Tuesday, March 28, 2006

Two days to go....Eternity awaits!!!!

I have only two more days of classes at ISB and my current feelings cannot be described with just words. On the one hand, Iam sad and apprehensive about leaving ISB, but happy to have ridden the storm reasonably successfully. So many new friends made, but so many will be lost after I leave hyderabad.....so many comforts endured at ISB, yet I will miss all the hardships faced during the year that was.

To put in perspective, this is my third educational adventure and third group of friends made and left.....I think Iam in denial as I have pretty much accepted the impermanence of relationships.

I have lived in a microcosm over the past year...but the real world awaits me all over again. How many times will this repeat......everytime I tell myself NO MORE!!!!

This year felt like an eternity....everyday!!! but now it feels like a nanosecond......its done...no more night outs, no more all night parties, no more insane deadlines to meet (I Hope!).

The same question keeps bothering me now...what next and Why???

Signing off from the best year of my life thus far....look forward to coming back next year for solstice :)

Senti karthik

Thursday, March 16, 2006

Heights of competitve intelligence

Yet another trend that i have noticed in quite a few of the ISB blogs...in the comments section, which goes as follows:

Anonymous said...
Hi, I am sure that you guys have beaten the USD 193 K salary, but have you guys beaten the highest domestic offer of 34 Lakhs ?I hope you guys have !


Cheers

This could be only one of the following three:
  • Some naive(???) student from a competing B-school, who thinks he can get info from unsuspecting ISB student by patronizing us like this.
  • Media guys who are really impatient.
  • Prospective student who is just really eager.

I have a sneaking suspicion that it is the first choice. If so....guys if you are reading this......We are also MBA's and I think we understand what you are trying to do here!!!!

All your impatience will be answered in due course once the ISB admin is ready to release the figures....all that can be assured is that you will not be dissapointed :)

Laterz

Tuesday, March 07, 2006

Marketing Analytics- Future of international marketing??

Over the past few days, I have observed an interesting trend in the geographical location of the people who visit this blog(Through the site meter facility). Earlier, the mix was heavily in favour of the US....my guess is ..largely inqusitive people checking it out.

Now, the world map is cluttered with hits from within india...makes perfect sense as a lot the guys from the next years batch are looking for any kind of info about ISB and are excited at the same time!!! Believe me I was no different tis time last year.

The power of such analytics tools is unbounded......watch out for more such techniques in the future. I can now design the content of this blog well suited to the majority of the readers in this time frame!!

Quick Gyan for next years batch.....Chill out during the pre-terms, Concentrate on accounts, have a lot of parties and get to know people.

Term 1 will be a tough ramp up, but the excitement will carry you through
Term 2 is a lot more fun with Marksrtat and Global economics, but even tougher than term 1
Term 3 is probably the toughest and you will be very constrained for time.
By the time you reach term 4, you already know how to crack the system or you have given up on trying to do so :)

Term 5 brings on new hope with elective subjects you may like to learn
Term 6 is when rumblings about placements start and you start working on your resume
Term 7 will be all about placements...did not learn much in this term!
Term 8 is strange time if you already have an offer and you are just happy leave unscathed, but sad to leave behind so many friends, experiences and comforts.

Just a brief snapshot of the year here, but Iam quite sure of you will have your own set of unique experiences.

Later

Sunday, March 05, 2006

Sustainable Strategy

This term, I have three strategy courses and all of them have really got me thinking about the validity of an american educatiion in the indian context....except for the broad frameworks suggested.

In Marketing strategy, We read about the three parameters of differentiation: Price value; Performance value; Relationship value....efforts focussed to shift mature, undifferentiated products to a relationship value direction from performance to avoid price wars.

My view is, the firms who produce the maximum Price-Performance combination value will be successful rather than any single vector like relationship. The relationship value direction is NOT a dominant strategy in a dveloping market like india, where purchasing power is still evolving.