Week 6: Less Assignment, More Applications

As I write this post, across the Pacific Ocean at the Kodak Theater in the city of Los Angeles, California. The latest I have read is that Alan Arkin hit the jackpot for best actor in a supporting role for "Little Miss Sunshine" and "Pan's Labyrinth" got the award for best art direction and best makeup. The make up indeed was bit different than usual (<---Decide for yourself).

This week we had not that many frenzied activities with respect to assignments, thus got a breather to work on our Entrepreneurial Projects (Means more research sitting in library), job applications and enjoy other activities in a not so tensed status.


Over the last weekend, world progressed into the New Chinese Year (The "Year of Pig"). The information goes like this that if a person is born in 1923, 1935, 1947, 1959, 1971, 1983 or 1995, he/she is born in pig years and tends to have excellent manners, make and keep friends, work very hard, and appreciate luxury. The famous pig year personalities included Arnold Schwarzenegger, Alfrod Hitchcock, Hillary Clinton and Ernest Hemingway and if you are born in one of these years then you can boast to be one among the celebrities.


Monday we discussed different ways to forecast a companies finances and then discount the cashflows using multiples of Earnings, Sales or EBITDA. Further discussion was carried on with respect to our assignments and firm evaluation to generate value for its financiers. The class was a bit fast paced though the message was delivered emphatically by our Professor who has won in recent past, the "Best Lecturer of Core-Elective" award.


Tuesday we learnt pricing model in marketing and the way Virgin Mobile entered the US mobile market working as an MVNO (Mobile Virtual Network Operator) and targeting the teen's segment without any contract committments. I will talk about the Value-Pricing "Thermometer" in another post. Oh and by the way it was Mardi Gras Fat Tuesday as well and I really missed the festivities of New Orleans and St. Louis.


Wednesday we had a guest speaker from BT, Dr. Patrick O'Connell who heads the NHS Computer System programme explained about the intricacies of running such a programme and elaborated on some of the notable failures in areas of similar programmes.


On Thursday we played the game of "Who Wants To Be A Millionaire", well not exactly though. It was during our Operations Management class that we had a trial run of ask-the-audience kit to answer questions while discussing the case about Operative, an online company that acts as a "Trafficker" to channel appropriate advertisement on a particular web-page. The mother of all consulting companies, McKinsey & Company visited Saïd Business School (SBS). A well drafted and effectively delivered presentation by a partner, who is also an alumni of SBS, left us fairly impressed.


Friday we had the case about my previous company Infosys. Long discussions went into the recruitement policies, competitive advantage, and future plans of Infosys. People were fairly impressed by the sprwaling campus at Bangalore with all facilities that are expected to be provided in a world class resort in Caribbean Islands. In the evening, we were invited to the sumptuous party organized by the 22% club of our batch. The dishes were all scrumptious and everyone had a great time. Well 22% club is the group of female in our course and dinner party was a thank you note to the roses that we delivered to them on the Valentines' Day (A tradition amongst the male MBA's at SBS). Later in another party I learnt some steps of Scottish dance as well. The day got over when I submitted my application to another big consulting company and sent in my CV to an IT company.


Saturday and Sunday had nothing more in line except the EP research and writing the report for it and hence both days were pretty long and exciting (You can call it boring as well if such research are not your cup of tea). To our encouragement got a mail from the board member of a Socially Responsible Investment (SRI) Fund that is being setup by Ex Vice-President of the USA, Hon. Al Gore, expressing interest in our project (VC's are you listening). On a different note, this week we also celebrated birthdays of Shree, Arash and Pamela.


While writing the closing lines, I read that Forest Whitaker has won the Academy award for the performance in a leading role for "The Last King of Scotland". The movie is based on the events during the regime of the brutal Ugandan dictator Idi Amin, with Whitaker portraying the role of Idi Amin.


The photo across is of the Grand Sheldonian Theater in Oxford where our Matriculation Ceremony took place. As the next week brings in a whole load of new assignments and so do begin the preparations for the final battle of the Hilary Term - Exams, week 6 becomes a chapter in the memory book of my MBA at Oxford.


Good Night and Good Luck!!!