About PGPX and IIMA debuting at #11 on FT.com’s Global MBA Rankings 2011

On January 31^st, 2011, FT.com released their 2011 Global MBA Rankings (Read Here). IIMA made its debut in these rankings at #11. This is the best ever debut, but more on that later. 

When an iconic business school that has, over the last five decades, defined its contribution to the society through leaders who have led big changes in the Indian and international arena debuts on the MBA ranking scales in this manner, there is a lot of surprise. Why? Because owing to technicalities in ranking processes of international MBA billboards, Indian Institute of Management Ahmedabad never qualified for the rankings before. For the record, no other IIM has qualified, so far.

There is no doubt that MBA rankings recognize the School and not just the Programme. Because the school is what makes the ecosystem for learning; made possible by best in class faculty who do top of the line research, and using tools and pedagogy honed over years of research and student feedback, enable learning in their unique ways. Alumni of the institute keep the flag flying high and attract larger numbers of aspirants to the school. The students thrive in this environment and later as alumni themselves, through their real contributions and progression in their careers carry forward the alma mater’s glory and contribute to it.

In the context of rankings the change began when IIMA started to redefine the IIMA class, in more ways than one, with the PGPX programme. (Read about PGPX here)  PGPX, the 1-year full time residential programme, attracts applicants with substantial work experience. A PGPX student, on an average, has 10 years of work experience, before he or she joins the full time residential programme. Additionally, international experience is recommended, though not mandatory. Now, the international MBA programmes in other countries, typically, admit students having about 4-5 years of work experience. Over the last couple of decades, while the IIMs have seen large growth in student numbers for the PGP batches (the 2-year full time residential programme), the classes continue to have substantial number of students with nil or minimal (by international standards) prior work experience. This constitution is what prevented IIMA from getting qualified for the MBA school rankings, all these years. The much needed, much deserved recognition in the world of MBA schools was left much awaited for IIMA.

At IIMA, FT.com ranking was sought since the qualification criteria were met in 2009, when the third batch of PGPX graduated. Now, FT.com ranking process includes a mandatory survey of graduates who have been working for 3 years after completing the programme. But that requirement changed when FT.com clarified that they needed the 4^th batch out before IIMA could qualify. Therefore, the evaluation of the IIMA for the ranking was made possible only in 2010.

The debut of IIMA at #11 is the ‘best ever debut’ (Read the release here) and it is no simple achievement for a business school from India to do this. Right behind IIMA, on the FT.com rankings is Indian School of Business (ISB, Hyderabad, India). They were quick to clarify in their press release (Read ISB's press release here) that it was the PGPX programme that qualified for these rankings. They have enough reason to make this clarification.

But, as should be well understood, the ranking belongs to the entire Faculty, the Alumni, the managers and administrators and students of IIMA who’ve made possible the millions of aspects that go into building an iconic institution. A great way to begin a year when IIMA celebrates its Golden Jubilee!

Prashant John's first degree take on "our" Second Degree

Just put down this awesomely funny rendition of 1-year-long-mid-life-mid-career break at IIMA. Prashant, from the pioneering batch of PGPX takes an equilibrised look at the going-ons in the corridors and classrooms of the hot bed of management education that IIMA is. (Note the author's disclaim- this is a work of fiction.)

Having withstood this place and programme two years after Prashant (that makes me an 'X3'), I could relate to the flaps in the ebb and flow of PGPX year that he recounts. I must admit I was following this book before the launch, but somehow lost track of it. I picked it up, on a friend's (another X3, the 'Bandit') reminder,  while out for ConneXion 2010 . Being on campus, reliving the times again over a long weekend, had already stirred up memories of my travails from 30 to 18 months ago. On top of this 'Second Degree' came as a 'Red Bull for memories'.

From a 'can't be true, am I here?' to 'what the.., am I already leaving?' the PGPX year passes by in a jiffy, much like a vaccine shot you dreaded as a kid. But, life is fun and life is topsy-turvy at PGPX (not in the same order, though). A deep dive in to the making of aN X-ian is what this book is all about. Prashant has handled the narration in a very touching manner, candidly exploring the joys, fears and dilemmas that every student (including his/her spouse) at PGPX faces.

Every year a little world lands in the New Campus- men, women, little boys and girls, toddlers and their fathers & mothers with their bikes, cars and cradles and sometimes even their maids and babysitters. Every batch has its own set of characters in the play of PGPX that gets produced every year. Like an improvisation (a comedy only to a sadist outsider) plots and sub-plots vary in flavour a little, but the storyline is the same. In several ways, each X-ian is a Prashant  and shares his struggles as a student. Prashant the author, though, really knows how to make you laugh.

