Cases, Coverletters, Photos, Documents :-)

A Saturday spent to do some case practice, write a couple of cover letter formats, look for some jobs, edit the photos of IE Venture Network Vertical, prepare some documents to apply for my Certificado de Regresso and have some good meal :-)
It was a day spent to do a lot of ad-hoc tasks, but all of them kept my Saturday occupied anyways :-)

And yes, those curious about the photos taken durng the IE Venture Network Verticals pitch slam this week, here is the flickr link:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/94951116@N04/sets/72157642384472563/

I hope you enjoy the pictures and join the upcoming events by Venture Network team :-)

When the Vendors arrive :-)

Today, Prof Jose Curto had invited vendors from Jaspersoft and Analytika to our class. CubeNube was another vendor that was supposed to come, but had to cancel last minute.
It was interesting to know about these vendors from their own folks, and the sequence of talks was just perfect. First the Jaspersoft rep talked about Jaspersoft, and his presentation revolved more around the concepts, the architectural elements, and applications of Jaspersoft as a BI/BA tool. And then, the rep from Analytika explained us about a specific product that they use in banking domain for credit/debit card users. It was an interesting way to use their platform, create network effect and involve large banks to be an integral part of their platform.
Interesting way to conclude a session I would say :-)

Big Data: the 3Vs of it

yes, there was business analytics tools existing before and yes, there were business intelligence tools existing before. MS Excel is in fact promoted as the most widely used Business Intelligence tool.

But then, what is so different about Big Data. It's the three Vs: Volume, Velocity, Variety :-)

With that and more, Prof. Jose Curto today took us in to the world of Big Data, discussing various elements of it - from vendors to applications to architecture to the future of it.

And yes, if the processing capacity and memory utilization trends continue as they are predicted to do, there will soon be a time, when today's "Big" data becomes just data of tomorrow :-)

Today was also my fellowship meeting after a long long time, and we decided on further work to be done for our research on risk analysis in crowd-funding platforms.

And them the second free-lancing experience in IE, when I took some photos for the IE Venture Network Verticals - the first ever event where Venture Network focused on a single industry - this time it was travel :-)

Photos coming out soon. Stay tuned :-)

Business Analytics: Cracked the case :-)

Well, while the last night was long, it was fruitful for sure. Today morning, we met at 9 AM again to resume our work and mostly to give finishing touches to the report and presentation.

Class of today started with our presentation, I am happy to say that we were probably the only group that could find the discrepancy in data that was seen in the case facts - looks like we cracked the case. This was also commended by Prof. Jose Curto Diaz, towards the end of our discussion. We managed the QnA session quite well as well.
All-in-all, I don't feel exhausted about the looong day yesterday anymore :-)

In the Corporate Governance class, Prof Nieves Carrera today took us to the double agency problem that arises in dealings between shareholders, board of directors and the management of corporations. We discussed various aspects of why the moral hazard occurs, what are the various aspects and forms of it, and what measures can possibly prevent these scenarios.

One such measure in form of Shareholder activism was a new concept that I got introduced to, today. In fact, the ongoing activism by some of the Apple shareholders, right at this point of time, was an interesting news for me, and I am still wondering how I missed this entire story in my recent news readings.

Anyways, had a short siesta in the afternoon and then did some readings for the class tomorrow. Going home much early today and will have a decent sleep before a new day starts tomorrow :-)

A day for Business Analytics

So, today I had only one class - that of Business Analytics and I was thinking that it would be a relatively shorter day - of course I did not remember of tomorrows's presentation while thinking all of this.

And as you might have guessed, myself, Hillary and William met in the afternoon today, and worked past mid-night to get that report and presentation in good shape. Second day of the term and I am already stretching my schedule !!

While I did my readings for the class in morning, as class was to start at 10:30 AM, today we discussed the case on Sysco and implementation of BA at Sysco.

all-in-all, the entire day from 9 AM in the morning until 1 AM in the night was spent working for Business Analytics class. What can I say? There are days and there are days :-)

The Birth of a Corporation

It's interesting how every class I take here brings in something new!!
Today was the first day of term five, three classes in a row with ten minutes of break between each of them - a busy and full schedule for a Monday.

