• We all talk about two heads better than 1 and in fact two heads better than 2 itself. The is called synergy. The entire concept of group work is based on this. But, in reality, is1+1 greater than 2? It depends. What these heads are determine the outcome of the combination of these heads. The weighted average is very important here. If one fellow has a lower IQ or has an equal IQ but operates at lower efficiency, then it is a drag on the other one, which results in 1+1 2. Again if one is irrational and the other is rational, then 1+1

• We all talk about two heads better than 1 and in fact two heads better than 2 itself. The is called synergy. The entire concept of group work is based on this. But, in reality, is1+1 greater than 2? It depends. What these heads are determine the outcome of the combination of these heads. The weighted average is very important here. If one fellow has a lower IQ or has an equal IQ but operates at lower efficiency, then it is a drag on the other one, which results in 1+1 2. Again if one is irrational and the other is rational, then 1+1

• We all talk about two heads better than 1 and in fact two heads better than 2 itself. The is called synergy. The entire concept of group work is based on this. But, in reality, is1+1 greater than 2? It depends. What these heads are determine the outcome of the combination of these heads. The weighted average is very important here. If one fellow has a lower IQ or has an equal IQ but operates at lower efficiency, then it is a drag on the other one, which results in 1+1 2. Again if one is irrational and the other is rational, then 1+1

All that we have in a term are 10 classes, about 20 hours for each subject. In these hours, the Prof is supposed to facilitate our learning of all that of Statistics or Microeconomics or other subjects. For some subjects, there are two Profs., meaning that one Prof will be around for 5 classes. Today we had the last session from Prof Ward of Wharton. He did a fantastic job of stimulating us to think. Marketing can really work wonders provided one does it properly. The clear take away from these five sessions is that “One cannot manage what one cannot measure”. One cannot claim that one will be able to turnaround a company by making a marketing mission statement. One needs to support all the claims with data. Of course, at some point assumptions take over. But again assumptions are not drawn out of vacuum.

MBA program at ISB, as it is at other top b-schools, is highly quant based. For me who has been less quant oriented the entire life, though the going is tough, the learnings are quite amazing. As Statistics summarizes, it is easy to lie with data, but it is easier to lie without data. If I choose to ignore statistics or math-orientation, I can choose to be an author of a book or contributor to newspapers or magazines or even an also-ran manager, but can never aspire to reach the top echelons of corporate world. The skill of handling data to make decisions is quintessential. And slowly but surely I am getting there. My decision to incur a big cost and a huge opportunity cost to go for an MBA education at ISB is indeed a good one.

Post Scriptum:
Before opinions are formed, the contact hours of 640 hours at ISB are more or less comparable with other top MBA programs of the World. In terms of quality of teaching ISB stands second to none. But the fact that all the contact hours are compressed into one year makes difference. It is quite intensive and definitely not for the weak hearted.

There are haves and have-nots here at ISB. Reference is not to economic quotient, but intelligence quotient.

Haves are having a ball of a time. One can see them loitering at the Atrium, playing football or cheering their teams, going out into the city, watching DVDs, having booze. What not, what more. To finish assignments, they take about a fourth of a time needed for the Have-nots.

Have-nots are having a tough time. Economics equations are taking life out of them. Couple this with the tension of preparing for a marketing case and statistics mid-term on 20th. Where can one find them? Only in their respective rooms. At best (or worst), in others rooms clarifying doubts.

Haves are Sharks and Have-nots are Poets (refer to blog of March 17)

This however does not mean that all those found loitering or having booze or watching DVDs are Haves. There are Have-nots who have all the time to do what they want to do. They still submit the assignments and get marks. Some are okay with just getting a degree and some other figure out the secret of how to submit correct assignments without really having to slog.

***********************************

Students are grouping themselves into all the imaginable and unimaginable teams. A person may belong to just one group to which he relates or may belong to many groups based on pedigree and future aspiration.

