of 300 days for me here at IE.
Time surely flies ..

All Hail the Power of MATLAB !!

I have to say, I wasted my time a lot last week, when I was trying to write all those complex if and for loops to get various answers to the Applied Financial Engineering exercises for homework.
As I "discovered" on the web today, a lot of those things are already taken care of, by the MATLAB functions and all I really need to know is the right function for the right exercise.

If purpose of Antonio to make us do this exercise in both Excel and MATLAB was to show us the convenience that the MATLAB functions have to offer, he has already sold this to me now.

What can I say, all hail the power of MATLAB :-)

By the way, those interested in the video of the first among three sessions on "DBMS for Entrepreneurs" that I am conducting here at IE, can take a look below:

Of Career and Cash Flows

Well, two days back, I had submitted my resume for a review to a Career Executive here and today morning she got back to me with her feedback.
So the first half of the day today was spent in understanding and thinking on how I can incorporate those comments and feedback into my resume and improve it for better.
And then, there was the Applied Corporate Finance Online Simulation, which we need to complete by Wednesday. So, afternoon was spent in the simulation followed by some Matlab programming in the evening.
All-in-all, a day spent working on aspects of my career and working to analyze cash flow in the exercises assigned to me !!

Amazong Friday :-)

No, that's not a spelling mistake in the title of the day. Today was Internet as a Sales Channel class, where we had the Amazon case, of its story from being an online book shop to a full fledged service industry leading various sectors of the value chain that it has created.

Fernando was on fire today, with the case that he had himself authored along with Alvaro. So, I had more than one reason to enjoy today's case -considering that I am also working with Alvaro for my fellowship and we have also authored a conference paper together :-)

Thanks to the overwhelm about Amazon's business model and its corporate mission that was shared with us by Fernando, it was the day to be amazed with Amazon.

Thanks to the Africa Club Ethiopian Dinner and a Birthday drinks invite later tonight, the entire day of Friday today has turned out to be quite amazing !! Or shall I say Amazong :-)

A day for Ventures ..

Well, today was the day when I helped some friends who are budding entrepreneurs with an introductory session on dbms. This is going to be a three session series and we are video taping it.
These videos will also help a venture lab idea of one of my friends and I have started working on developing an idea for the knowledge incubator I will be taking in the next term, for which this video will also help.
So, the morning was spent preparing for the training, afternoon was the time for giving training and when it was all over, today I also went down to the Area 31 - the IE venture incubator for Thursday evening pitches.
There were three pitches as per every week with each idea at a different stage of execution, and with different needs from the investors.
It was interesting to know about them and to see people pitch before investors. I think I am going to continue with this thursday evening routine, considering that I am in electives periods anyways.
By the way, I had no class today, in case you are wondering about it. Today was spent altogether around ventures and ideas :-)

Saturday Preponed :-)

Well, when there are no classes for two days in a row, it seems just like a relaxing Saturday. Today was one such pre-poned Saturday :-)

Thankfully, I have a training session that I have planned for tomorrow, where I am going to teach about DBMS to some friends, so today morning went in preparation of the training related slides.

Afternoon was another round of corporate finance studies and then the day is going to end with a nice Italian dinner with my applied corporate finance work group. Feels like a weekend already :-D

Options & Options

Well, in the applied corporate finance class of today, Conchita started with discussion on various Option contracts - how their values change depending on the market changes and how these options can be evaluated. Various theories of evaluation, call-put parity equation and all the technical stuff about options was covered in a really simple way of explanation today. I liked this class a lot, for making me understand the nuances of options valuation.
And then, it was time to discuss how the behavior of option contracts can in fact be used to replicate real life valuation scenarios, to give us what are now come to be known as real options :-)
yes, real options can be anything form patents to oil drilling plants, and such projects can be evaluated more accurately using real options methodology, which we will learn in the sessions to follow.
Our group for this class also met to discuss the possible candidates for our presentation at the end of this term. A short and productive meeting it was, I would say :-)
And yes, as there is nothing scheduled for me tomorrow, I decided to come home in the evening and take a brief siesta, before starting with any studying for the day :-)

Picking up pace ..

Well, it was the same routine as last Monday this time - with Applied Financial Engineering double session to start the day, followed by Applied Corporate Finance and Internet as a Sales Channel to wrap the day.

Only difference, this time around, now that we are already at least a couple of sessions old in every class, there was a lot more learning done today than what was done last week on the first day of courses.

While day started with discussion about the Wolf of Wallstreet, thanks to the trading background of Antonio, soon we were doing portfolio analysis first using excel and then using Matlab; this was followed by a session on derivatives by Conchita and lastly it was about KPIs and performance indicators and cost allocations of the internet business.

Stayed back in school for some more time to read some more of corporate finance and came back home after getting groceries on the way.

