Monday, February 27, 2006

Got it!!!

Today has probably been one of the better days I have had in a quite a while. I travelled to bangalore to meet up with a company which was interested in my services....went with no pre conceived expectations......met a lot of smart people .......committed to the job and I have no real second thoughts now.

Come May 1st I will be joining TVS Motors as Manager - Strategy and Competitve Intelligence.

Its going to be a tough job which will most probably stretch all my MBA resources to the limit in order to be successful......

Iam feeling very satisfied today!!!

More Later

Wednesday, February 22, 2006

And the portfolio theory backfires......

I had a dream start to the placement season...Infosys made me decent (but way undersold) consulting offer in my own domain...and I readily hedged my portfolio as planned. The sad part is, I think I may have to take up the offer as Iam not exactly cnverting other opportunities. I have exactly three opportunities to go in the next three days....and Iam willing to figth tooth and nail for my marketing jobs......I had a good fight today for a awesome marketing job, but to no avail :(

Come to think of it, I really didnot have adream job....I came here with the idea of exploring opportunities inproduct marketing and my options are slowly but surelydrying out quickly

I may even end up working in IT because the pay is better......and the roleis pretty good too (as per my understanding)

As you can see...Iam extremely confused and marginally dissapointed right now.

Only god knows where iam headed next!!!!

Hopefully better news next time around

Thursday, February 16, 2006

The Portfolio theory actually works!!!

Welll...a Quick update on the happening....so far I have had 3 shortlists and all to IT companies!!!

The role with Infy is interesting to say the least.....for a total non-IT guy, it seems good.

None of my other marketing apps have come through yet and so its wait and watch now I guess. All of my apps have a inherent bias....the trend suggests that I do not want jobs which will involve travelling too far north, else its all been for international jobs.

Have an Intervew on sunday and I dont know what to prepare for it yet!!! Another GD tommorow....I seriously hate the fact that such experienced students have to attend group discussions like kids or whatever!!!!

Thats the price we will have to pay for being such a large batch....

Thought for the day: I NEED more shortlists to come through to have any options at all!

Later

Sunday, February 12, 2006

Farewell to the exchange students

This year at ISB, we have had close to 50 odd exchange students from all over the world come over for a term or two. Thier presence has been quite conspicous, be it at the parties or the noise from thier all night quad parties (Every day...I might add).

I thin it was different experience and it was great fun interacting with all of them....here are a few of them saying goodbye


Hi everyone -- Today is my last day at the ISB. The last five weeks have definitely been the highlight of my MBA. I want to thank you all for making my experience here so great.
You can find my contact information below. Please keep in touch and don't hesitate to drop me a line if you're ever in San Francisco.
-Josh


The time has arrived for me to bid you farewell. I am so grateful to all of you that took the time to make me feel comfortable and at home. I hope that someday I can return the hospitality when you visit South Africa.

The University of Cape Town, Graduate School of Business is one of the most spectacularly located campuses in the world, surrounded by Table Mountain and the city harbour. The beaches are 10 minutes away and the vineyards about 20. Furthermore, you get good value for money holidaying in SA as compared to the UK or US. I'm almost certain that our school will be only too excited to host you even after you have completed your programme at ISB.

If you would like to stay in touch, here are my details:

Visegan Subrayen


and my favorite.....this one is from pakistan!!!

Dear all,

Faisal and I are off tomorrow morning, so we just wanted to thank you all for everything.

On a personal note, I can say that this has been one of the best experiences of my life. I wish that I could take many things back with me, but fortunately I take back what is most important i.e. great memories and friends who I know will be there for life. In the years to come, we will all be busy working and someday you or I may need each other for a cross-border business deal…and I know that I can count on many of you, and please remember that I will be there if anyone needs my help. But lets ensure that it’s not just business that keeps us in touch. I have said this many times “Please come to Pakistan”, and I will say it here again “Please DO come to Pakistan”. As they say in Spanish (as rusty as mine is) me casa es su casa, i.e. Your house is my house, so you all are welcome, and you can stay with me in Karachi.

As far as LUMS and ISB is concerned, many of you may not be aware, but this is the first exchange program between two colleges from India and Pakistan since partition. What is interesting is that partition was used to separate us, but initiatives like this are wiping out any boundary that exists. I think we all need to do many things in our lives for our countries, whether we hate the system or not, and we should work towards making relations between the two nations better. The ISB and LUMS partnership is an excellent example of a place where the minds of two countries meet, and we need to emphasize the need for such things later on in our lives. Maybe have a forum, or a ‘young professionals association’ that can meet once every year and discuss issues, locate opportunities and find synergies. Both the countries are booming economically, but we all know that one war can set us back 30 years. I feel that if people like you and I meet more often and create bonds, then we can speed up the change that is needed.

I could go on and on, but every good thing must come to an end. I thank you all for your hospitality, your support, your warm welcome and obviously the partying.

Special thanks to a few who I know I will miss dearly. So, Major, Pavit, Sunil lingo, Abi, Gary, Nilofer, Elaine, Shipra, Mallu, Pahwa, vivek, Mayank, Samir, Aleem, and last but not least, who can ever ever forget the Liqueur Baron of ISB, Mr Rajesh Mani. Obviously, if I have forgotten any names (as absent minded as I am right now with all the lat minute stuff), please…you all know that you are my special friends.

Last but not least, I hope that I did not offend any of you. If I did, I apologize and I doubt I ever meant it. Also, I hope that you all will encourage future ISB students to come to Pakistan.


For those who are interested Please add me to your MSN or GTALK. Also, I am getting my laptop formatted, so please, if you do reply to this…send it to

Wednesday, February 08, 2006

The importance of knowing your target customers!!!

Yet another attempt at understanding why certain events occur from a marketing standpoint.

We had this prof KK who taught us this awesome subject "Macroeconomics". He was recently voted the best professor of the year(second year in a row!). His background: Bachelors and Masters in computer science and Phd in economics. His teaching stlye was unconventional and he did generate a lot of interest. But as some people already pointed, he is not neccesarily the best in his field...then why is he so successful at ISB??

Well this is my take on it:

  • The majority of the crowd at ISB are engineers and the course was taught as an engineer would appreciate, with graphs, equations and theories.....not like a typical economist would teach it.
  • Brief, concise and to the point: tailored to the time constrained crowd at ISB
  • Subject matter very relavent to practical realities and it makes an attempt at clarifying real life occurances through frameworks, formulae and videos...tailored for an engineer by an engineer
  • The professor projected a highly differentiated and extreme point of view on the subject, which the ISB students related very well to

See here, KK did most things right: Designed the service as per the requirements of the ISB students, delivered it very effectively and created a unique positioning through extreme differentiation....and above all he added percieved value to the student body as a whole.

I do not want to detract from KK's achievements, but I just think he is an excellent marketeer and a good professor...thats all.

If I was this good at tailoring my resume to the recruiters requirements, I would have been inundated with shortlists by now.... I guess I have a looooong way to go :)

The placement season is getting hectic and the job postings are pouring in...but like any good MBA I have hedged my portfolio evenly across roles, industries and functions. Hopefully this will at least yield me the average returns promised by the portfolio theory for I have given given up the strategy of focussed investment in a single area (read as marketing).

I guess Iam more risk averse than I think Iam....May the force be with me during the next two weeks ( This is where you step in and say that everything will be OK :) )

Ok...tata for now and more later and definitely more regularly.

P.S: I voted for KK too!!