As a child, I used to wonder when people asked me what my dad was and got a reply from me that was always wrong for them. I used to say, my father is my father, a man, a person. What else, for god’s sake? No. they wanted to know what my father’s job was. But then why should they ask what he was. They could ask me what his job was. But then I did not know then that, when we grow up, we become our jobs. Hence the question… what are you?

Btw, I was a banker. Dunno, what ISB will make of me. Hopefully, a person.

PS: I got inspired by a line from Taxi Driver starring Robert De Nero / directed by Martin Scorsese

Cause and effect relationship is not as easy to establish as we may want to. We often confuse cause for effect and vice versa. Worse, we confuse correlation with causal relationship.

Superstition is an effect of this misunderstanding of the causal relationship Vs correlation. People go to saloons only on Thursdays; every time they go out of house they have to carry some talisman with them; every time they hit a century they look up; all serials begin with K word; they don’t want to buy black cars; they believe to have 999 on car number plate is lucky. There are many more and each of these is because someone somewhere has been able to give out ‘one’ example or two of how by doing these acts, performances improved or results were better.

The only crib at ISB last few days is that the term break has been lost thanks to a lot of assignments that we have been asked to submit. We think that our term breaks get spoilt because of assignments. Meaning that, assignments ‘cause’ to spoil our term breaks. Actually, it is the other way round. Because we have a term break, we keep postponing submission of all assignments till term break and work during them. Because of this procrastination, there are so many assignments to work on in a short span that we end up submitting inferior quality reports. Now, we know that assignments do not screw up our term breaks, but term breaks screw up our assignments.

Causality is one of the least understood concepts.

To complete the requirements to get the degree, we have to complete 33 courses. 17 courses are covered as a part of the core; a minimum of sixteen and up to 18 courses can be done during electives. There are four elective terms and it is logical to expect students to do four courses each of the four elective terms. But, most of them are doing five courses each during terms five and six and three each during terms seven and eight. Interviews happen during break between seventh and eighth term. So students want to keep academic load the least during term seven. Understandable. Why three subject during term eight – just to party hard, once the job is secured. Hence the bidding is a highly skewed process with students willing to bet high for courses during term five and six. I would expect that many courses will get cleared at very low points during term seven.

I also fall into the same bracket. I did five courses during term five. Have picked up five for term six (on waitlist in one course). The following were the five I covered in term five

Innovation Management – the course was completely case study oriented and most of the companies and topics were related to innovation in IT or related sectors. The class size was small and hence the class participation was at its best. The professor played a good part in moderating the class and giving good chance to the students to air views. Every class we were required to turn in a one-page write-up giving our diagnosis of the problem (business problem) the company in the case is facing and decision criteria required to overcome the problem and recommendation to implement. The final exam was a take-home exam with another analysis on a case on Boston.com. We had to analyze the benefits or risks for a newspaper company of going online. The course was replete with jargon such as s-curve, architectural innovation, evolutionary orientation, et al.

Strategy Implementation – this course was not very good. The problem with strategy courses is at the end of the course if you will look back on what you have learn, you will probably not be able to talk about anything specific. It is completely nebulous and generic. It is not without a reason. There is nothing right or wrong in strategy. The best way to know if some strategy argument is right or wrong is to know if it was implemented and if it brought results. This course focused on implementation challenges which a middle level manager will face. The professor’s argument was that most of us will join organizations at middle level and it is pertinent to look at the problems concerning middle management and not the CEO. That was a good perspective. The course, as are many courses at ISB, was case oriented. The cases are completely class discussion driven punctuated by screening of related films and discussion thereupon.

Fixed Income Securities – course was okay. Was taught by two Israeli professors. Ten hours are too little to cover a course like this. The professors try their best to cover a large ground, as a result of which depth is missed. It is for the student to do more work and discover the concepts in deep. The course gives an overall orientation of the various topics in the fixed income market – yield curves, YTM, pricing of bonds, pricing of calls, what types of securities are traded in the market, risks associated with each type of security. If someone is wanting to get into sales & trading in financial sector, this course is a must.

