Chores time :-)

Seriously, do you guyz remember [as regular readers of my blog I wish to assume :-)], when was the last time I mentioned chores in here?

That's right - it was indeed a long long time ago. So, despite all the group works, all the assignments and all the exercises, I decided to take time out to do my chores today. Cleaned the house, got grocery, cooked some food, and did the dishes. Also, re-arranged furniture in my room a bit - I like to do that every once in a while, to have a fresh feeling about the place I stay in.

When it was all done, time was already hinting me to take a siesta, and so I did :-)

In the evening, although I was tempted to go to MM31, I decided against it and stayed back at my place, to work on my resume and a couple of exercises.

Feeling good this evening, as the house looks in so much better state, and I am also free of that guilt which kept nagging me for ignoring the chores :-)

It's time to Suit Up, it's time to Shoot :-)

Today, I was at the Iberian Private Equity Conference, held at the Hotel Intercontinental Madrid. Although, it was organized by people outside IE, the Private Equity club of IE students was helping them in all the proceedings, from helping people with their name tags, to running the individual panels, to helping people with any information they need, and so on.
So, where do I come into picture?

Well, this club has some members from my section, and around four days ago, they asked me if I can take pictures of this full-day event. In return I would get a free entry to the event and a chance to listen to prominent speakers from the PE arena, and may be network with them :-)

Well, this was the second freelance photography invite I was getting - first one was the pre-engagement shoot for Aikee and Zeus in Singapore; and this I consider as the second official event. In between I did take pictures of parties and birthdays and stuff, but that was more because the folks involved were friends of mine.
I could not resist saying yes.

So, today was the day. I reached the hotel at 8 AM, and then up until 7 PM in the night, took almost 700 odd shots of the event. And that is considering that I was out for my technology class between noon until 3 PM.

About the conference, I think it was great to hear different panels, although I could afford to sit for only 20 minutes per panel, that went on for an hour. Good thing is I could sit for all 3 panels that were going on simultaneously, to take pictures of each :-)

Lot of big shots - CEOs, MDs, Partners of many PE firms from across the Europe had come down to Madrid for this event, and just being a part of the organizing team - although added at last minute, and only for taking pictures, felt like a privilege.

But then, by 7:30 PM when I reached home, I was really very tired and so, after having a quick bite and a Panadol, just went to sleep.

Exhausting, yet exciting day - spent in a suit to shoot :-)

The Demo Day !!

Finally, today was the day - day when the Hands on Rapid Innovation Accelerator course got wrapped up, the day when we gave a demo of our product and the whole process of RIC that we went through during the course, to our investors. It was good fun, and as it was arranged to be in the Launch Pad, a lot of people passing by dropped in. To see how the 3-D printer was working, to check what we have been doing - had a lot of interactions with visitors for our demo, and got a lot of useful feedback, and a couple of business cards, during the whole process. Winner of the day, as judged by the jury that was comprised of affluent investors and entrepreneurs, was the product that allowed girls to design their own jewellery and order a 3-D print of it.

Our product got a lot of downloads as well, and we are happy to have gone through the whole process of RIC, and to know so many new tools and technologies, that can help us with prototyping and market testing. Surely, a big thanks for that to Chris and Zubin.

And in the Technology & Business Strategy class today, it was the case of National Geographic. Call it a day when not many people had read the case, or the day, when I choose to read, analyze and submit my one-pager for the case, as is required for individual participation for the course, I think I over-participated today and I know that my classmates will probably hate me for that.
Anyways, it was interesting to understand the situation that NatGeo is currently in, the steps it has taken to come out of the current crisis, and we all do hope that it comes out successfully.

