Resurrection!

This blog has died a natural death. So I thought I'd resurrect my blogging habits at a new location.
url:- fudforthot.blogspot.com

Please do drop by.

Bangalored!

Its been a month since I joined work. I'm an i-banker now! Did I mention that? Yeah... well I joined a 'boutique' investment bank in B'lore, a small dedicated team with some very interesting projects. We do work in very niche sectors, zara hatke, you may say. Things have been moving along well so far. Will have to travel a bit too, looking forward to that.

Staying in a hell-hole of a PG accomodation, only advantage being that its very close to office. Food has become a slight issue, dinner that is. I'm surrounded by fast food joints from Dominos and Pizza Hut to KFC. Aren't there any places where you 'normal food' here?! Still discovering the areas close by, so any suggestions would be welcome.

Looking out for an apartment now. So that's next on the agenda. Suggestions on that front would also be welcome.

Bangalore's a good place.. ok..classic understatement!! But I haven't had much time to discover the city thus far. Its good to have a bunch of friends here, otherwise existence would have become mundane. That's one thing I discovered. In a place like this, it becomes very boring if you don't have friends, because there are a lot of places to go to, but going alone would be pretty pathetic. In my case, that could also be due to the fact that I hate loneliness. There are times when I want to be alone (mein aur meri tanhai!) but for the majority of the time, I want people around me!!!

I have my weekends alternating between going home to Cochin and meeting with relatives and friends. Mom's alone now. So I'll be travelling back and forth, once in a while bringing her here. That's the urgency for the apartment too.

So life's drifting along peacefully right now. Work is good, not too hectic that I'm gasping for time, looking forward to the travel that'll come by, acco could've been better, both Mom and I'm coming to terms with loneliness. Got friends and family to keep my weekends occupied. Comfortable existence for once! :) Wonder how long it'll last till I become embroiled in another of those gut-wrenching decisions that life always throws up.

MBA at last!!

This is my final post from ASB. Today's my convocation. Classes got over a couple of days back. Went to Shanghumukham Beach to celebrate with the juniors. A lovely bunch of people that batch. :) One of the main things I'll miss when I leave. Had a great evening with that group. Wet, full of sand, jaws aching from laughing and heart heavy from the thought of leaving.

I remember Jaggi telling us in our 2nd term here about how soon everything will be over and we'd be graduating. He was trying to prod us into moving our a**** and get some momentum going. Not that much happened on that front, but lots did happen. Time did fly past and in a few hours time I'll be getting my diploma from Kris Gopalakishnan, Infy CEO. That ceremony will be a solemn one for many reasons, but most of all for the vaccum left by Prof. MNV. A movement in himself, scores of students have gone through his lectures, both in and outside class. His booming laughter, whack on the back and a question "So what problem do you have?" His constant refrain "You are all chocolate babies" will stay with us forever.

Interviews are on for the third batch. I met some of them, lucky buggers get the sprawling 16 acre campus with great facilities. Sighhhhh...
Ah well.. atleast I'll be able to claim alumni prerogative to those. Awesome sports facilities, baddy courts, swimming pool, gym, cool campus. Notice I'm not talking about the classrooms ;)

TCS Executives hostel, my home for the last two years. The noisy mess, the decent food, all the staff, and of course our rooms. I came in here filled with trepidation over what kind of a hostel would I get. (Horror stories of hostel rooms and food and a wild imagination notwithstanding, you can imagine the kind of mental pictures I came up with.) But when I saw the place, just one word flashed through my head - "Luxury" I doubt even the real hostels will come close to this place.

Its just impossible to put into words all the emotions I'm going through right now. I have a meeting with Mr. Kris Gopalkishnan in a couple of hours. So have to run now.

Last lap

Two months to go. I thought I'd revive this blog now, considering that I had started it to pen my journey through MBA. That, unfortunately did not happen, in all honesty. Anyway, on the last rung, I thought I'd sit down and take a look back over the past two years.

