Barcelona ... day 0/4

I was supposed to meet my friends @ 4:30 in the morning at school to drive them all upto Beauvais airport. Yeah rite.
Guess I got too relaxed after the exams and finally woke up at 6:30 in the morning. that was the start of a really confused !#%%^@%@ day ...

I see the light ... finally ...

With exams in 5 days ... I finally see some light ... things that make sense now ...
- Increasing share holder value is what we live for
- Cash is king ....!
- NPV is so cool
- Debit / credit accrual accounting may not be so "cruel"
- .........
- ...........

I think my blog is getting geeky ...

On a good news ... Indian Sensex is having a bull run - so much so that the finance minister is getting cold feet.

And the best part ... next week we are off to Barcelona ........ yaaaaaaaaaaahh

start of carzy parties

Yes, as you may have already guessed it, I was dressed up as Samuel L.Jackson.
The rendezvous point was "Shangrila" and the theme was "movies of Quentin Tarantino".

My "new" used car ... Alfa Romeo

Talk about being lucky -
Feeling good ... walking down the antique streets of fontainebleau ... with new housemates chatting ... and Lo! pops up a "For Sale" sign.
Upon further investigation, turns out - it would be my future car .......
A '99 Alfa Romeo, Black

Finally ... breathing relaxed ...

After a never-imagined whirlwind of a trip and hectic runups to registrations, I am finally feeling a little relaxed - actually a little too relaxed like the kind of heaviness after a rush of adrenalin.
We kick-started our journey @ INSEAD with a group outing called "Outward bound" where we do team building exercises to get comfortable with each other and since the MBA is a 10 month run, it is extremely important that group members get comfortable with each other ASAP. After an exciting day with activities, this is how we looked ...

torture of the worst kind ...

Each day I wake up and contemplate for about 5 mins on whether to get out of bed or to resign my job then and there !!! Talk about dragging myself to work ... I have a white board in my room counting the number of days I have to work and it is absolutely infuriating my collegues hehehehhee.
Anyhow, got my visa straightened, checked out some nice deals to paris, booked apartment, looking out for cars ... :D seems like I can take it easy for a while now.
Just realized that I'm blogging after a gap of 2 months !!!!
I'll make a more organized effort to blog from now on ...
Hey also, my book (which I had translated from Telugu) is with the printers now !!!


Cheersssssssssss

Farewell ...

- of morning walks in the garden
- of delicious rasam cooked occassionally
- of words of confidence during troubled times
- of not a care in world slouching on the rocking chair
- of a caring hand when I was scared in the night
- of a concerned face when I sneezed too much
- of a proud look when I got first prize in eloctution
- of strolls in the vegetable fields
- of caring words when any man stood at the door for help
- of lion like gait, walking around the house
- of a majestic glow during puja
- of his daily ritual of gardening
- of his royal chair that seemed made only him
- of his friends who cant seem to stop talking about his kindness
- of the memoirs written by his students
- of content eyes that glow everytime his children used to call him
- of heartfelt blessings everytime I touched his feet
- of eyes that told countless stories during his days
- of words that wished only success

... I miss you Tatayya ...

INSEAD scholarship motivation

Finally - got done with scholarhip essays. Applied to 3 of them. But felt maybe I could have done better. Its like GMAT, you always think you could do better with more time, but seldome does that happen. The more time you have - the more you want ... Human nature ...

Cheerssssssssssssssssssss

cost of insead ...

Hmmm ... (USD) figuring about 65K for tution and about 2k per month for 10 months ... all in all about 85k for 10 months ...
To all u jeering folks out there i've got only one thing to say ...

IF YOU THINK MY EDUCATION IS COSTLY, TRY MY IGNORANCE ...

Emotion Vs Coldness in an organization

As business managers, many people have different takes on how they manage people and organization. Is there a relation between a particular style of management and the type of business itself?
A bulb lights up in my cranium and it says ... Ofcourse! Google cannot afford to have a cold management in a business that thrives on creativity. On the otherhand, industries such as steel, lime, cement cannot afford to NOT be cold. These businesses live on knowledge that has been around for centuries. They need to be cold and calculating even a particular move is the "right" thing to do.
Imagine if they began doing exactly the opposite of what they are doing right now ...
Google turns cold and becomes Microsoft ...
Mittal Steel turns nimble n creative and becomes GE aviation technology ...

Laziness - my birth right ...

Its 9:30pm. Gotta go to sleep quick cos I have to wake up at 5:30am. Havent eaten yet and I am really hungry. Any sane person with a head on his neck will go n eat. Anyone ... not me. After some careful analysis of effort to benefit ratio of going to the kitchen/serving/eating Vs sitting where I am and blogging, I figured the best deal is to blog. Homer - you are my hero ...

funding for INSEAD ...