All in all, a busy Monday with all classes paced up really well. I can already see a lot of work coming my way soon :-)

Time to get hands dirty again :-)

Well, finally, I started with the Matlab programming for exercise we had to do. Today morning was in fact spent in the school, trying my hands on the if loops and the break and the case statements.

After almost an year, I found myself doing the ground work, making my hands dirty with the real work that is programming.

All was well until I decided to go watch the latest movie about wall street - the Wolf of wallstreet !!

Well, the movie was long, slow and anti-wall street, so not too many positive things to talk about it, specially when most of my day was spent trying to code for financial market related exercises :-)

Finance Saturday

Well, as the classes begin to take pace, the need to catch up with all my finance concept revision was troubling me since last couple of days.

So today was the day when I spent time studying and revising the basics of corporate finance and tried to catch up with my applied corporate finance study so far. It was a day well spent.

In fact, later in the evening, I also started with excel exercises for applied financial engineering, and could complete most of them. The next step is now to put it all in Matlab.

Anyways, after this fruitful day, and thanks to the fact that I finally got my groceries after landing here in Madrid, I cooked today. In fact, I was able to try a east-west combo, with stuffed eggplant half made by Indian style and half made by Italian style. And then, without thinking too much about the calories that would add up to my bear tummy, I just enjoyed the home made meal in Madrid after a long time. Weekend pleasures, what can I say :-)

The Business of Online Business

In the solo class today, prof Fernando took us through a brief outline of the entire course and through this, made us acquainted with different aspects of setting up and successfully operating the e-commerce business. From strategy planning to HR structuring, from SEO to Legal issues, we mentioned them all and we had inputs from everyone in class.

Going by the course content, i can anticipate that its going to be a really useful course and I am looking forward to start studying it :-)

The Luxury that is Electives :-)

Well, when you have one session in the day, which starts only at noon, and then nothing to study for next day, because the case about which a discussion planned for next day is already read by you, there can't be a more relaxed mood you can be in.

That was my state of mind today - of course the day got busy in a good sense, thanks to a lunch I had planned with my friends and an IE Asia Pac cocktail that took place in the evening.

I also used some time to read a couple of case interview preparation slides.

In the applied corporate finance class, today Conchita explained the mechanism how mergers work and how acquisition work and what it means it terms of valuation techniques and steps involved. While I am currently still trying to catch up with the pace of this class, and making sure my fundamentals are strong, it was worth knowing how an acquisition is valued and actually going through a case about one.

Time to start watching the tickers ..

In the double session of Applied Financial Engineering today, after Antonio explained basic usage and some necessary commands of Matlab, of course with all the explanation of the Math behind the commands and how it works, we jumped right into programming - with both Matlab and VBA.

Its been more than a year since I wrote any code, so was good to return back to the programming days. And even while I was trying to relish those moments, in came another amazing task of the day. Antonio took us to the Bloomberg website, showed us some Bonds, their Coupons and Current Prices, and then using these we directly went to a real life situation - to use these numbers and find out discount factors and rate of returns of 3 bonds we considered for calculations - all using Matlab program.

Trust me, it can't get any more exciting than this for a guy like me coming from a Investment Banking IT background. These first two classes just made the day for me :-)

And right after this was a class of Applied Corporate Finance, where-in Conchita had invited a representative of Factset, another market data feed portal, and the guy explained us all the details of using factset to benefit of our corporate finance and in general stock analysis, trading, etc needs. It's amazing in the sense of how much details can we get just by access to this portal.

And then Conchita explained us how we are to use this portal, find appropriate data, and use it to create our group presentation as part of the deliverable for this subject.

So, today's message was clear - I have got to start monitoring and exploring the tickers and market data feeds from now on !!

being the converted ..

Well, one of the things that Antonio had mentioned yesterday while introducing himself was that the reason he prefers teaching the electives rather than the core term class is that here he can teach those who are interested in the class, he can preach to the already "converted" :-)

Well, while we did not have his class today, we did have the applied corporate finance and the internet as a sales channel class today and there can't be enough evidence of us now being the "converted" than what I could see in these classes.

Conchita continued brushing up our concepts of corporate finance even while explaining how to do valuations of companies, especially those being considered for M&A and then when it was time for the case, after a brief 5 minutes discussion on how to  go about it, we got a solution sheet with various tabs already filled in. I could only imply that now, we are expected to have done all of it already - we are already 'converted' remember :-)

So, for those who thought the previous term course was way too slow, welcome to the phase that is electives :-)

And as for the Internet as a Sales channel, Fernando continued to explain how internet is changing the world. The sheer passion with which he talks about all this, makes me feel that if there is one person in this world who truly believes in the day when everything would be bought and sold only online, I think it is him. He was talking about how the disruptive nature of internet business has completely changed the value chain and what the various players can do and are doing to survive and thrive, he was talking about how even the big seven cannot avoid being part of some internet phenomenon like say the Apple shop opening in the Chinese online TMall, and so many other examples. As for me, I was happy to just listen to various inputs and arguments going on during the class, and soon it would be time to participate :-)

Time to Break apart from the moulds ..