The day started with a class on Business Intelligence for Analytical Decisions. Yepp, that thing which everyone is talking about :-)
Jose Curto Diaz, our professor for the class, started the class with his own introduction in different forms and patterns from a simple bullet list items type collection of information to a graphical view to a timeline view of his career and academic profiles. Interesting way to get the class of big data and analytics started, i would say. Although this class is only five sessions, it would have a group presentation and we have this class everyday of this week. So, a lot to talk about it this week. And the take-away from today's class for me was the frameworks and process of business analytics implementation in companies, that was discussed in class today, which creates a competitive advantage to the firm. We also saw a few reasons why firms fail in BI implementations and also why some companies shy away from this incredibly useful tool. For this class, I am part of the group that is going to present a case on Wednesday, and I know that this class is going to keep me busy for next five days.

Next was the Corporate Governance class by prof Nieves Carrera. Although belonging to a finance background, Prof Nieves is doing her research in the field of Corporate Governance and hence offering this elective to share her understanding on the matter. This was another great class, where we talked about different aspects of Corporate Governance from what we think it is to what the books have to say about it and from why it is needed to how it affects the corporations. And on that point, I would like to highlight the biggest discovery of the day for me - Prof Nieves showed us a short clip from a film, which shows how the Corporations of modern day took their shape - the origin of corporations. It was interesting to know that the 14th amendment that was introduced in the US for giving equal right to all citizens of US, was eventually exploited by the corporate lawyers to turn those rights towards corporations, after succeeding to assign a "person" status to the corporations. Yes, that's right - first it was made sure that a corporation gets considered as any other person in the country, and then it was made sure that it gets all rights and privileges as that of a person - thus avoiding liabilities for the actual owners of the corporations. Interesting history to know about.

And then, the day concluded with first of another five session class on Real Estate Investment. I am not sure why exactly I took this class - whether it was the fact that this class needed a certain mandatory GMAT score or a certain GPA in Investment Analysis class, and that gave an elite status to this class; or whether the fact that my dad runs a construction business back home attributed some familiarity to the matter and I wanted to know more about investing correctly in real estates; or whether it was just to ensure that I have at least one finance related class in this term - either ways, today was the first day of this class, in which our prof. Cristina Olmedo gave us some basic layout of how the real estate markets work - for rental spaces, for real estates that are treated just as any other asset, and for buying and selling of the real estate. Factors from micro and macro economics, to finance were considered today while discussing these matters, and it was a good start to a course that I am sure will equip me better for any prospective real estate investments that I may make :-)

Getting ready for that one last lap

Yepp !! the term five begins tomorrow. Three Classes, a regular routine until afternoon, and a lots of pre-reading to do already :-)

So, apart from trying to look for some jobs and spending time on facebook responding to comments received for yesterday's picnic pictures, today was spent reading the cases and technical notes and online materials for tomorrow's classes.

I guess it was a day to get ready for that final lap here at IE - the final term which will wrap it all for us real soon :-)

Picnic Picnic

Sunny Madrid weather, some Indian snacks to go along, some Pasta, some Sangria, a couple of friends and family, and a big park to roam around - what else does one need on a Saturday afternoon anyways :-)

So, around 2 PM today, me, Hitesh and his family and Manu went on to Retiro Park for a picnic. Hitesh had made some pasta, while I had prepared Bhel and Aloo Chat, the Indian Snacks to have during the picnic. And, we had some Sangria to go along. The day was spent relaxing in the park, enjoying the sun soaked view around and doing nothing other than relaxation.

Came home walking around 8 PM, and before I edit the pictures taken during the day and have some light dinner and sleep, just sneaked in to my laptop for a while to write this post of the day. Enjoy the rest of this weekend folks. Cheers :-)

TGI Friday :)

Waking up at 1 pm, visiting school just because there is a tripod that needs to be returned on time, having a relaxed lunch with 3-course menu, browsing through internet - just for fun, visiting Facebook every 15 minutes, making plans to do something special in the evening - Friday has its own luxuries, specially the one which is already a part of vacation week.

Today I was in two-states of mind. On one hand, I felt bored that the day is so relaxed, and on the other hand, I wanted to do nothing other than relaxing and enjoying a restful day. Odd combination I would say, but who cares, because TGI Friday ;)

IE Photography club comes to life

So, after a lots of announcements and posts and resolutions, finally the IE photography club came to life today with its first photo taking event in recent times ( at least since I am here). Plan was to do night photography at locations in the heart of Madrid. So we got together in launch pad at around 6 pm, and then headed towards Gran Via, went to a rooftop of Circulo de bella ar there and then I tried the time lapse photography for the first time. Basically it involved taking a lot of pictures after a set interval of time, and then combining these pictures into a single video - much shorter in length as compared to the time lapse that was used to take the pictures. Thanks to Sebastian the passionate photographer amongst us to drive this one.
And then Abhishek helped me when I was struggling to take good pictures of frozen street lights, as the sun had not set fully.

hBy the way, Here is the video link for the time lapse movie, and the frozen lights picture is on my facebook wall :-)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8XerbKIFVkA

Event was fun as it was about photography, and it also allowed me to network with some more people from IE who have similar interest as me, in photography.