Just had a talk with the director of Technology. It was about whether my company would be willing to fund my MBA. The nature of the questions were pretty much what I had expected. I was pretty happy with how it went (knowing very well that my company wouldn't take-up such proposals) ... Said he'll get back to me after some internal discussions ... The questions pretty much took me to spiritual ecstasy cos they prod the philosophical, principle seeking self of mine (who is pretty hard to find). Nevertheless he is awakened ...
Why do I want to do my MBA ... What do I expect from it ... education or qualification ... paypacket or an exciting job ... to be a workhorse or an enlightened soul that takes to the Himalayas clutching his degree firmly ...
Always tough questions
For me the answers are pretty simple ... simple to the point that they even seem idiotic ... But then who isn't ... I'm doing it cos at this point in my life I can afford to take risks. Sure it can be daunting ... which makes it all the more exciting.

A thought suddenly comes to mind, "When did man ever know what he wanted" .....

To French or not to French ...

INSEAD being an international B-School in the true sense has one of the most unique language requirements to graduate. It requires you to know 2 languages before you can start the program and requires 3 languages to graduate. My brother recommends Spanish, but at this time I am leaning more towards French as it will help me with my stay in France also ... Bonjour ...
Also gotta start thinking about getting an international driver's license knowing very well that I cannot afford a car while at INSEAD. But may probably come in handy during weekend trips to Amsterdam, belgium, paris ...... Mama Mia .......

ASHA project coordinator ...

Last night as we met to discuss fundraising using Mandolin Srinivas concert, the group found it self discussing why we were getting a low volunteer turnout at our chapter. I put my thoughts out saying that we as a chapter need to do projects rather than fundraising events. This would create a one-one realationship with the actual goals that we as an organization were projecting. People started agreeing and suddenly it was decided that atleast for the next 4-5 meetings, we will talk only about projects ... We took all the project proposals that we received through our website and voted on them. We took the one we most liked and lo ... at your service is the new Project Coordinator to fund $2500 into a blind school in Karnataka. Don't know how I am going to do it, but there is always a first time and franky I'm excited ... Also this is kind of a first time project for our chapter and we'll all be learning together ...

"Give people money and they will spend it away ... Give people tools and they will work it away ... Give people education and they will dream - dream to achieve"

Ohio BMV and the scare ...

I had a wreck about 2 months back. Totaled my cute '99 Ford Contour. Aside from the sadness of loosing my first car, I receive a letter with the heading "Notice of Suspension". Below it were the words ... "YOUR LICENSE HAS BEEN SUSPENDED" ... skip a beat and about 1000 milli seconds later were the words in fine print ... "unless you can prove that you had proof of insurance". Whew ..................... what a relief.
Went to the office of BMV and got that taken care of first thing in the morning ... Well up and ready now ... already thinking about getting an international drivers license for my stay in France ... Can't wait to drive a stick-shift.

Doctor in mind, Doctor at heart ...

My brother is defending his Ph.D thesis in couple of days. It has taken him 5 years to reach this culmination point. Here's wishing him the best of luck ...

Mind: Oh my god! My defense is in a few days ...
Heart: You've prepared good ...
Mind: 5 years of work, and just one day to present ...
Heart: 5 years of presenting your work ... one day to say a formal goodbye ...
Mind: Endless nights and taxing days ...
Heart: Times when your resolution was at the peak ...
Mind: 5 years is a long time ...
Heart: When you are 40 it won't matter ...
Mind: you seem to be laid back ...
Heart: 5 years does teach you to be patient ...
Mind: I've gotta take rest to be fresh for tomorrow ...
Heart: Why don't you do that ... meanwhile I'll get in touch with all my well-wishers who are thinking about me ...

As he'll be walking to get his doctorate, he'll be thinking "Doctor in mind, Doctor at heart"

Mile Sur Mera Tumhara ...

A classic that all Desis grew up listening to ...

Hilarious Telugu song ...

A hilarious song that Gultis will love ... Lotta champaladana

SAP ... yeah right ...

Did you notice the sudden obsession of companies with SAP ...
Its almost a fashion ... Does't matter if its right for the company or not ... doesn't matter if it can afford it or not ... SAP is the mantra ...
SAP forces communication in a standardized manner. It imposes a structure. But organizational hierachies and process might not necessarily match-up. This is where the clash occurs ... a clash of change ... resistance to inertia ...
Try to impose a rigid structure on a flexible organization and you take away its nibleness and ability to adapt. You impose high cost on a seemingly simple process. You make things highly complex. Is it needed ...? Maybe as the organization expands ... surely a better system could be customized to the organization's needs ...
I think SAP is good ... but not for every single organization ... Organizations can spend the same money in a better manner by understanding the way processes work.
As for me ... I have to get back to my SAP-PP implementation ...

RCA ... never thought you could be so beautiful ...

An issue at my plant ... for the past 1 yr has given me many sleepless nights and unsettling days ...
Who would have thought the answer would lie in RCA ... RCA for god's sake ...
RCA - mumbo Jumbo for "Root Cause Analysis". A really boring concept to be frank - list all possible (even the dumb ones) ways for a problem to occur. And it was in one of the most moronic places where we found the solution ... Duh !!!
Well atleast for the next few hours ... i'm in love with RCA ... haaaaaaaaaaaaaah ... gotcha ..

INSEAD n me

I'm in !!!
INSEAD here I come ...