The book is bound to pleasantly shock those who are aspiring PGPX and at the same time wake from stupor those (the PGPX-ians) who have gone back to the relatively slower life that post-IIMA life invariably becomes.

For PGPX Alumni the familiarity and the "familiailty" this book invokes makes it all the more of a souvenir to keep along side other memorabilia they carry with them. When I got through PGPX admissions, in order to mentally prepare myself for what I was to endure, I read Snapshots from Hell . If you are considering IIMA PGPX, Second Degree is your own customised and in-your-face 'Snapshots from Hell'. Read it.

Gatecrashers unlimited

"Come on man, where will you get this chance again..." by the young-at-heart and fun-loving and older-than-me VM was evidently enough to get me into gatecrashing into an MDP party on campus! For those who know me well, this is not quite how I like to do things. The question of gatecrashing into a party of strangers would normally be out of question.

The second term has been quite a ride. It began with a slow pace of classes. Since the PGPs came back to school after their summers around the same time that our second term started, our profs have been pulled in different directions leaving considerable void now and full capacity later in our class schedules. This has at least helped us catch up on as many as three hard bound books on strategy and leadership that are a part of required reading over and above the course material. At best it given us time to think about what we want to be doing at the end of 8 months.

The roller coaster that the first term was landed us right into a drag pool of water and it took us a couple of weeks to get used to the slow pace. I say this despite having already written a couple of mid terms and surprise tests and innumerable reports. The action started with our place comm asking us to build a wish list of companies that we want to individually consider. That information would form the basis of the efforts that team would spend in its mission to getting us what we want (not need!). Having gone into a pensive mood and out, we have probably been trying to make the best of the time we have around here; the current macroeconomic and political situation of the nation notwithstanding.

No wonder then that talents have been tumbling out of the wardrobes of many people. In preparation of TNite (The traditionally PGP T-Nite has since PGPX's inception included the latter in its scheme), ideas on posters, themes, skits, songs, shouts, music and even nicknames are pouring out for what the batch wants to make an unforgettable week. In that spirit, I have been sketching and painting with oil pastels, something I have not done in the last eighteen years or more. My wife has been getting her hands dirty with camel skin bristles and Camel Oil paint. Quite a cocktail it is when we play 'Comfortably Numb' and 'Shine on' while making pencil marks on the drawing cardboard.

In the midst of all this happy commotion 'normal life' goes on. It being TGIF meant that SP and I spent our evening in VM's room with high spirits and over an HBO (etc.) movie. This goes on till dinner time after which we go to the dining hall and then home (to our families). Today, by the time we finished the movie, it was about 9:27 PM, three minutes before close of dinner. It was raining when we made a 300 meter dash to the dining hall and sprinted up to the first floor.

But in this rush, we did not miss the disco lights and loud music playing in the ground floor dining hall. Seated upstairs we could feel the high decibel bass vibrations. That was when VM suggested that we join the party after dinner. I reminded him that we did not have an invitation. He said that I was missing the point and added what I said at the beginning of this story. If he says," I have done this a hundred times. It will be fun", I can think it is a trap or I can simply believe him. I was almost sure we would invite dirty looks and VM that we would be welcome.

VM was right. During the course of 70 minutes of shaking and moving to the music, we were made to feel that we were indeed welcome and that the last-day-of-MDP crowd was glad to have us fill up their dance floor. A couple of guys from our batch, who joined us, left within a few minutes. Our Cultural Rep, TJ, was aghast at seeing us there. She had been attracted to the music and was there on the agenda of probably striking a deal with the DJ. In any case, our efforts to get her into the crowd were futile. I sweated out the high spirits and cool down the stressed out mind and body. When the DJ unplugged the music system, we thanked the MDP folks for letting us gatecrash. They said they had fun and wished us well for the rest our the eight months at PGPX. Apparently, a month of case studies had done them in and they were glad to be going home.

I totally enjoyed the evening. After all, the best things in life are 'illegal', 'illicit' and ephemeral!

A country, a lecture, a performance.

The spell broke when my classmates started clapping and I joined in the applause. Today's 'open economy macroeconomics' class had just ended.

Evidently, thirty years before I was born had begun a reforms process in India that did not begin to fructify till around the time I had learnt to walk. Growing up, I had developed a vague sense of how the world and the world of business interacted and why it had not done well in the past and why the economy accelerated around the time when I was in high-school.The process continues, albeit with more steam, even as I come back to college after about a decade of corporate life.