A long day again, but fruitful one. Tomorrow, I spent most of my day in the Iberain Private Equity Conference, as I have volunteered to take pictures for the event. I will drop by for the technology & business strategy class though. Hopefully, will enjoy both the freelancing experience as well as the conference :-)

Company Strategies and Child Soccer :-)

Wondering why the subject for today's post is so? Well, in the Technology & Business Strategy Class today, and yes, did I write here that this class is going to be a double session every weekday for this week and the next, thus completing the entire course in two weeks time? If not, here it is, I said it :-)
And why did I do that - so that all you readers know that I am going to post a lot about this class in this week and the next. Also, to contrast it with the original Strategy class we had that was a 25 session course, but spanned all across term one and term two :-) This one is a better option, if you ask me :-)

Anyways, continuing on the subject line, today we saw different strategies that various companies have adopted for their competitive advantage and then when it was time to discuss about how it is important to constantly innovate for maintaining our differentiation advantage, if that is our strength, Prof Ramiro showed us a picture of children, aged around 6-8 years playing soccer.

And he mentioned his observation about this game and the picture - at that age, all that the children do is follow the ball, where ever it goes - they just want to be where the action is. Using this as a metaphor, prof. Ramiro then mentioned about how companies also fall into trap of following the leader, thus not only threatening the differentiation advantage of the leader sometimes, but also carrying the extra cost of creating a competitive necessity instead of looking for their own version of competitive advantage. Interesting analogy, I would say :-)

And yes, before this evening session, there was also a class by Conchita, where we took a look at various aspects of project finance, after briefly going through the Inside Job movie elements, that we could not discuss yesterday. In a way, Conchita indirectly hinted us at the dangers of doing things the way everyone else is doing, without thinking about risks associated, just because it looks like yielding more payments in short term, as when these things get too big, they also hit harder. She gave a similar message as Prof Ramiro, but by directly illustrating the recent past in financial sector.

After classes today, I worked with my team-mate for the hands-on rapid innovation accelerator demo day preparation. If I have not already mentioned it here, we have designed an app for medical records maintenance, translation and portability. Its prototype is available in Google Play now and name of the app is 'MedInfo'.

Do go and check it out, when free :-)

Turbulent times

Today, in the applied corporate finance class, Conchita explained us what exactly are the CDO and CDS and then we saw the 'Inside Job' movie to understand how the 2008 Sub-prime crisis unfolded itself. The movie made so much sense now that we know all the financial terms that were talked. And then, we had a debriefing on the video, about what are the events that took place, why, and other aspects of the whole episode. This was part of today, that was spent discussing events regarding times that were turbulent, and events that made the time turbulent.

Just before this class, was the Hands on rapid innovation double session, where Chris and Zubin discussed about various options to Outsource, CrowdSource and Crowdfund. So, not exactly something related to turbulent times, but more of measures to have better bandwidth for doing things that matter, and for cutting cost of operations. In a way, necessary measures in today's world, if we don't want to see any turbulent times :-)

Later in the afternoon was a Technology and Business Strategy double session, where first session was dedicated by Prof Ramiro to discuss various aspects of technology like data marts, analytics, reporting, social media information gathering, etc and the second session was about case discussion on Bonnier - the leader in media publishing industry and a great example of innovation. It was interesting to see how this company managed to swiftly transition from a large publishing house to the digital age, just when the times were changing and new technologies and social media was emerging. Again an excellent case of how the anticipated turbulence can be overcome by innovative strategic thinking.

And then, as I write this post of the day, there is still a single session of Internet as a sales channel that I need to attend in the evening. Yepp, didn't I mention, today is officially the longest day in terms of my class schedule here at IE for me - classes began at 9 AM and will go on up until 10 PM.

By the way, on a lighter note, in case you are curious about how the 3-D printing went yesterday, here is a real short clip of it that I took last night:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q-gACKvR6js

And these are the two things I printed, right from design phase to the printer setup and calibration to actual job printing. Hope you all like it :-)

going beyond competitive necessities

Today is the day I used the 3D printer for the first time. From design, scaling, exporting to proper format, and other steps of CAD all the way until setting up the 3D printer, configuring and leveling it, feeding it with a filament and actually getting something printed. I did it all - Occasion was the 'Safety and Basic Usage' workshop for 3-D printing as part of the Hands-On Rapid Innovation Accelerator course, conducted by Chris.