Its been a roller coaster ride of sorts. I guess that was to be expected, after all. People have changed so much in this time and it has had some amazing effects on the equations in class. Group dymanics play such an important of B-school life, not just the grades but in shaping you as an individual. I know I have graduated, become a tad more tolerant I would say.

Managed to do quite a bit while here. Visited the IIMK campus twice, made a few good friends from other campuses. After all, MBA is all about networking. Never really liked that term - "networking"- almost as if you made friends with some ulterior motive, rather than simpy because you liked the person. I'll probably do a post on that later.

Its placement season here. Its not like the regular placement time at b-schools. We're having a rather extended placement procedure with companies dropping in over the next couple of months. So far, three offers in the kitty. More action expected this week with a lot of companies due over the next ten days. I'm still waiting by the side lines for the fin companies to drop their calling card. Feeling expectantly hopeful (whatever that means!)

Its amazing how time has flown. Second year whizzed by even before we realised it. After the summers, people were in a more relaxed mood. Term 4 caught us on the wrong foot with a heavy work load. By term 5 we were back in work mode and guess that helped. Multiple visiting faculty for some courses has done wonders for the course and our sleep. Each one has to insist on a separate grading mechanism, and of course, the quintessential live projects. I recall Prof. J telling us to make the most of our time here, because it would be over all too soon. And how true. When I went home last month, people were quite surprised to know that I'm almost done. I wonder how the ISBians feel with just a year and so much crammed into it.

Right now there's so much left to do and naturally hard pressed for time. A live project on "Investment prospects in the Kerala tourism" is on the top of the cards. If anyone has any contacts in this context, or reasearch material, or just your views on the issue would be welcome.

The Optimists

I'm currently reading 'Good to Great' by Jim Collins. Half way through the book I came across a piece that I'd like to share here. Its about a prisoner of war, Admiral Jim Stockdale, who was captured and tortured times over in the Vietnam War and his story of survival over eight long years. The part that struck a cord with me was during the course of a conversation years later the good Admiral had with the author. Stockdale had written a book about his ordeal called 'In Love and War'. Jim Collins reports how depressed he felt just going through the book and despite knowing the outcome and wondered how much worse it was for Stockdale who couldnt know whether he was going to make it out at the time. Asked about this, Stcokdale replies "I never lost faith in the end of the story". When asked "Who didnt make it out?" referring to those who could not survive, Stockdale replies, "The optimists". They kept giving themselves false promises, saying they'd get out by Christmas, then Easter, then Thanksgiving, then Christmas again. They finally succumbed to a broken heart. "We're not getting out by Christmas; deal with it!"

Never lose faith of prevailing through adversity; but accept the brute reality and move on.

Recently I came across an article online talking about the Oracle CEO Larry Ellison. Ellison is almost 60, a time when most founders kick themselves upstairs and leave the operations to "younger" people. But apparently Oracle has not seen this happen, in fact they dont even have a clear line of succession charted out.

So what's all the hue and cry about, one may ask. Larry Ellison founded the company with two others after the success of a project they did for the CIA, taking the same name as the project code name. Over time Oracle grew into the company we know it as today, a huge tech company (ok, that's oversimplifying things!) With the growth of the company, Larry also grew, but without relinquishing his iron fisted control over the way things were run. This has continued to date. The problem is that with the founder aging, a question mark hangs over the future leadership of the organisation. In most companies, the founders, or the chief executives make way for the future, usually by moving upstairs giving up hands on control, thereby grooming younger talent to take over the reins. Most established companies like GE have a well established long term succession plan in place. Jack Wech was groomed over a period of 6-7 years to take over from his boss. Likewise he followed a similar method to determine his successor from the huge talent base available.

Closer home, a change in the leadership was seen at Infosys, with Narayan Murty stepping out of the company. It was a slow process with the chief moving further and further away from the day to day activities leaving those tasks to those being groomed in the heirarchy.

