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 :-)