Well, pretty exciting stuff - although it took me almost 3 hours in the night to go through the entire thing, all that time was worth it. I printed a small Ganesha and a table wedge and I think I am going to keep these two with me for a long time, as memoir of my first ever 3D printing experience.

As for my rest of the day, it was great as well. Morning started with Applied Corporate Finance class, where Conchita explained different types of Bonds, from a Callable Bond to a Convertible Bond. It was a good session, I would say.

And then, it was first day of what is going to be two weeks of the Technology & Business Strategy class, which will take place between 4 PM until 7 PM everyday from today until next Friday. Our professor Ramiro Montealegre, started the class on a musical note, playing 'lets get this party started' for a couple of minutes just before the clock hit 4 PM. But as soon as it was 4 PM, he dived in to the case for today, of American Well - As this class has 30% participation, there were many what I now call MBA-talk comments, but soon Prof Ramiro contained the discussion and got it flowing right on the track.

With a wide experience working for many governments, implementing their strategic technology projects, and currently teaching at four leading business schools of the world, Prof. Ramiro made sure that the class remains engaged and involved for the double session, that is scheduled to be just after the lunch time. And the lingo he used, the industry examples he illustrated to explain various concepts, took me back so many times to the good old days at Infosys, at UBS office, at Credit Suisse office - in this class, I felt I was time traveling to things that we do and say back at work, and felt like this class was my attempt to make those various practices better. Too deep, ain't it? Never mind :-)

Anyways, one of the longest days in terms of classes for me here at IE, precedinganother day that I know is scheduled to offer me 13 hours of classes with just an hour's break time in between and yet, I feel great. The reason being, I was part of the class that discussed technology landscape of today, that discussed how technology can be improved from just being a competitive necessity to a competitive advantage, and towards the end of it, I was part of a workshop where I employed modern technology for rapid prototyping of ideas :-)

Hasta Manana amigos :-)

back in action !!

After a series of Panadol dosages, and two days of sleeping, finally, I came out of my shell today - it was time to work - time to complete all the assignments and tasks to be ready for the next week, that brings with it one of the busiest weekly schedules in terms of classes that I have seen here at IE. There are days like Tuesday next week, when my classes themselves will run for 12 hours starting from 9 AM in the morning until 10 PM at night, with only an hour's break in between.

Anyways, enough thinking about what the coming weeks will bring, for today I am happy that I have completed all the tasks that were due to be done for tomorrow.

It's that time of the term, where I will have to take each day - one at a time :-)

Good night readers, have a fruitful week ahead :-)

Time to Wake up !!

Well, that Siesta which started at 5:30 PM yesterday, ended only at 11 AM today. A loooooong sleep after a really looooong time - but I think my body needed it - considering all the fatigue that I was experiencing in past couple of days.

Anyways, now that I am all fresh and ready, its time to wake up, from my sleep, from the laziness that is getting hold of me, thanks to the uneven schedule of classes during the electives term, and from the lag that I am showing in preparing for the jobs searching.

After I woke up, it was time for a little self-reflection and time to motivate myself into the next stage - with jam-packed schedule of classes for next three weeks, and with graduation date not so far away, and with exams for this term approaching closer, I have to switch gears now. Time to wake up :-)

Every Object tells a story ..

Today turned out to be a day dedicated to market testing of websites and e-commerce platforms. First a double session of Hands on Rapid Innovation Accelerator, where after discussing about the opportunity identification and solutions development stages previously, it was time to do market experiments. Many websites and apps, that help us put our product online within minutes, many template based applications that help us create our own apps and websites and email campaigns within minutes and the various tools to know the response we receive to such rapid campaigns.

Chris and Zubin took us through so many tools, web platforms and apps today, at the end of today's double session, I realized how little I knew about the world that is out there.
And then in the Internet as a Sales Channel class, it was again time for discussing the various tools to do email marketing, social media marketing, etc.