While all this was happening, a set of events that several times shook a nation of a billion. There was another set of events that forced a country going in the wrong (in macroeconomics, right and wrong are opinions based on ideology) direction to do a u-turn, in the process starting an economic revolution that is only restrained by the attitude of the elected representatives and their affiliations to power and position (we get the governments we deserve? What must an economist feel if he knows what to do to correct the wrongs, but is tied down by 'the obligations of his position'? What's popular?) Overall, the events were influenced by 'who ruled independent India', what political inclinations they had, some things that are ingrained deep in a 3000 year old culture that is Hinduism, international power polarities and their subsequent realignment etc. There are several other factors that would seem superficial if explained in a hurry, but they all mattered.

In summary, today's lecture related some of the ideologies that have survived 200 years of political testing, 3000 years of cultural testing, responsibilities and constraints of central monetary authorities, 60 years of post-independence struggles, the interdependence of several macroeconomics factors that every government ought to strive to direct (with as much less interference and marginal cost as possible) with some of the known and unknown facts and political opinions that shaped India's daily life over the last six decades. Basically, everything that mattered to the development of the current fiscal and monetary policies was expertly framed in a lecture that was delivered like a story based on numbers and adjectives. The performance was spellbinding. I recall laughing out of professor's wit and admiring his rhetoric several times.

India got revealed between spoken words, a blackboard and insights of a scholar's mind. Seventy five minutes had passed by in a whiff. The cloud of my thoughts and opinions, though, had taken a definite concrete shape. Wow, so that was what they had been talking about all these years!

We have enjoyed several lectures and many more discussions. But on none of them had we conferred an applause, like as if at the end of a performance. This was a first.

I started clapping.

PS: The professor is a permanent faculty at IIMA. Among others, he has been playing the role of an expert adviser to the central government on some of the key initiatives rolled out in the recent past.

The light at the end of the tunnel...

Last week a new course on operations started. This course has an acronym which can be easily turned to sound like 'doomed'. Everyone thinks that doomed is what their fate is in grappling with it. In fact, there is a little law that says you are bound to be doomed with it.

The culmination of a week in which a movie played a significant part in-class (did I forget to mention that in the class we saw a short movie on cheetah?), is quite aptly watching a blockbuster at the cinemas. Better still if about seventy adults and children land up at the same hall at the same time. Even better if the movie starts with a C&H comic strip 'What are you doing here? Don't you have homework to do?" Thanks to TJ, our cultural rep, all this was possible last Saturday.

Not having left the campus thresholds for over a week, I was glad I was doing something normal. I am not sure if it was circumstantial, but I thoroughly enjoyed the Iron Man. I thought it would be nice to buy a flying suit, if I could afford one. Impossible is nothing, you know...see the real stuff here.

Coming back to doom, the course requires immense amount of patience and focus (can the two co-exist? We are getting there...) to get through a case. Don't get me wrong. I am not talking about cracking the cases, only about getting through them. So, by Wednesday evening when we were faced with a rather simple doom case that we could solve in an hour, we thought we could hit the bed a couple of hours earlier (say, 2 AM). We saw light at the end of the tunnel. Little did we know that the other asignment with statistics reading was a wolf in dog's clothing. We had to just keep on reading hor hours. By the time we were down to implications of our statistically significant observations, it was tea time in the Chicago.

How do they say that... the light at the end of the tunnel turned out to be a fast moving train? Yeah, and we walked walked right in to it.

Life is fun(ny)

Things long forgotten have a way of coming back to haunt you. You might even say it is a conspiracy by higher powers and I am at the center of it.

Why else would I need to fret over needing to literally pen down more than half a dozen pages at my age. I am no 'writer'. My profession and office technology have turned me into a "key-er", as I cannot claim to be a typist either. But industry did teach me the value of expectation management. With a handwriting like mine, growing more illegible by the year, I need to set the right expectations. This is what I did before the exam when I asked Dr.SS, TA for our, 'Customer Value' course, about the role of aesthetics of one's handwriting in a b-school exam. I found it comforting to know that 'she has seen all kinds of handwriting'.

It's not like I have not tried to get into the mode of writing more. I have made considerable number of pages of study notes for my course subjects. But how much of a damage of nine years can you reverse in a few weeks; assuming you even let me be the judge of my own handwriting?

I did pull through the three hour case-based exam this afternoon. I was not sure if I could sit that long. One of the reasons I had dreaded GMAT practice tests was their painfully long durations. Initially, after I landed here, I had to fight the urge to get up from my study table and walk around every twenty minutes. On one hand being a manager allows you to have some amount of exemption in having a low attention span. On the other hand multi-tasking required by a manager's role turns that into an asset of sorts. Anyway,another of those things that come back to haunt you are long duration exams.

