Motorbikes and the countryside!

Last week I finally ventured out into the market on a whirlwind weeklong trip across tamilnadu.
First I took a chartered flight from our office to Coimbatore (Which was a funny and ear deafening experience i might add). Couple of days in and around coimbatore and tiruppur, then onto Chennai.

It just so hapened that I landed there on my birthday, so obviously I had a good time. Cut my cake in a Pub with a bunch of drunk people singing me birthday wishes :)

Next I went onto Madurai and adjoining Dindigul and Theni (Close toKodaikanal). What was I doing in all these places.....Well I was visiting customers and channel partners to sort out something which has propped up in the field. OH OH lets not forget....Spying on the competition was an important aspect of the entire trip.

All in all, It was a hectic but great experience and I hope to travel up north next month.

Laterz

A whole month down....

I was dreading this very moment....that I would be marginally bored after the first month of work.....it happened at my last job too, but it quickly changed with the first assignment. Anyways, Iam now comiong to grips with the role and if looked at seriously, I can make a difference......

Fingers crossed.....Welll the book that has made the greatest impact in the recent days...."Siddhartha" by Herman Hesse.....It seemed like the story of my life when I was reading it :)

Laterz

Why do we read self help books???

Really.....I just recently asked myself. Not that I read too many self help books, but recently I have found my self reading books like 7 Habits of successful people, Blue Ocean strategy etc. None of the stuff written there is directly applicable...recalling Bacon's essay on education, He rightly says there are some books u need to chew and digest, others merely as snacks and a few which are to be bitten and spat away.

Now, this really makes sense, for this way you will develop a discerning sense of good and bad, right and wrong, due to experience and practice. Is that the reason highly successful read a lot too?

Anyways, my book review on blue ocean strategy..... One heckuva good book, if you are looking for answers. Again, nothing groundbreaking in my opinion, while reading it you will find yourself expanding the canvas of opportunities and be not be constrained by the dominant truth underlying your industry. Iam still in the middle, hopefully the excitement will last till the end.

Anyways, I joined work last week, and Iam slowly discovering that I have to sculpt this role myself to make a real impact. Coming from product development, this is a sea change, even though underlying skill sets still apply: Team work, People Management and creativity.

One final thought: It feels good to fall asleep right after you hit the bed, after a good days work!

Laterz

Back in bangalore after just about a year

Well....its back to fun, crowded and young bangalore. This time to work in an indian company. Will be sharing an apartment with another ISB friend who works at Amazon. I basically wasted time over the last two days as I had closed my deal very early in the piece.

I start work on Wednesday and in a wait and watch mode to see how it goes rite now.

On an aside, I consider this blog like dumbledore's Pensieve and when i upload my thoughts on it i feel greatly relieved. One such thing has troubled me over the past two days....after reading V.S Naipaul's work on india....He may be a booker prize winner, but i feel he has over represented the downsides, which are out in the open unlike some other countries in the world. His work is so depressing, that anyone who wants to come back to india, would drop thier ideas.

Naipaul's critique on gandhi however, was very interesting and his observation of the short term memory of the people of india over the centuries is indeed inspiring. But what he fails to realize is that he judjes the level of development as compared to western countries, which have a much shorter civilized history as compared to this country......He talks of the failure of the hindu Religion, but fails to realize that Hinduism is a way of life rather than a religion.

His point of view is rather short sighted and I do not understand the reason behind such a critical work on india...maybe he was in denial that he also was part indian!!!

Anyways....I feel lighter now!

Laterz

Floating books in a Dirty Port!

A bunch of us visited a floating book fair on board a ship which was docked in the chennai port.....
Even though it was an utter dissapointment, at least we did something new.

However, I was dissappointed at all the attention that was given to this boat. It was nothing but a floating christian evangelistic mission. Most of the books were on Christianity and there were free books being given away promoting the religion. So many innocent kids took these books and will most probably get influenced by it. This is what infuriates me about these missions, even though I personally have nothing against the religion.

SO many such missionaries have tried to convince me when i was in the US and I sometimes wonder if they will ever stop. I agree that the religion initially grew through such evangelism, but the context then was totally different. Then, the positions of power were held by religious leaders but now wealth is the universal oppressor and religious oppression is not really widespread anymore. I believe that Now, Religion exists merely as a spiritual support mechanism and also to provide a sense of belonging.

Now that I have bashed them up, the one positive take away is....How well they market thier religion. All aspectsof association, aggressive salesmanship, customization to local conditions, promotional incentives to convert (Education, food at the church etc.), extreme opportunism when it comes to prospecting for new markets for growth, excellent top down communication of targets....this religion runs more like a very well structured business!!

Anyways....I think the heat has finally gotten to my head now!!!

More later!

Simple pleasures in life.... :)

Now that Iam totally relaxing, I have started rediscovering some simple pleasures in life. Yesterday, I went to the gym and wanted to take swim later on...as it turned out, it rained cats and dogs (!!!!!...in chennai) and the plan got shelved. However, I just winged it and drove out into the rain on my motorbike.

the extent of my joy was indescribable....On an open road , on my favorite bike driving through Ice cold rain. Then I followed it up with a hot cup of tea in a local shop and had a nice little conversation about the weather with some random guy in the tea shop.......

I dont think I have felt happier, even when achieved something great in the past. This is the second instance in past year that I have felt inordinately happy for such simple things, last time around it was because I interacted with a large group of prospective students at ISB.

At the end of the day, hopefully all of us just want happiness...it is upto us to discover what makes us happy and go towards it. For me, the formula is rather simple..Independence, friends and casual interactions.....