Rural marketing – was taught by Harish Bijoor, the ex-Tata Tea, ex-HLL and present CEO of Harish Bijoor Consults. It gives a perspective of how rural Indian markets are different from those of urban markets. Since they are different, the same approaches which urban marketers have adopted fail to deliver results in the rural markets. Monkey brand tooth powder, Baba jarda, Rupa innerwear are some of the most selling brands in the rural market. The best brands are one with two syllables, both having the same pronunciation, such as baba, kaka, dada, tata, etc., (remember, these were the words which we first uttered as a child. Hence the ability to relate to them the most). The course was good in giving an overall idea of what challenges we face in capturing the attention of the rural people – many of whom are not literate, have quite different habits from the urban Indian. The professor also made groups of students make presentation of various topics covering book reviews, village visit, media in rural, distribution challenges in rural India, etc

Negotiation analysis – quite an interesting course. Taught by a young and enthu prof. During most the class time, we spent doing negotiations with other students. We had three one-one negotiations (thru role play). The topics moved from single issue to multiple issues. We also had three round multi-party multi-issue union-management negotiations. The idea was to learn the concepts taught in class / read in the material given and apply them to the simulated negotiations. At the end of the class, one realization was every negotiation will involve strong contexts, the fear of the unknown, and strong emotions that we attach to decisions. Simulated negotiations lacked them. We were negotiating with class mates and there were limitation to getting very professional. However, overall the learning were good. The reading material given for the course was too bulky and I am yet to cover a few readings. In brief, it is this

– Everyone has a BATNA – best alternative to a negotiated agreement. At the negotiating table, there is no need to get desperate because we always have a BATNA. Even if it means remaining, say, unemployed, it is still a BATNA. It may be sometimes better than accepting a lousy offer from an employer. One needs to use BATNA to determine reservation price – the monetary walk-away point in a negotiation. But you always aim to obtain your “target price” from the other party. Usually what causes fear amongst the negotiating parties is that we do not realize that everyone comes with a few alternatives. Hence, there is most of the times a ‘zone of possible agreements’ (ZOPA), which is the range between the reservation prices of both the parties. Sometimes, however, an impasse may be the best outcome because there is no ZOPA.

– Lack of preparation is the biggest reason why we fail to maximize returns from a negotiation. Preparing a planning document with quantified scores attached to each item of the agenda will give clarity of what we want to achieve out of negotiation. There is a minimum score below which we do not want to go. It is important to determine this score. Having said that, maximize returns does not mean win-lose proposition. A good negotiation is one which maximizes the overall takeaway from the negotiation, for both the parties. This is a pareto efficient agreement. He also covered concepts related to negotiating offers from employers, doing a negotiation as an agent of someone, etc.

I would disagree if someone told me that a bad negotiator will become good after taking this course. A good negotiator may however become better. The most important aspect of negotiations, apart from a good preparation, is the person himself. The personality factor, his alertness of mind, etc matter most. Also, if the opposite person is totally irrational and has a belligerent outlook, then a good personality is more of a requirement. More than concepts of negotiations, one needs to know more of psychology.

People who have read the book, Blink by Malcolm Gladwell would be aware of the theory that it really does not take a lot of time to form opinions about people. Usually not more than the time it takes, as Gladwell says, to blink. It is a different matter how many times such opinions turn out to be correct. It depends on the person who is forming opinion. If the instincts that kept his company during pre-historic times are hardwired in him, then more often than not, that person makes a right call. And that in a blink.

But how about the person about whom opinion is being formed. How can it be formed so soon? It is not all that hard. As a person wears his dress, he wears his attitude too. If skills, knowledge and experience are the inside of a personality, attitude is the outside. If it is important to work on what is latent, it is equally important to work on what is patent. Attitude is the window to one’s personality. It is good to wear the right attitude and be sure about which one we are wearing.

Man is a creature of habit, it is said. But he can form and break habits quickly, though not all of them. I have kept away from blogging a few days and now it takes me time to get back to it. Strange that what has been a part of my routine for the last many months should suddenly need some effort.

There is a constant complaint on campus – each term is running faster than the previous one. True. I only refer them to the theory propounded by Alvin Toffler that as time passes, each day as a fraction of our lives becomes shorter and shorter. No wonder each term appears running faster than the previous one. Why should we complain? The problem is the syllabus, like time, is not relative and hence does not shrink.

Man is a sigma of his experience. It is well nigh impossible to escape from the influence experience can exert on us. In terms of intensity, I would rate childhood experiences at the top, unless there is some traumatic experience else where in life. Thanks to unwellness I had time off from classes which I could put to just lie in bed and think. As I reflected back into life, I realized that some of the experiences I had as a child are fresh even today and how some of them unduly influence the way I think and act. I have found it difficult to get rid of some of the influences which I felt were not helping my personality. I am however not suggesting determinism. It is possible to get out of such influence, if one thinks it is not leading to better results. But that would need a lot of determination and efforts, both of which are difficult to put when it comes to applying to things ‘soft’. Determination and efforts are words which many of us are willing to put to use mostly in professional lives and less so in personal lives.