I think I am developing, subconsciously, a way of creating fun if I do not find some around me. Would you believe I walked out with my answer paper after the open-book exam? I must have inadvertently (no such thing in Freud's world) packed it with my rather tall-and-broad text book. Once the TA found out that one paper was missing, I walked back into the hall to help them sort the confusion out. I am not sure who was laughing and who was relieved on finding out that it was I who had not turned in the answer paper. Since I had been within earshot and eyeshot of Dr.SS and maybe had demonstrated my integrity (now, how do you like that?) in the past that I did not need to sign an 'undertaking' (I did not know such a thing existed).

Like I said, I am finding that the repertoire of stories is steadily growing. Mr.Freud, would you say I am building one? I am not sure, but I do not think, anymore, that many thing will impossibly not happen to me.

A kind of X-files effect? No, let's say it's the PGPX-files effect!

PS: What the online-statuses are looking like today: LC- "Koi lauta de mere beete hue din"; RR-"toommatooeess...."; AA-"Selling Grade "A" tomatoes";
Yours truly- "No Strategy => POD (point of despair-ity)"

On the wings of time

We gave three standing ovations to three professors who have either triggered a changed in the way we think or will be instrumental in changing the way we act. The caveat, of course, is that we follow the messages they delivered. As our OB professor concluded in the last session of her course, 'It depends on your choice!". It was touching to bid adieu to the great minds who made cherished our first encounter with the pressure cooker that WIMWI's pedagogy is.

Tuesday marked the end of the first month of PGPX. In this time, we have completed three courses and started three new ones (while a few others will get replaced soon), and woken up to the fact that the first final exam is on the day after tomorrow. But the fun doesn't end.

We started a course with a given name of 'Modeling for Decision'. 'Decision Modeling' would have worked just fine. The given name is causing me to interchange the order of words. Interchanging words can be disastrous as I realized over a post session conversation. Our professor, NR, thirty years at WIMWI and a doctorate in mathematics, has a very sharp mind. Unless we chase his ideas at the speed of his thought, we see that the multi-dimensional ideas he is spewing out are lost on us. He approaches things with cold logic, is famous for being strict in dealing with 'inferior logic' and merciless in repartee; some have been hopelessly embarrassed in class (to be later cajoled).

Over the post-session tea, I thought I was making sense to the prof. until I heard him say 'Have you considered it, seriously?'. Only then did I realise I had referred to his subject as 'Decision for Modeling' (notice that mislaid 'for'?). I quickly recovered thinking about how bad this could get. I conceded to my error and replied that given my un-toned structure, decide that it would be 'illogical' to proceed with modeling.Thankfully the Prof accepted it with a nod and a smile that told me that he was letting me go easy! I am glad I did not speak on the topic in the class.Class participation can wait!

Like "One, Two, three, times a lady", is there 'one-twelfth an MBA'? You wish!

The Big Bang Theory

Like many of my friends, I was a day scholar at engineering school.I have been told that there had been a part of engineering school (not people, but life) that was not known to me, or for practical reasons out of bounds to me. I am talking about the world of "hostel-ites", as they were called.

Confined, OK, let me add 'by choice', to the palisades of Vastrapur New Campus, I am now a part of a camaraderie of hostelers.I had been variously told that I had missed out one some part of growing up by not living in a hostel. I was not so sure at the time. OK, sour grapes. I now think that the fact that we sit together and debate over 'business decisions' into wee hours of the evening and rub (all) our noses to the ground over frustratingly ambiguous case studies, weaves around us an invisible thread of fellow feeling.Slowly but surely we are building up a repertoire of stories that we will recall in future.

An unforgettable would be that of the Midnight Blast.

Post dinner, bogged down by an 'Analysis of Data' assignment, we were in the abyss of confusedness when, suddenly, there was a "Bang!". In day time, we've heard rare air-gunshots fired to scare away the hundreds of pigeon that think it is their right to deface, with natural elements, the ornate facade and modernistic walls of The Institute. But an air-gunshot in the middle of the night? There was a perplexed expression on several faces that were peering out of different syndicate rooms. On the hallway were PK and SP who had no idea what had hit them. The others were wondering what had come upon these two. It took the duo a few seconds to understand what had transpired. We thought it was excusable for them to be perplexed, since it was as real as it was unbelievable.

Turns out that PK had asked SP for a match and SP threw a butane lighter in PK's direction. PK missed the catch and the projectile exploded on contact with ground causing the big bang. What PK and SP were looking for, not realising all this had happened, was the missing blue plastic lighter. Obviously, neither of them had any background in using ammunition of this kind. So, it took a golden few seconds to understand that the heavy odour was that of sublime butane and the blue pieces of plastic were remnants of SP's cigarette lighter.