First day of classes in term 4 and I had my plate full with a double session of Applied Financial Engineering in the morning, followed by a session of Applied Corporate Finance and then a session on Internet as a Sales Channel.

What can I say - day started with a very engaging class of financial engineering, where we got to do a lot of things hands-on from finding NPVs to designing the Loan amortization - all using excel. But before getting our hands dirty, Antonio Rivela, our professor for the class spent some time explaining how the theoretical concepts of corporate finance, and procedures involving finding waccs and betas don't work very well in the real world. And then, he gave his own version of what this course will prepare us for, and its usefulness in finance world, based on his previous work experience with investment banks.

It is time to break away from the usual moulds of formula and learn new things - his argument for the case, if we know how things work for one interval of time and we have tools like excel and matlab to take care of the repetitions and complex calculations, why settle for a lesser accurate answer obtained by using some formula derived by making so many assumptions - instead why not just spent an equal amount of time writing a command or using an excel function and get the best answer :-)

Point well taken Antonio :-)

Besides the facts that I have all my past experience working for investment banking IT, with my Masters project coding done in Matlab, and with Math as one of my favorite subjects since primary school days, the sheer energy that Antonio brought to the classroom, the small population of people taking this class, and this posibility of venturing into unbeaten paths has now raised my expectations from this course. So far, its been great.

Next was the applied corporate finance class by Prof Conchita. As she has been the corporate finance professor in the past term for A1 section, with many people from A1, she was already familiar. Not to mention, while discussing many concepts, I heard for the first and may be the only time in my MBA, what I have heard only in my graduation days - where a professor walks in and says, we discussed these things in previous term, its now time to move on to more advanced things this term.
What is good about this is that there will be efficiency in the teaching as she already knows what we know and there won't be unnecessary deviations in this class. Looking forward to learning some advanced and applied concepts of corporate finance from this class :-)

And the last class - of Internet as Sales Channel by Professor Fernando - was yet another interesting class. By the time this class started I was already sapped out due to heavy schedule for the day, but Fernando with his discussion and examples from current happenings kept the class interesting and I was happy that I have taken this class. What started with discussing how a correct strategy is vital to success of an ecommerce business went on to discussing some real life examples, and how some of the big firms are impacting our daily lives. And yes, the term of the day that Fernando gave, and which I would remember the most - "Facebook is the best CRM system out there today and whats great about this system is that we as customers volunteerily provide all our details into this system".
That's an interesting angle isn't it?

Looks like the electives period is going to be a great one and I can't wait to learn all that it has to offer :-)

ihola !!

After that 24 hour long journey, I have reached Madrid and entered my home here at 8:30 PM local time. Too late to call back to India and tell about it - yet, need to do some basic unpacking so that I can attend the first class tomorrow morning at 9 AM.
Hoping that the jet lag doesn't create any nuisance for my first day at school tomorrow :-)

Last minute checks and calls :-)

Well, today is the day - to start traveling back towards Madrid. This ride will take 24 hours starting tonight, however before it begins in some time from now, I spent the day today making sure I have taken all that needs to be taken, my iPad and mobile is charged up and all reading material is available offline.

I also made some phone calls to people indicating them that I will be traveling soon - met a couple of friends and cousins to say bye and locked my bags for yet another journey, which will take me back to the exciting world that is IE :-)

More grades appear in Campus Online

Looks like by the time I reach Madrid for next term, all grades would be out already. Five of eight grades are already out and the outlook for my GPA looks ok so far.

It's good in a way that we won't have to worry about results too much while starting afresh.

Student services team has also initiated the NIE renewal process a couple of days back. Schedules are up for classes and as the day passes, I couldn't help wondering if I should start reading for the next week already and finally I actually decided to do so.

Feels like I am already back in my second home Madrid and have started living my life there.

On another exciting note, our section video recently made an appearance in both the IE google plus page and also the IE blog page, with a cordial note of thanks to some of us who were actively involved in creating the video.

Feeling great :D

Lets Pack the Bags

Well, even while the day to travel back comes closer, the schedules for classes have already started to appear, and so are some of the grades for term 3 out since yesterday.

Everything seems to be now signalling me that it is about time, I wrapped up my things and got ready to come out of the comfort that is home, to head back to Madrid.

So, I started packing my bag for the return journey today. Although there is not much luggage to be taken this time around, its always better to start early with such things, so that there are no last minutes panics.

As for the school, a couple of classes already have asked us to create our login to some online portals and uploaded the cases to be read. so, very soon, I will be back in the IE Mode :-D

Helping my Cousin :-)

My Cousin is going to appear for Indian Engineering Services Interview soon. So, today I went through his application form, did some background research on things I didn't understand, and then in the afternoon, we had a skype video call where-in I took his mock interview.