Asoka, Aurangzeb and the British had the largest empires in Indian history. Aurangzeb is less remembered for this because the empire disintegrated within no time of his death. Asoka’s empire lasted much longer after his death. The British gave us a united India which we now see. The essence of success is not about growing big; it is about building systems to consolidate what is built so that it sustains. Some times size itself proves to be problem. The skill/ habit to stop, look back and consolidate is very important. And I am afraid a lot of us are not doing it right. There is an overload of concepts. I know I need no more gyan*, just consolidating what I already have into proper framework will do wonders for me, but the compulsions drive me to want more. This way I will get stuck up at only information level in the information-knowledge-wisdom hierarchy. It was George Santayana who said – those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.

PS: * Not that I am a know-all. To lead the life and profession I want to, what I already know is enough, provided I put it into proper structure. The reference is also not to the day to day news / information that one needs to know.

As if the deluge of work and complete disarray were not enough, the body refused to go ahead and broke down with fever and sundry problems. I lost two complete days; did not attend five classes and am left with a huge backlog. There are four large assignments and one exam due in the next one week. There is no better way to manage life here than being just one thing – organized. If one cannot, then better not be here. Back at job one may have a secretary or team members or juniors who can bail one out or compensate for lack of organization. Here there is no provision for proxy. Even if one is organized, how can one prevent some illness during one complete year? Epsilon factor, also called luck, has to favor.

There is no point cribbing. Everyone gets 24 hours and an equal chance. Have to appreciate the efforts of my colleagues who have been getting mostly first, rarely second prizes in all the b-school competitions across India. These people, apart from their regular work, are able to participate in these competitions and win prizes. Some of them are organizing various events for the tour de force called Poseidon, ISB’s inter b-school flagship event. A dozen of them are going all the way to the US to participate in Thunderbird’s innovation challenge finals. ISB is the only b-school in the history of the competition to have two teams selected for the finals.

The entire experience of being amongst these people, each great in his/her own way, is a humbling experience. As much as it is a reason for motivation. Come tomorrow, the unwellness will soon be forgotten and I will also start running with them.

I am a great believer of free markets, simply because free markets align perfectly with individual incentives and human nature. To repeat ad nauseam, any system that does not align with human nature is bound to fail. Socialism, for instance. I will illustrate this by a simple example.

Many of the bloggers who have individual blogs had agreed (including I) to contribute to a collaborative blog, called http//isblife.blogspot.com. The blog is no one person’s baby but a collective responsibility. Individual blogs are our own baby which we all individually want to foster. We always find time to write on our individual blogs. Hardly find time to contribute to the collaborative blog. Individual incentive is far greater than collective responsibility. Capitalism is about the former; socialism about the latter. If state owns everything and does not differentiate between performances, then why will anyone work harder or efficiently?

Fundamentally, human beings are selfish, because that is how survival was possible. Imagine human beings being generous, humble and unselfish during prehistoric times. Survival would have been difficult. Having said that, I will also concede that ‘team work’ was very important reason why human beings survived against mammoths, bisons and saber tiger. How is team work and individual incentives aligned so that it results in synergies? Obviously, not by allocating bonus to the team as a whole and allowing distribution equally among all team members, leaving little identity for an individual. This will create free riders. Linking one’s performance and responsibility with others at individual level will ensure a different game. This way each one will help and monitor performance of others. The difference between these two is that former does not see individuals within the team; the latter sees individuals as a team. The latter method has a very good example in microcredit. Women form into groups of five and each one guarantees the loans taken by the other four. Each one thus has an incentive to work and also watch the performance of the other so that she does not end up spending her earnings in repaying loans of others.

Systems which try to disregard individual incentives do not work. That does not mean that collective effort is not possible.

PS: Seek pardon if the posts have been sketchy. Have taken five courses this term resulting in information and assignment overload. Added to this are my efforts to work on various aspects of my interview prep. Life has been tough.

I am a great believer of free markets, simply because free markets align perfectly with individual incentives and human nature. To repeat ad nauseam, any system that does not align with human nature is bound to fail. Socialism, for instance. I will illustrate this by a simple example.

Many of the bloggers who have individual blogs had agreed (including I) to contribute to a collaborative blog, called http//isblife.blogspot.com. The blog is no one person’s baby but a collective responsibility. Individual blogs are our own baby which we all individually want to foster. We always find time to write on our individual blogs. Hardly find time to contribute to the collaborative blog. Individual incentive is far greater than collective responsibility. Capitalism is about the former; socialism about the latter. If state owns everything and does not differentiate between performances, then why will anyone work harder or efficiently?