A wave of comic relief spread over the present crowd as dawned on them an unpleasant side-effect of playing catch with a lighter. Lighter as SP was of a lighter, our minds were lighter from the monotony of the post-dinner discussion. Somewhat like during the aftermath of the big bang, our ideas started crystalising (read as some progress on the case) all the while shaking our heads at the un-impossibility of what has just happened.

For the record, no one was hurt!

Thank god it's FRAday!

Imagine you are at sea standing on a balancing ball. You need to jump from ball to ball to make your way to an island, where you catch your breath and rest for a while. Then you repeat the act to reach another island. If you miss a step, you are in saline water. So also, if you take your eyes of your course. There is no looking back. There is only looking forward to the island. Then there are these high-jumps you need to clear sometimes in jumping between balls.

I am not saying there's no fun; I am talking about my trials at Vastrapur. The bouncing balls are the new topics in different courses we need to study everyday.The high jump bars are the tests, sometimes surprise ones, that we need to take. Miss a topic and you will be stumbling over yourself to catch up with what just went past in a blur. The islands are the weekends--the only times you can afford to look back and reflect upon what you did.

One of the balancing balls is a course on customer value (no, they don't use jargon such as 'marketing' here). Here, we are being trained to 'liberate ourselves from the shackles of rationality in order to understand the nuances of the behavior of an animal called customer'-quoting Prof. AK, who's on a mission to change the way we think and will be glad if we went home more confused than when we came in! Now, the fun part of this this that we get to do assignments where we need to look at good looking women with the best skin tones and lovely smiles. That's because we are required to elicit information on positioning of luxury soaps (partly, our choice of category) in India by looking at an array of TV and print advertisements in the category and then write a report on strategic marketing implications of same. Do you want to 'skindulge'?

We sing alleluias when we learn that a class has been deferred and thank gods for small mercies when the bulletin board is bare at 2 PM. For, at this hour the fate of the class, by way of a surprise quiz or not, is officially announced. Of course, you can check your mailbox over wi-lan. But, a notice is a notice.

The Institute expects highest levels of commitment to pass through the year long test of fire that is PGPX. The industry however does not prepare us for anything like this. One needs about eight hours of preparation outside to class to make it through a day having 3 course sessions. Not reading up for the class is like falling short of length at next the bouncing ball. Most of us are going into 'auto mode' in preparation for the next week that has 21 course sessions over six days. There has been some insinuation about a 'catch-up' class on the seventh day. That doesn't surprise us anymore.

"Why does cash flow?" "KASH (F)low" and the curious "positioning cash flow" are all side effects of a grueling episode most of us are going through. We are trying to imbibe the techniques of accounting as a part of Financial Reporting and Analysis. In a matter of four sessions we have covered aspects from the basic principles of accounting to cash flow statement. 'Covered' is a heavy word that includes all of: reading, discussing, applying, testing, frustration and sleepless nights. When you look at people's online chat-statuses, you see the phrases that were mentioned in quotes at the start of this paragraph. There is so much FRAstration that everyone is feeling FRAil around this subject. There is almost a tacit FRAternity of people whose confidence is FRActured by this subject. Oh, Oh, I am doing it again! I might be already too FRA from sanity.

There are ways to cope and then there are ways to cope. I find it comforting to chat up with anyone who is available at the FK tea stall at 1 AM. And I am glad I am not writing a 'reusable Visual C++ component' like one of my batch mates here, MS, did a couple of nights back. Either of these activities is like playing Bricks on the cellphone- stress-busting as well as entertaining. Can you imagine doing this aimlessly in the middle of the week? Where's the time?

Thank god it's FRAday!

Mid-summer night's daze

Up, after the first splash!

I am not a swimmer. Yet, aided by a life-jacket (yeah, not purist aquaphile) I have previously dived in to cold waters. When you hit the water for the first time, head down, the splash causes you to go in to a state of daze, until the buoyancy bobs you up above water. Only then can you breathe. If you get my point, this blog post is one such quick breather.

For email access, internally (Ah! the coveted domain name in my new email ID) WIMWI uses a SaaS-modelled service of,probably, the most popular email service that also owns the best search engine. So, we have this page that comes up as the inbox and on the left pane is the list of ready-for-chat users in the PGPX batch. The intent of this post is not to familiarize you with the features of our email system, but to enlighten you how a 'productivity' application can become a subtle support system. Let me explain.

The speed at which professors' assistants send updates, the academic reps post the latest twist in the profs' plans and the last minute changes to the make-up classes (you wish these were cosmetic) and the updates we get on assignments and submissions, one needs to be checking his email every few minutes. Else, one is working on expired information.