Succession is a major concern, especially in entreprenueial companies. Most often the founder(s) take turns running the baby they created. This is the case of Infy. In Indian family businesses, usually the chair passes to the eldest son, or legal heir, as the case may be. Another route followed in India is at the Bombay House. The Tatas dont always hand over control to the son (unlike the Nehru-Gandhi family where the country passes to the son/daughter or daughter-in-law :p) Instead, they groom the best available person in the Board room, if he happens to have the surname of Tata, well its a bonus that adds weight. In fact JRD actually seriously considered Russi Modi as his successor, but chose Ratan Tata instead later.

Coming back to Larry Ellison, its a wonder what will happen to Oracle after Ellison. It should be a matter of concern to the Board also but presently they seem to be unaware of such a responsibilty. Or maybe they're just shying away from the reality that Ellison would need to be replaced someday. In the event of a day without Larry Ellison, what will happen tp Oracle? There is no clear heir apparent and without the protection of the founder, well there just may be no Oracle. In all probablity the company would be swallowed up by one of the more powerful competitors.

For now, Larry's around, and from the looks of things, he might be around for some time, he's certainly not announcing any retirement plans as yet.

Jump start!!

Back after a rather long hiatus. Not that i've been unduly busy or anything, i'll put it down to a rather horrible combination of laziness, writer's block and being internet-less for a while.

In the interim a lot has happened, in my life and others'. A few more of my friends have left home for "greener pastures" as it were. I came back from my intership with a lot more exposure and much less expectations of work life. Not all that you learn in class is applied nor is practically applicable, some in the beginning, others never.

In other developments, there is a blanket ban on colas in Kerala. So now I can't drink Pepsi or Coke (always preferred the former to the latter, for some reason) but apparently I can get the other drinks, like Sprite, 7Up, etc. Weird, when you consider the fact that the basic raw materials, viz the water and sugar, are the same. They've also not banned the bottled mineral water of the same companies. And a week after these products were banned in around 5 states in India, an Indian woman becomes the CEO of PepsiCo!! Talk of ironical timing!

Staying with the lady, Indra Nooyi, CEO, PepsiCo, a Madras University, IIM Calcutta, Yale alum, has raised hopes for countless Indian girls who still face discrimination of varying degrees just about everywhere. It is also a beginning to the cracking (too early to say shattering) of the proverbial glass ceiling. Many women are heading corporations, national and multinational. But nonetheless, it is indeed inspiring for many young career women to dream beyond just a 9-5 job and focus on a long fulfilling career. Incidently I came across a discussion about this which somehow veered off onto a full scale argument about how Indians seem to be taking credit for achievements of desis in other lands. L.N.Mittal attracted more attention and debate in India for his bids on Arcelor than the interest generated in Europe.

CLoser home, my second year has started, tuchchadom here I am! It can be as fast and as slow as you want it to be. Classes have begun full swing and assignments, projects, exams and all those things that are designed to put you through hell have started pounding on us. But its enjoyable if you know the tricks of the trade.

Saw KANK this weekend. Every successive Karan Johar movie seems to be getting longer, more extravagent in sets, clothes and actors (well, its always had the top B.O. stars) and less bearable. The movie's got too long, it could have done with more precise editing. I'm not just talking about the time, 3.5 hrs I can handle, but the pace I could not. A tried and tested theme, but very poor handling. He tried to give it "his touch" but ended up with a hodge-podge effect.

This week will mark one year of ASB. Our first anniversary. What a year its been. Have I changed, or for that matter does anyone radically change after a year of MBA? I can't really say. I haven't seen much of a marked difference in most people and while some of them come out more confident, I really can't say that MBA makes you a different person. In many ways, it teaches you a lot of things, about working in teams, with people you like and may not like, about persuading the most adamant person to see your point of view, about keeping your cool and silence in the face of a raging bull while holding your ground. This requires a whole post to discuss. I would be grateful if someone out there who reads this could please leave a comment and send me a reminder to post on this.