Although I could help but notice a clear overlap in the topics that I learned in both the classes today, I didn't mind this overlap - as both classes have been proceeding at their own pace and that little overlap of today's topics were just a matter of coincidence.

Anyways, I was feeling a little ill since yesterday, so decided to come home, have a good lunch and then a siesta before doing anything for the day. So, here I am, ready to have my siesta as soon as I complete this post.

And yes, while the lunch was cooking, and as I enjoyed eating my meal, I also saw this movie about design concepts "Objectified" as recommended by Zubin and Chris.

It turned out to be a good movie, and I liked it. Quoting its opening line here, just in case it gets you readers interested in the movie "Every Object tells a story ..."

Perfect is the enemy of so many good-enoughs !!

Well, it was a double session of Hands-On Rapid Innovation Accelerator again in the morning today and today was all about different ways and means of prototyping.

So, from the basic hand-made clay molding to the CAD based molding, machining and 3-D printing, everything was discussed in the class today. Chris joined us for today's sessions, so it was both Chris and Zubin who were discussing details on various aspects of prototyping. This two-person system was particularly useful as when Chris was talking about various tools and apps available to us, and answering our queries, Zubin was on the PC, and used to login to the relevant website immediately to show us a short video on the matter or to show just the website, as per the case we were discussing.

And we discussed not just the prototyping of physical objects, but also of websites and mobile apps. Knowing the different tools available at our disposal is really a great know-how to have.
Similar to last time Zubin also shared a book with us on prototyping, and there was some hands-on : where we were told to sell a water-bottle nozzle that can be used to water plants in the house, and thus determine its market price.
I am glad to announce that yet again, me teaming up with Florent, the exchange student here at IE, sold the thing in least amount of time and at the maximum price - 3.5 EUR for a thing whose market price in Madrid was later revealed to be 1.25 EUR. What can I say, this MBA has taught me some tricks of the trade :-)

Another hands-on exercise was to build a paper tower, in limited amount of time, such that it will stand on its own and will be the tallest tower. While my team got the tower up, the work done by winning team was really impressive.

What was most impressive about today's class though was the demo of 3-D printer in the class. We were walked through how it is operated, what are its different parts, how can we design for the printer using different techniques, who are the different makers and what is the typical price range for these 3-D printers.

What more, we will have an access to this one over the weekend for creating our own prototypes :-)

Posting a photo which I also put in my tweet [@ptdalvi] today, to showcase all aspects of this amazing class today.

As for the rest of today, next class was of Applied Corporate Finance, and I am not sure why, but I felt really exhausted and sleepy during this class today. I was literally suffering, and I suspect I have caught up a slight fever during this class. Anyways, went to the reflection room for a power nap after this class, and then joined three different work groups for submissions due real soon.

And to conclude today's post, here is a line that Zubin mentioned to us today [apparently, they use this a lot at Google] - "Perfect is the enemy of good-enough", so don't wait for that perfect product to go to the market, launch early, launch rapidly, launch it lean - as long as it is good enough to do the core functionality, it can always be iterated for improvements after market reaction is gauged :-)

Beyond Capital inflows, Derivatives and Exchange rates

Today was the day when Conchita explained us the concepts involved in Foreign Exchange related international finance risk.

What was fascinating to understand was that while we knew about concept of capital inflow and outflow based on our economics classes, and while we now know certain aspects of derivatives and their usage, today, combining the entire diaspora of economics, derivatives and the foreign exchange rates, along with inflation and government policies, can actually create opportunities to earn money by arbitrage.

Somehow I didn't realize that we had a case to prepare for today, was when it was time to discuss the case, I was speechless :-(

Will need to make up for this one soon - not in terms of participation I mean, but to understand the case based on foreign exchange risk !!

By the way, by the look of it, I may finalize the latest update of my CV tonight :-)

The plane that floated the longest ..