So, now you should guess that my Inbox page is, well, always open.

What do I see now? There is this gentleman SG, who's right now battling the twists of supply side managerial economics. How do I know that? His current status is "IsoCan't Curves". Inspired by this, I update my current status to 'segMental State' reflecting my state of mind at the maze of jargon surrounding Market Segmentation and Target Marketing. Then there is RR whose status is a smug 'hmmmm'. I am not sure what she is studying. Not sure if he was really sleepy or just bored, SG-Bandit flags a 'Bean Counting is fun, Bean Counting is fun, Bean....'.

As I make my way through the Building Blocks of PGPX, post-supper, I increasingly find that
a. It's already lunch time on the US Pacific Coast
b. My wife is already in REM sleep, probably dreaming that I have retired for the night
c. There still are several users online (green user icons) but deeply engrossed in subjects that while enjoyable, remind us that 'there are no free lunches'. In fact, nowadays, there is very little free time for lunch.

While time chugs along,outside the walls of Vastrapur campus, our Microeconomics Professor (so good that he was brought back from retirement) speeds past the topics at a speed tad less than that of light (If you think I am exaggerating, remember that I am reading marketing!). By the night, we try and run behind this beam encouraged by each others' 'statuses' reminding us that 'we are not alone'. Subtle Support System?

Coming back to the splash: After the first bob, gravity takes over and you go down for many short plunges. Time for me to plunge 'down' into Kotler's maxims.

Go...

The first official day of the PGPX program '09 started with an inaugural function that included an address by the director of WIMWI (well known institute of management in western India) as we humbly refer to The Institute.

As much as we enjoyed the program that included individual introductions to the faculty, managers of the program and the batchmates, so did our families who 'got an opportunity to understand the framework and learn firsthand about the expectations from the students'. Thankfully the first day only included presentations from supporting functions of the institute, but again did not spare us from prep material for Management Communication modules for Day 1 the Monday.

Day 1 taught us that management communication cannot be perfected. This would be a smug statement unless I tell you that I acknowledge now that some of the practices we knew before can at best be described as 'Corporate Baggage'. So, while critiquing our classmates on their presentations and reviewing the playbacks of the same, much delearning was seen as imperative.

Day 1 was not to end sooner than midnight for we had to dissect the First Case of the year. This was an 'illustrative case', meaning that we would not be graded on it and it would be used to understand the mechanics involved in solving a case. Zealous as we were to take the best shot at it, we chose to ignore the point of diminishing returns and spent close to 4 hours preparing for it individually and in groups. The exploration was interrupted by the Inaugural Dinner with faculty and staff of PGPX.

Now, inaugural dinners are supposedly fertile grounds to look for some face time with Professors and if possible with their assistants. And given that this would be the second only interaction with the professors, some of us thought that we should capitalise on the opportunity. We we can talk with the other students over the next year anyway. At this point I should tell you that some Young Professors, the recently qualified Fellows (WIMWI PhDs) are not much older, if at all, from most PGPX students. Hence, spotting a young professor with a french beard already talking to a student gave us instant joy. Now, one could slowly join the circle and wait for a chance to get into the conversation. Of course, the sensitive approach involved in doing this is not much different from hunting where you could unnecessarily startle the prey. Anyway, the approach was executed and the conversation was initiated. After about four minutes into the conversation a bunch of visiting cards came out of the professor's shirt pocket and made it in to our hands. It is only then we realise that the professor we softened up to was the VP of the company catering for the dinner. We beat a hasty retreat from the deceptive prof!

After that dinner was mostly spent learning the intricate mechanics of sub-prime fiasco from RK, a batch mate.

Get Set...

Third day, also day minus three, on campus came with a lot of surprises- some pleasant and some otherwise.

The pleasant suprise came in the form of an executive bag with our names and an inscription of the IIMA logo. The not so pleasant one came in the form of twelve spiral bounded proprietary study books and half a dozen text books.The size of the stack made me think that this should be manageable, until I learned that the stack would need to be devoured over the next ten, only, weeks that make up the first term. People were hoping that carrying the books from the office to the apartment would remind us to make time for fitness. We also found out our study groups and got alloted our syndicate rooms, where we will be found most of the times after class hours.

Next on the cards is the selection of representatives as well as committees for various functions that will be driving the batch the entire year. Some of us have taken up the initiative to drive the larger group toward the thinking process for this and set the ball rolling. Those who want to nominate themselves ought to find time to reflect upon their strengths and the roles they want to play.