What makes you happy??????

Laterz

Main aisa kyon hoon???

Before I came back home, I promised my self that i would return to normal 11PM to 6 AM sleeping hrs......no use....Iam still sleeping at 3 and getting up at 10......I cant understand why I refuse to let go if ISB life and get organized!!!

I have even postponed my trip to bangalore till 28th...hopefully I will get a house then!! The days arer now just floating by, without any real purpose, without any assignments or homeworks, without the anticipation of the end terms exams and the term breaks afterwards.......Gosh, how I miss the rush and the relaxation afterwards.

I have been catching with some friends and relatives and its been a lot of fun. But only one gripe....Everyone keeps talking of mairrage. I have now come to agree that I will get married eventually, but NOT right now.......Hopefully, nothing will come up before 2007! But dont take me wrong, I really do appreciate the concern that near and dear express.....I guess its the growing pains that every guy/gal goes thro in this period.

I have been seeing all kinds of movies recently and I have become even closer to my laptop than earlier :).....I really cannot exist without a broadband connection and a laptop!

Well enough rubbish for today.....more later :)

Jobless Post ISB!!!!

Well....thats because I have another 15 days to go before I go to bangalore......and after the hectic year, normal life seems very pedestrian. The year gone by was like extreme sports compared to normal life, which is like a slow game of golf. Iam not ready for Golf YET!!!!

Anyways, a few of us have been meeting regularly (We actually dont know what else to do with our excess time now :) ). We all met up with a few students from next years batch to impart some gyan....this has noe become a Chennai-ISB meet tradition and hopefully it will continue for years to come!

Now its time to move this blog away from ISB topics onto more generic topics of interest (Namely Marketing in my case). Since Iam moving a work profile in that general area, I will keep trying to add some insights.....hopefully some of which i will try to look into at a later stage in my career......

Pssst.....hopefully there wont be anymore confused posting written under duress(like last year).

Sanity shall prevail!!!!

Laterz

Good Bye ISB

Well...its farewell to ISB and the by far the best year of my life. The campus is strangely silent, and all I have to look forward to is Graduation day (8th April). The next phase of life commences at Bangalore...lets see where it leads to next.

Class of 2007 students located at chennai....Let me know when you want to meet the alums in chennai (Preferably 11th April).

I will try and gather a crowd of guys to meet up and share any info you need. Last year we met at the coffee shop "Amethyst".

My email ID: karthik70@yahoo.com

Next post from chennai!!!!

Well...Its all over now, but everything else is just getting started :)

I just submitted my last assignment last night. With that I complete all the requirements for the course and will officialy graduate by the 8th of april. Quite a few of my near and dear ones will come for the graduation ceremony and it will be a very emotional time for all of us (Even for a person like me :) !!).

To capture the experience in a nutshell, the year at ISB is like self inflicted torturous change that a choice concious individual experiences after admission to the school. Then you get here and think that you can tackle it with ease...then you realize that it s an entirely new ball game with the rules of the game being totally flipped.

Then the happy part sets in, for you feel part of something BIG and thru all the struggles, you make some great friends, a lot of contacts and definitely get transformed in some sense. ISB preaches Trauma Transformation. Frankly, It really works. A meek person goes out feeling more confident than ever, Some one who cannot handle stress will definitely handle it better now.

Then come placements season....some people happy, some people sad...Some people Overjoyed at the results!!! If anyone tries to measure the entire year on a monetary ROI metric, then sadly you are making a mistake. All that i can say is, Wait a while to see success of all the ISB grads in the next few years and you will know what Iam talking about now.

ISB is a one of its kind instituion in india with a lot of people wanting to see it become successful in the years to come. Every new student who enters next needs to keep the following in mind:

• Do whatever you are best at at full throttle.....academics is not the only thing to do in this 1 year
• Maximize your learning through interactions with your peer group for academic learnings are very pedagogic and will only take you so far.
• Make a lot of friends and have a lot of parties.......it helps you feel more refreshed for the next challenge.
• ALWAYS be honest to yourself....even if you make mistakes and are caught in the act...accept and move on......under all the stress, there will be all kinds of opportunities to go astray
• Be a real brand ambassador for you institution, for it furthers your career at every stage. Remember, your reputation from this point on is closely linked with ISB's now!
• Finally, Have fun but never drop your gaurd completely...always be alert and attentive.

Have a great year guys.....and I wish you all the very best in life.

Karthik

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

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

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

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.

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

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

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

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

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!!

Competition and Individuality

For a novice, these two words may seem to be synonymous. Sadly, Competiton depletes ones individuality if he/she is not ready for it. I see myself and every other person getting pressurised by preparations of the so called competition around us. More than half of our available time and resources is spent on matching and bettering the efforts of the tangible competition.

My point of view on this from a marketing context is that innovation and differentiation is the only winner. In a competitve environment, if one tries to beat the competition all you do is end up wasting your efforts. Think of this in a typical prisoners dillema situation. All we will end up with at the end is more of the same, which frankly will not be sustainable in the long run.

Instead, if each of us spends more time in developing individuality, conversion of opportunities is definitely more probable.proof of this concept is seen in everyday life in companies like Apple, 3M, Google, Amazon, Linux etc. Sure, it took them a while to get there, but they are here to stay and grow.

The list of short-sighted losers is long and pathetic: TATA mobile (will feel the pinch soon enough), IIM's 1 year program, more of the same IT companies. I frankly cant remeber anymore because they never really become popular.

Anyways, this is yet another of my attempts to apply marketing to real life situations.

More later