Yepp, in the first session of the new class that started today, "team A2" comprising of myself and Hillary won the 'Engineering Excellence' award, for making the "plane that floats in air for longest period of time". I am sure all the A2 folks that are scattered around the globe now will be proud to know this :-P

OK, just kidding - I mean yes, we won and yes we made a paper plane that floated in air for the longest time, and yes we got an applause, but there wasn't any excellence award for it :-)
By the way, this exciting class that started today is "Hands-On Rapid Innovation Accelerator" which will be conducted by Chris McCoy and Zubin Chagpar in ten sessions over two weeks time. During this time, we will go through the entire journey of a Rapid Innovation Cycle, and towards the end of it, present our products/prototypes to the likes of investors and external judges.
Sounds fun? Check out the twitter handle @handsonRI for knowing more updates about the subject.

And during the class today, we covered not only the basics like what the term 'Rapid Innovation Cycle' means, but also did some practical exercises like identifying a problem with current healthcare system and quickly brainstorming and prototyping the solution that we could offer. We also saw how even a thing as small as a personal feedback can change the way we do things as simple as drawing a lamp on a piece of paper. An insight that only helps to emphasize the importance of timely market feedback and testing.

While Chris will only reach Madrid for the next session, Zubin who conducted the class solo today, had also got some books with him - and as the discussion progressed and touched different aspects of innovation and start-ups, he shared the names of these books with us, and made recommendations about them. There was also a lot of stuff to help us create prototypes, including a special clay that can be molded to create 3-D printer like versions.
Looking forward to future sessions of this class for all the fun learning that it promises to bring along :-)

I also had the Internet as a Sales channel class today, where-in Fernando explained different SEO and SEM methods, showed us how bloggers monetize their posts using CPC, CPM, CPL techniques and then there was a philosophical discussion in the class with arguments ranging from "People ain't stupid, they will notice that you are making them click the ads for filling your own pockets" to "This is a business model and it is meant to make money" to "It's a question of negotiations with CPA on one end and CPM at the other end" !!
So much discussion for a simple Google feature to help us poor bloggers. What has this world come to be :-P

Day of Derivatives

What started with discussion on distributions and simulation techniques for random numbers went on to analysis of stocks, and later fixed income derivatives, during the applied financial engineering class today. And while Antonio was busy teaching us the brute force techniques for all this analysis through excel and Matlab, it started snowing outside. First snow during day time in Madrid and although the snowflakes were not so dense, they kept falling for almost an hour.

It was a great feeling to sit in the class studying while watching the snowfall from class window. Though this was not the first time I am seeing the snowfall, this was definitely first class I was having while the snow spread it's rule outside.

Next class was of applied corporate finance where Conchita started International corporate finance topics today, and introduced us to how derivative products can help in both speculating the returns and hedging the risks associated with cross-country investments. Another application of derivatives, that can be really helpful in deciding international investment strategies.

Spent the rest of the day today reading and preparing for tomorrow's classes and came home early to have more share of sleep today, after staying up late in school last night.

Overall, a day spent around derivatives, and innovative application and analysis techniques for derivatives.

Resuming the Resume writing ..

After the lazy day spent yesterday, today was the time to get serious. An entire afternoon, spent in reviewing and revising the resume.

CMC resources, career portal pointers, target job analysis frameworks that I have gone through - today was the time to deploy all the ammunition in my arsenal.

Yet, towards the end of the day, the task remains unfinished. I may keep working on the resume even after going home, although the 9 AM Monday class tomorrow is too tempting to make me go home and do anything but sleep :-)

A lazy day spent browsing and web surfing

Well, after that Japan Night of yesterday, today had to be a lazy day :-)

I woke up late, took my time to get ready and then didn't do much through out the day except browsing the internet and checking out a few things that I had in mind.

Of course, I did upload the video of training that I held yesterday - here is the link for the video.

Planning to spend tomorrow in studying for Corporate finance and to do the exercise for financial engineering. So, tomorrow is the day that will make it up for all the laziness of today.

I will do my room cleaning and weekend chores today itself though, so that I can spend my entire day of tomorrow at MM31 if required.