After much deliberation, at about 7 PM, we decided that we should have a pre-term party tonight. Securing permission to host it in the terrace-lawn, arranging for musical tracks, getting the in-house caterers to make an assortment of pakodas, buying cold drinks, snacks and cake, planning party games and finally setting up the venue with lights and tables was organised with fervour in a matter of two hours. That iPod with a Bose docking station/speaker system is a DJs next best friend was quite evident when the beauty of a system kept pumping high decibal sounds all throught the party right over the chatter and laughter of a the hundred strong crowd.

We just retruned from the party. It could have gone on for longer had the rain gods relented and had we not been required to get ready for the formal inauguration as well as dissect a communications management case study with our syndicates.

This is a sign of things to come. Work hard and party often. The group is seriously considering buying a low-end sound system just for parties over the next twelve months. We will get the ROI when parties happen frequently and we will have parties frequently to get the ROI.

The program gets formally inaugurated tomorrow. Then, it's just "Go!".

On your marks...

We arrived at the hallowed portal of IIM Ahmedabad yesterday morning. We had for company another batch mate R and her husband M on the 36 hour train journey.We were planning to travel lock, stock and barrel (and hence the choice of a train). But given that we wanted to feel 'at home' at Ahmedabad, our situation could be summed up as 'lock, stock and two barrels'.

For the first time in two decades, I travelled on a rail-trip lasting more than a few hours. So, while the stink and snafu that we associate with Indian railway stations and trains have not changed much, the AC two tier treatment was not bad at all. Chatting up with the electrical incharge of our train, I found out that the trains are apparently much more cleaner and quieter the South of the Cancer line. He associated the regional attitudes and the major ethnicity of the passengers to how clean or otherwise a train is when it cruises into the last station.

Another thing I learnt, during an unscheduled stop, was that, apparently, even if the train were to not move for another six hours, we would still arrive at Ahmedabad on time. The reason he said was that the current time-table had been made keeping in mind a maximum speed of 60 kmph. The reality is that most trains run around 100 kmph on most tracks. So, while most trains could have shorter journey-times, they just don't. Hmm...

First two days here have been all about setting up our on-campus apartment for the rest of the year and meeting many people. The atmosphere is almost like returning to college after a vacation. The reason I say returning and not joining, is because thanks to web 2.0 and collaborative technology we know most of us- have discussed online, emailed each other, have either spoken on phone and/or met several times- before meeting here. So, the ice was broken long back. Only a few who chose so or otherwise remained inactive in our online forum needed any introduction.

The fact that Ahmedabad, as we are finding out slowly, is a hospitable city is making things very easy and simple. I cannot imagine -saying this for all it is worth- travelling in to Bangalore as a student with a family and without a car and at the mercy of auto rickshaw drivers and then finding it this easy to settle down. So far, the auto drivers are not only super-congenial, they are very enterprising. One guy introduced himself at the end of a twenty minute ride and urged me to note down his cellphone number. He said he is mostly lingering outside the campus gates and will be able to service us anytime. Amen! Bangalore auto drivers sit on their backsides and with no hesitation refuse to carry passengers to just any spot. It shows that Bangalore drivers are not hungry enough, if you see what I mean.

After seeing the malls of Bangalore, I will say that malls here are huge. The ISKCON (name owing to proximity to a temple) Mega Mall, is impressively big. Put a Forum and Garuda and some more to get an IMM. And I am told that IMM is not the biggest mall in Ahmedabad. No wonder RelianceMart chose Ahmedabad for launching its Hyper format.

I will be unnecessarily biased toward Ahmedabad, if I do not say a few words about the driving sense in Ahmedabad. For the size of the roads, big, and for the type of roads, pristine, visibly reliable and well lit, the aggressive behaviour of the drivers is confusing. Bangalore suffers from bad roads; here roads are not an issue. I do not yet know where it comes from, but something is not right about the rush.

Anyway, first two days, despite having followed a day and a half long train journey seem conveniently normal. A nice city, a nice campus and a nice feeling.

A pupil's progress

Five more days to do before I set out lock, stock and barrel to Ahmedabad. The three weeks I had taken off from work have resulted in part success. The aim of the break had been four fold - Relaxation, recreation,reading and regularisation. While I can say that I have made sufficient progress on the first two, the third is where it is in the list- lagging. The obscuring reference to regularisation is with regard to catching up on administrative tasks.

Right now, I think I am at the apex of a roller-coaster, the car is chugging its way to the highest peak. A few days from now, once we arrive at Ahmedabad, the car will be past the acme and then will hurtle down at breakneck speed and everything will pass in a blur.

But looking down (from the peak of the imaginary roller coaster) the feeling is very much like being on a real roller coaster or for that matter more like having taken off, out from the door of a propeller plane at 13000 feet for a sky dive. You have to do it right and land on your feet. And to do it right, you don't want to close your eyes; where's the fun anyway in doing that?