Fundamentally, human beings are selfish, because that is how survival was possible. Imagine human beings being generous, humble and unselfish during prehistoric times. Survival would have been difficult. Having said that, I will also concede that ‘team work’ was very important reason why human beings survived against mammoths, bisons and saber tiger. How is team work and individual incentives aligned so that it results in synergies? Obviously, not by allocating bonus to the team as a whole and allowing distribution equally among all team members, leaving little identity for an individual. This will create free riders. Linking one’s performance and responsibility with others at individual level will ensure a different game. This way each one will help and monitor performance of others. The difference between these two is that former does not see individuals within the team; the latter sees individuals as a team. The latter method has a very good example in microcredit. Women form into groups of five and each one guarantees the loans taken by the other four. Each one thus has an incentive to work and also watch the performance of the other so that she does not end up spending her earnings in repaying loans of others.

Systems which try to disregard individual incentives do not work. That does not mean that collective effort is not possible.

PS: Seek pardon if the posts have been sketchy. Have taken five courses this term resulting in information and assignment overload. Added to this are my efforts to work on various aspects of my interview prep. Life has been tough.

I am a great believer of free markets, simply because free markets align perfectly with individual incentives and human nature. To repeat ad nauseam, any system that does not align with human nature is bound to fail. Socialism, for instance. I will illustrate this by a simple example.

Many of the bloggers who have individual blogs had agreed (including I) to contribute to a collaborative blog, called http//isblife.blogspot.com. The blog is no one person’s baby but a collective responsibility. Individual blogs are our own baby which we all individually want to foster. We always find time to write on our individual blogs. Hardly find time to contribute to the collaborative blog. Individual incentive is far greater than collective responsibility. Capitalism is about the former; socialism about the latter. If state owns everything and does not differentiate between performances, then why will anyone work harder or efficiently?

Fundamentally, human beings are selfish, because that is how survival was possible. Imagine human beings being generous, humble and unselfish during prehistoric times. Survival would have been difficult. Having said that, I will also concede that ‘team work’ was very important reason why human beings survived against mammoths, bisons and saber tiger. How is team work and individual incentives aligned so that it results in synergies? Obviously, not by allocating bonus to the team as a whole and allowing distribution equally among all team members, leaving little identity for an individual. This will create free riders. Linking one’s performance and responsibility with others at individual level will ensure a different game. This way each one will help and monitor performance of others. The difference between these two is that former does not see individuals within the team; the latter sees individuals as a team. The latter method has a very good example in microcredit. Women form into groups of five and each one guarantees the loans taken by the other four. Each one thus has an incentive to work and also watch the performance of the other so that she does not end up spending her earnings in repaying loans of others.

Systems which try to disregard individual incentives do not work. That does not mean that collective effort is not possible.

PS: Seek pardon if the posts have been sketchy. Have taken five courses this term resulting in information and assignment overload. Added to this are my efforts to work on various aspects of my interview prep. Life has been tough.

Deutsche Bank came to campus yesterday. It will in all likelihood pick up two candidates. One of them for New York. The roles being offered are in Sales & Trading division. About 7-10 people flew from London office to interview candidates. Three of them Managing Directors. DB is a great firm because it makes such great efforts to shortlist candidates. It gets the best people and hence remains a great company. The guys/girls who will get selected will make loads of money in the form of bonuses. Sales & Trading guys get the best bonuses for any industry across the world.

The fun about DB’s visit was – thought I did not apply, DB officials wanted to meet me (they wanted to see some 10 people who had not applied. They picked our names from the student profile which is circulated to all recruiters). I had a choice of saying no. But since I would get an interview experience if I attended I sent my resume. Thanks to it, I progressed on my resume well. The interview (was it one?) lasted for two minutes. It was with one of the Managing Directors of DB based out of London. He asked me why I did not apply. I said the role being offered was not something I was looking for. He asked me what I was looking for. I explained a role which I felt befit my experience and skills and said if that is on offer then I would consider. He said they are not offering such role now. We shook our hands and bid good bye. So much for interview experience.

Nothing goes waste. I earned my own share of popularity on the campus for this escapade of saying no to DB. While flipping through books and browsing the web to get a hang of what IB interviews would be like, I came across a few important things required to be done during interview prep. DB interview also motivated me to accept invitation to join a group to start preparations for interviews (group comprising two Chartered Accountants, one IIT and I).