Hope these outings continue and increase in number.

As for the rest of my day, I spent it lazily today, trying to soak in the sun that is shining bright in Madrid this week, and lying around in my bed watching some recent movies.

For a day, I was enjoying my holiday to its full extent today :)

If you have forgotten: Accounting is Sexy, Accounting is Fun :-)

So, as part of the preparations phase that I am going through currently, I thought that it would only be better if I not only try to solve some cases, but also revise my finance concepts.

And here it is, today after a relaxed morning, and a heavy lunch, I went back in time, fetched notes from Garen's Financial Accounting class, and began reading through them. Thanks to all the usage of accounting terms so far, I could read the notes at a rather quicker pace, much quicker than what I remember when I did it during term one.

And yet again, I got a chance to read those headers and footers that Garen has spread all over his notes, from the "if you are printing this, SHAME on YOU" to the "Never Forget, Accounting is sexy, Accounting is fun" :-)

Life has its own ways to bring those little moments of smile, and reading these lines now, and trying to remember our struggle with accounting, just did the trick for me today :-)

When the previous day never ends :-)

Well, I had come home early last night, and I had my dinner early, and had gone to sleep early. But then, while I was still awake, I began thinking of this facebook-whatsapp deal, that I was trying to get a justification for, since it was announced. One thought led to another, and soon, I had a blog figured out in my mind. All that was needed was to do some numbers to support the theory I was trying to put forth.

And so, around mid-night I could not help but to get myself out of my bed and soon I began typing my thoughts and also did all the number crunching in next couple of hours. I then refined these thoughts using some basis for actual revenue, stock prices, etc kind of data from google finance and financial times websites.

Finally, around 3 AM, my blog was ready and live :-)

As you can imagine, if you have slept at 3 AM after "working" during your "vacation", there is no reason for you to get up early the next day - at least there was none for me to get up early today.

So, without further ado, this here is the link to my blog that explains details of facebook-whatsapp deal, and provides related numbers as well:
http://mba-and-me.blogspot.com.es/2014/03/facebook-and-whatsapp-deal-applying-mba.html


And yes, as for today, spent most of the day preparing cases, revising cover letter, and preparing for behavioral interview questions :-)

Concluding the freelance experience - Iberian PE conference photo released :-)

Ever since I had been to the amazing Iberian Private Equity Conference, that was held at the Intercontinental Hotel in Madrid, my schedule was full of classes, presentation, group work and exams. Finally, this weekend gave me some free time to crop and convert the pictures taken.

After spending the entire morning on these snaps, finally, I have them in my flickr. A good use of the day I would say, although it also means that I need to spend some time in the evening to continue preparing cases.

Feeling good about the whole photography thing for it gave me an opportunity to accomplish three things: firstly, a chance to try my photography for some official and important event; secondly, a chance to help a club of IE business school viz, IE private equity club which was helping to organize the conference, and thus create a positive impression for IE, and lastly, a chance to be in all panels and opening, lunch, closing keynotes of the day, and hear to some amazing speakers holding prominent positions in the private equity industry.

And for those readers who wish to browse through these snaps, here is the flickr link:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/94951116@N04/sets/72157641805344634/

Cover Letter ready. It's time for the cases :-)

Waking up at 12:30 PM, having a relaxed time to get ready, and reaching school at 4 PM, has its own soothing effect on oneself - and then, after spending some time editing pictures taken at the Iberian PE conference, and browsing, I got down to the real work - to prepare the basic format Cover Letter.

Today is only the first draft though and as I progress into next week, preparing cases, etc, I am sure the final version of cover letter will come out good :-)

CV final version - done :-)

Yes, after three rounds of updating and reviewing, finally, today my CV looks good. Its now ready to be sent and uploaded and forwarded to contacts and HR personnel and recruitment executives. Tomorrow is the day for a basic cover letter format preparation, which I can build upon and tailor as per different applications.

They say that this is a vacation time for me, and I am relaxed. Well, yes I am relaxed as I am driving things at my own pace, but I don't want to be idle in next week. I have to get started with preparation for case interviews, and job search, and there can be no better window of opportunity to start with all of that than this next week.

Planning to spend some time with friends for a nice dinner in the evening. Have a good weekend everyone :-)