So, let's get it started in here.

Next phase: A thousand suns

Well into my first week of 'officially' doing nothing, but otherwise doing a lot I can say I have discovered a few things. Foremost among them is the fact that Bangalore does not have that much traffic at all! Surprised? Even I was, because rarely, if ever at all, have I ventured into the heart of the city between 11 AM and 5 PM on a working day.THIS is the time, Bangalore has no traffic at all.

In the process of learning the ropes of Financial Reporting and Accounting from pre-course learning material, at least I have figured out the difference between Expense and Expenditure. Being a layman to the domain, I should say it is no less than a discovery, albeit a technical one.

One of the first things that hits me when I converse with people is my inability to say I work for so and so. A momentary lapse of identity is quickly replaced by the realisation of what it meant before and what it will mean in future.

My break, simply, has started in uncertain times. Overall, there is a lot of grimness about how the events will unfold in the next eighteen months. Indian Banks' revelation on exposure to Sub-Prime Funds, recession fears(? or!) stalking Indian and global markets have started a ebbing phase which will be sustained by impending elections in the US and carried over by elections in India. Bolstering the fears are falling industrial output in Indian manufacturing, sky rocketing oil and gold prices,5.1%-nine-month high Inflation rate in India, 0.6% fall in US retail spending and analyst opinions that US recession could muster enough rubble to match the recession of the twenties.Yesterday's Bear Stearns bailout story is just another nail in the coffin. This is going to be one long year if not a longer eighteen months.

So, while the next twelve months will test a lot of new waters,cause there is bound to be many a storm, on the personal front optimism is rife because behind the dark clouds are a thousand suns.

Review of 'Snapshots from hell- The making of an MBA':

Set in the recent past,1988-1990, this book published in 1994 is a very funny, honest and absorbing take on the life of a Stanford MBA student. The author, Peter Robinson, does not spare himself or the college in describing his emotional roller coaster ride of realising his ambition to be a business graduate. With brutal honestness Robinson recounts, in first person narrative, his fears, failures and successes in overcoming the natural Poet (In Stanford lingo, a person who has no significant engineering, mathematical or financial educational background) in him while grappling with the quantitative-heavy Stanford syllabus.

This is a fictionalised autobiography in that the incidents in the story are all true and the protagonist or the observer is the author himself while the names, which could feasibly be changed have been masked. The author admits that 'there was no point in masking popular personalities' and so some of them from his friends' circle or faculty have been retained. Focussing primarily the first year and the summer internship period, Robinson traces his daily life with quotations from his personal journal. The natural flair of rhetoric that the author possesses is quite evident in three places: his pre-Stanford position as a speech writer for President Reagan; Robinson's own journal entries (no doubt written under heavy B-school-pressure) and the wit in storytelling itself.

The book is useful to any b-school student. But, it is especially required to be read by any student who is entering a well-placed or top b-school anywhere, as the philosophy or pedagogy of Stanford (like that of other global top b-schools) is bound to have influenced his or her school's didactics. What make this book timeless are the principles of selection and teaching of Stanford that are only pioneering and not transient, meaning that with time the best practices will only spread globally. The pedagogy and rigor influence a student's life significantly and therefore the experiences are bound to be similar. Today, this is especially true to India because we are witnessiing a globalisation of b-school education here, not suprisingly due to the free-market capitalisation being attempted by India, the growing demand for globally-experienced b-school graduates in Indian mainstream economy and the rise in ambition owing to affordability of quality b-school education. Of course, there are also more than ever Indian students who are able to afford and embrace international business schools.

The reader, especially, if he is in the target audience described earlier will instantly empathise with the author since within the first few pages, the author gives examples of various types of questions and analyses (and answer with diagrams) discussed in the class that added to the latter's misery. The reader thereby gets the benefit of learning about the mindset expected of a b-school student. The author describes with a natural sense of humour, his tribulations in mastering the apparently simple concepts (for the non-Poets) all along doubting his fitment in the Stanford's scheme of things.

During the course of the story, one also gets a glance at the recent history of the school and an understanding of the factors that challenged and led to the evolution of some of the top schools in the US. In the process of understanding the author's student-life, the readers are bound to get satisfactory answers to whether it was all worth it for the author and by extension lead to an introspection of their own motives. Of course, everything is relative and situational and then the book itself is not instructive; but, the subtle impact is lasting.

Wit, honesty and brevity are the key take-aways from Robinson's style.This is an unputdownable book and a must read for all b-school aspirants; an almost 'rite of passage' as I had been told.