 Chartered Accounts (they should have exempted us from accounting class)
 IITians (number crunching machines)
 Engineers
 Infosians (we last worked there. but never want to go back)
 Wiproites
 IT-wallahs
 Above 10 year experienced (to figure out what jobs they can chase)
 Wannabe Consultants (200 of us)
 Marketers
 Studied Abroad (we have the same accent. easy to talk to)
 Just back NRIs (worked abroad)
 Mumbaikars
 Delhi-wallas (Oh god, Hyderabad. Delhi far better)
 Locals
 Tamil
 Mandatory study groups (given an opportunity the first group from which many want to break)
 Soccer players
 Wannabe golfers
 Aspiring polyglots
 SV 1 guys (Student Village 1 guys have had some rough time. Hence the solidarity)
 SV 2 guys (we live there. Good reason to feel belonged)
 Married
 Married with children (have pity on us)
 Smokers (where do we search when we need a light)
 Boozers (economies of scale)
 Film buffs

There are 340 students. Wont surprise if the types of groupings cross this number.

Post Scriptum:
After a long gap between graduation and now, the mind has no clue on how to orient to an organized learning program. The adjustment is painful and long draw. You guessed it right. I belong to Have-nots.

• One aspect which many at ISB tend to ignore is to learn from other students. All that I bothered to ask about other students is name, section-, group-numbers, education- and industry-background. Rarely beyond this. Today I resolved to delve deep into what others have done in their work. If others indulge me, I will go as far as asking what their daily routine was, important aspects of job, and is there anything in their experiences that they can relate to the topics being taught.

• The world of MBA, from GMAC to various other MBA-admissions consulting firms and then to the b-schools themselves, uses the pronouns SHE/HER wherever there is a need to use a pronoun for a person. This is something different from the most of the rest of the world has been doing or is doing. Use HE/HIS/HIM to represent a person.*

• MBTI thing has been bothering me a lot. While I still resent to be fit into a type or category, I realize that I can use this tool to do introspection in a methodical fashion. I want to use MBTI along with the Johari Window** to know more about myself. Based on the findings, I am willing to throw away all assumptions that I ever had about myself, even it means the process is going to hurt.

• While I am still struggling to find a way out of the maze drawn by the Profs during the first two weeks, I realize that it is important not to just stick to the curriculum. Marketing, Accounting, Statistics and Economics are various wings of an organization. Ultimately it is the organization as a whole that has to progress and maximize stakeholder (not just shareholder but include shareholders, customers, vendors, employees and even society at large) value. Given this assumption, it becomes imperative that I integrate the learning from each subject and use the learnings to see the larger picture. I cannot claim I am anywhere closer to this grand objective. The resolve will however be to get there.

Post Scriptum:

*I am neither against nor for using SHE/HER. I, however, will continue using HE/HIS/HIM. I am a male and I cannot do disservice to my sex

**the Johari Window is another fantastic tool which enables better self-understanding and interpersonal relationships

It is a well appreciated fact that life is not linear. Life involves too many variables – it mostly operates in the nth space.

Business involves multiple variables too. But to make decision making simpler, it resorts to math and takes help of natural logarithm, which converts non-linear equations to linear equations. This makes understanding of business situations easy and thus manageable.

What about life? Is there such a magic formula to make life simple, comprehensible and manageable? There is no single natural log, which can come to rescue. There are perhaps multiple logs. Each person has to introspect/retrospect and find one’s own logs and logs that are appropriate to particular situations. These can work alone or in combination to make life easier and better. Some of the logs which come to my mind

• Love – for instance, to remind us of the purpose of life when we wander too much in search of power and money. Or even when we get lost amidst the statistics formulae or accounting statements

• Humor – for instance, to de-stress and to prevent some everyday situations from getting nasty

• Booze – for temporary amnesia, when the loved ones themselves don’t understand or when we can’t understand them. Or even when the economic Prof’s equations bother too much

• Positioning and Posturing – to hoodwink others and derive benefit for self

• Patience – for instance, when we can’t make out what the marketing Prof mumbles in class. Or even to make us sit through the classes till we graduate

The above list is not exhaustive. Nor do I want them to sound as shortcuts to getting out of a situation. Some are just useful for a given moment. Some, such as love and humor, are really powerful and can provide sustainable solutions in making life easy to manage. These are the real logs of life.

At ISB, a few skills, I will surely add. But will the experience change me. The Prof who heads the Leadership Development Program mentions that trauma effects change and the ISB experience, because of its intensive nature, borders on trauma as its impact. But, is change really possible?

Many of us have met a lot of other members of the ISB community. But we chose as friends or mates who are more or less as we are. Or rather those who could empathize with our view point. Or at least those with whome we shared some commonality, such as the same school, college, town, etc. If we have made a group based on our past experiences, it is likely that we will continue developing the personality molded by our past experiences rather than break the path and reinvent ourselves. Lest I should be called cynical, I also mention that the choice of the group is not necessarily conscious; it is rather very sub-conscious, almost subtle. We scanned the people for a few days and then settled around a person or a group of persons based on one or more of above parameters.