Well, after the interview we discussed and reviewed how the things went for him and now he will improvise for another round tomorrow. So, while it means more work for him, I guess I won't need any further research.

This help to my cousin is a good way for me as well, to start practicing mock interviews, which we are planning to have amongst ourselves once back at IE.

So, today was all about helping others to help myself and I enjoyed this experience a lot :-)

Finally the Cold Catches up with me !!

Since childhood, at least once a year, I suffer from allergic reaction of dust and pollen, specially in days just before monsoon or during winter.
In recent years, this has changed from annual ritual to a ritual every time I am home. Having spent my entire vacation resting and fighting against the flu, this time, I was extra paranoid about getting sick.

Thankfully, nothing of this sort took place during last two weeks - this was true however only until Monday night, when I started feeling a bit feverish and had a running nose all night.

Without wasting much time today, I went to our doctor in the morning, spent around 1.5 hours in his clinic to get my appointment, and got a medication for 10 days.

So, even while the usual cold has caught up with me, I am sure, it will be taken care of soon :-)

Did nothing besides taking rest and visiting the doctor today !!

Another day of traveling

A quick trip to Pune for taking care of some work, followed by visit to Cousins and Grand-ma, and then a good home made meal on return. Today was all about traveling and nothing else. Could not help thinking that a week from now, I would be in Madrid, having already attended my first day after vacations !!

Shopping Time :)

With only a week now for traveling back to Madrid, shopping of stuff to carry from home officially began today. Food material peculiar to India, raw material to make home snacks from, and lots of other things like general medicines etc was bought today. This is of course after I returned from Mahabaleshwar in the evening around 6 pm. 

Till then enjoyed the nice weather and warm hospitability of our host.

Got another short travel planned for tomorrow, so it's going to be a day out tomorrow as well.

Mahabaleshwar calling ..

After a long time, today I m going to Mahabaleshwar with my childhood friends from school. This used to be our groups annual ritual back in the days from the time I started my junior college until I went on site to Tokyo, that we went for an overnight or two stay at Mahabaleshwar, a hill station and an amazing place for nature lovers and camped there partying with a couple of our local friends there on every year end. But since I have been staying out of India, I could not join the gang in last few years.

So today, I am going to live yet another day as I used to in the past with folks who are my friends for all my life now :)

Some old, Some new

As you may have guessed, I went to my engineering college today and handed over all my books to our departments library.

While I have been visiting the college at least once a year before, this time around it was after almost three years. So, felt good talking with Prof. Jagannath, about things in the past and current happenings. There are also a lot of positive changes going on in the college and I am sure that neck time I visit there, I can surely get lost trying to find the civil engineering department :)

Also managed to create a YouTube Channel today for all the IMBA A2 Videos I have been creating, to help viewers find them all in one place. Here's the link for all the readers:

http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL-SOUoGOlnTCbR6_a2G3y1pN4V5KGR_21

Time travel through cabinet sweeping :-)

Well, this time around when I got some term 2 and term 3 books and reading material back home, there was already no space to keep them, thanks to the fact that all the book cabinets in my room and also the loft was all already occupied with my books from engineering, M.E. and also GATE and GMAT exams.

So it was that I started taking down all the old books - One of my classmates from Engineering, who is now teaching in the same place has already confirmed me that I can donate my books to the newly setup Civil Engineering Department library, thus bringing the old books to some good use.
That gave me some enthusiasm to go through all books and notes and reading materials of the past, to sort out things that I can donate - feeling good that I am giving back something to the institution, which made an engineer out of me. Finally, after one big travel bag was full, I was done with all the sorting.
This sweeping across cabinets and lofts also helped me get rid of lot of stuff that I had dumped in there, but was of no use anymore. This made space for my MBA study material and books.

Another interesting thing about this cleanup activity today was that while going through these old books, I found many relics - yes relics of the past: my engineering college ID card, magazine of our engineering college, a couple of photos of me and my friends and family during the days, a few letters - one from my cousin who was then around 11 years old, one from my dad in his young age written to one of his close friends, and yes lots of greeting cards of the past.
It was a journey through old memories, and I felt like I was time traveling through these cabinets as I swept them.

Happy New Year :-)

Well, most of the morning today was spent making and receiving calls to and from relatives, friends and well-wishers and afternoon was spent in scripting the new year wish on my 'when pictures talk' blog and messaging and emailing online friends via facebook, whatsapp and gmail.

Spent the evening with childhood friends in town, and evening with family enjoying first dinner of the year together.

And to all my readers, here's wishing you all a very happy and prosperous new year :-)
http://when-pictures-talk-to-parsooram.blogspot.in/2014/01/happy-new-year.html