Having said that, if we don’t try to change, then change is surely impossible. But this needs resolve; this requires ability to introspect and respond to situations in a completely different fashion from what we would otherwise normally do or have been doing. ISB experience, so far, has provided such situations to which if we respond differently, change can be managed.

Post Scriptum: One reason why I started a blog is to follow my thinking. Though I tend to be impulsive in my thought, a deep psychological structure controls what I think or what my impulses are. As I had earlier mentioned I am okay with being labeled inconsistent than being labeled unchanging. I really hope that by the time I graduate I pick up the “ability to choose my response to situations”. To me, change is about this.

 However much we may want to base our decisions on data and their analyses, assumptions become integral part of, sometimes basic to, decision making. The more I read, the more it becomes clear to me. Statistics is full of assumption – despite the rigorous math approach that this discipline has, at very fundamental level, the utility of statistics is possible because of assumptions. Marketing is full of assumptions too – a company assumes that the new flavor it adds in the ketchup would suit the taste buds of some people. How does one make assumptions? They cannot be made out of thin air. One needs experience or needs to closely know someone else’s experience. Hence, the premium placed on people with experience.

 When one is graded for class participation (CP), one tends to cook up doubts, even when none exists or can be imagined. In the entire first term, we are not being graded for class participation (CP). That is, no marks for asking questions. I have great regard for people who ask genuine questions which enlighten the entire class. Sometime even the Prof learns out of such doubts. These people are good. But the other category is interesting. These people want to ask doubts that seem to annoy only them. They want to ask questions on the subject the Prof is yet to cover. Some wake up and ask questions relating to previous class. Some repeatedly ask doubts. Ten to Fifteen doubts in each class! It has nothing to do with CP. They have a culture of asking doubts or seeking way. Get into an airplane. We can notice some people ask the air hosts to guide them to their seats. Get into an exam hall, there are people ‘feeling the need’ to be taken to their respective desks. These people are Boss’s nightmares. They would call up the boss every hour to clarify doubts. (Should I send this mail or not. Yes. Okay, then should I cc it or bcc it to you. Use cc. Okay. Should I use regards or cheers?) They would go to a colleague to clarify doubts. (The other day I saw you finish the project report. Did you type single space or double space? Double space. Did you send soft copy or hard copy? Hard copy. Did you use A or B size paper?). One kind of people. Long live diversity.

 However much we may want to base our decisions on data and their analyses, assumptions become integral part of, sometimes basic to, decision making. The more I read, the more it becomes clear to me. Statistics is full of assumption – despite the rigorous math approach that this discipline has, at very fundamental level, the utility of statistics is possible because of assumptions. Marketing is full of assumptions too – a company assumes that the new flavor it adds in the ketchup would suit the taste buds of some people. How does one make assumptions? They cannot be made out of thin air. One needs experience or needs to closely know someone else’s experience. Hence, the premium placed on people with experience.

 When one is graded for class participation (CP), one tends to cook up doubts, even when none exists or can be imagined. In the entire first term, we are not being graded for class participation (CP). That is, no marks for asking questions. I have great regard for people who ask genuine questions which enlighten the entire class. Sometime even the Prof learns out of such doubts. These people are good. But the other category is interesting. These people want to ask doubts that seem to annoy only them. They want to ask questions on the subject the Prof is yet to cover. Some wake up and ask questions relating to previous class. Some repeatedly ask doubts. Ten to Fifteen doubts in each class! It has nothing to do with CP. They have a culture of asking doubts or seeking way. Get into an airplane. We can notice some people ask the air hosts to guide them to their seats. Get into an exam hall, there are people ‘feeling the need’ to be taken to their respective desks. These people are Boss’s nightmares. They would call up the boss every hour to clarify doubts. (Should I send this mail or not. Yes. Okay, then should I cc it or bcc it to you. Use cc. Okay. Should I use regards or cheers?) They would go to a colleague to clarify doubts. (The other day I saw you finish the project report. Did you type single space or double space? Double space. Did you send soft copy or hard copy? Hard copy. Did you use A or B size paper?). One kind of people. Long live diversity.