Take-off to India...

Yes... The time has come when I am all set to leave for my motherland. Parents waiting anxiously for my arrival while I write this post from the Terminal-3 of Heathrow International Airport in London, UK. Well, I hope to have an amazing term break in India and wish you all the very best in whatever you guys are busy in.

Ciao...

Week 10: Exams, Exams, and Exams....

Finally the exams are over...!!! Dressed in our batman outfit (Sorry, I meant Subfusc) we went to University of Oxford - Examination Schools for our Hilary term papers. Four days (with a break for some of us) and six exams almost made some people reach the verge of nervous breakdown. Quite contrary to the trends setup from last term (Michaelmas) and the way our mock exams were held, these final term papers were really hard, especially the Financial Management. Oh boy, I still remember those shocked faces coming out of the Examination Schools. Sadly enough, I did not have my camera and time to capture those images. The image across is one taken of the Examination Schools entrance as we are not allowed camera inside.

In short, if I recap my performance then FM is a paper where I did not perform per my expectations. IBGG and Marketing were standard ones and OM was with one or two curve balls our way. We were worried most about Finance-II but that seemed to be the one where I did the best. DEO was the usual with applying frameworks to the case in a single three hour sitting. I sincerely pray for all of us that we get through all the exams without much of difficulty. As of now, we have one assignment each due for Operations Management (On Monday by 12 noon sharp) and Financial Management (On Friday by 12 noon sharp). The picture to the left was taken minutes after our final exam of DEO and we have (From your left) Barry in red bow-tie, Renee, Julie, Anoop, Anubhav, Alex, Myself, Andre, Kate, Emma, Russell, Kevin, Maria and Mike. Look at their smiling faces, as if they have just won the biggest war of their life and to say the least, it was nothing less than a battle.

On one hand we were trying our best to perform our best in the exams and on the other hand, Indian cricket team was losing matches, not realizing that they were carrying the hopes of a billion people to win the ICC World Cup 2007. This world cup has had too many tragic moments with the death of Pakistani Cricket team coach Bob Woolmer being the most shocking one. For a game of cricket, how can a person be sacrificed and that too just because the team he coached was not able to deliver. It's a shame on the cricket community and other big names associated with cricket. Well, to appease my gloominess, I went to the after exam party at the Maxwell's that was amazing. We had a whole load of great time there and people were really going crazy.

Yesterday we celebrated birthday of one of our friend Anubhav who is getting married on fourth of next month in Lucknow, India. I have received his marriage card in hard copy format (We said no one will come if you send the soft copy version and he obliged us with what we asked for) and will be attending his marriage.

About the two assignments, we have completed the Operations Management assignment today in a single sitting stretching for almost nine hours but every single minute we put in was worth it. The assignment has come up really well and I have the responsibility of handing it over at the Examination Schools by 12 noon on March 26, 2007.

At Saïd Business School, The 2007 Skoll World Forum on Social Entrepreneurship is organized by the Skoll Center for Social Entrepreneurship from 27-29 March 2007. It is another big event SBS looks forward to. More details will follow in time to come.

Well barring two assignments due in five days time, the Hilary term is now getting its apt place in my memory book with the honor of being the toughest term of all. Next term my electives are such that I have formal exam for only one subject whereas all the other have practical and formal work assessments. I like this form of assessment better because it gives me a much better understanding of the subject rather than cramming the subject for two days to dump over on my answer sheet during the two hour exam.

And yes, another four days remain before I live for my motherland to be with my beloved parents for a three week long vacation. I am looking forward to it with excitement and vigor. Hopefully will be able to continue with my blog during the vacation and have some different news (Other than books, study, assignment etc) from India.

Good Night and Good Luck!!!

Week 9: Revise the subjects over and again

That is right... This week was devoted completely to revision of the six subjects and the EP presentation.

After a number of reshuffles, we finally managed to change the EP presentation time for our group from Thursday to Wednesday because one of our group member was flying to India for the Oxford-India Business Forum held in Mumbai on March 15, 2007. The presentation of our group went really well and were being applauded by Mr. Marcos Battisti (Senior Investment Manager at Intel Capital), David R G Cottam (Partner of Park Square Capital) and Mr. Stephen Chambers (MBA Course Director at Saïd Business School). During the question hour after the presentation, we sas a team were able to defend our cause and respond back to their question with a well-drafted answer that was taken by them in very high spirits.

Other than that, on Saturday night along with my school time friend (We met in Oxford after 13 years) and a couple of more friends went to see the much talked about event of Luminox on the Broad Street in Oxford. With all the electric lights turned off, the entire street just had fire display lit up providing enough lights for onlookers to move around. I forgot to carry my camera and I was a bit upset about that but somehow got a picture from a friend for your reference. More details about the same can be found at "LUMINOX". Thereafter we went to the "TURF TAVERN" for a pint of beer, before being again bogged down in our study notes. Indeed it was a short but nice break from studies.

Talking about revision, we have six subjects so tried to give one day each for all of them but the Operations Management proved all my calculations and theories wrong, eating up almost two days of my revision time, but atleast I am better off now with it. Just to let you know, we have following exam schedule for my six subjects (Different people have taken different electives so different schedules):

19 March 09:30 Financial Management (1.5 hrs)
19 March 14:30 International Business & Global Governance (2 hrs)

20 March 09:30 Marketing (3 hrs)

21 March 09:30 Operations Management (2 hrs)
21 March 14:30 Finance - II (1.5 hrs)

23 March 09:30 Designing Effective Organizations (3 hrs)


As of now, I am all set for the exams with appropriate armors to defend the questions shot at us in exam paper. Well by the time, you guys will be reading this post I will be all set for the first exam on Monday morning, so wish me luck guys... When I will be putting up my next post, I will be through with these exams and will be just six days from my travel to India.

Good Night and Good Luck!!!

Week 8: Hilary Lectures got over...

It is over... Yes, the final lecture week of Hilary term just got over. This term went by so fast and we are now into the preparation week towards our exams. You can already see that the exam pressure is building up with this post being a day late.


Last week was more of a wrap up one for different subjects with final few tips towards the impending exams and the most important of all was - "ANSWER THE QUESTIONs". I had no assignments due for this week so was pretty relaxed though still not done with them. Two formal assignments viz. Financial Management and Operations Management are due in the week after exams. By formal assignment, I mean we have to take the printout of the documents instead of submitting them online, and then submit three copies of the same at the Examination Schools.


During this revision week, we will also be pitching our EP ideas to the venture capitalists for their feedback about the viability of our projects and provide us with their feedback so that we can further improve upon our business plan before we submit it at the Examination Schools during the week zero of the next term.


We had no recruitment presentation, guest speakers coming in this week and hence were able to devote our time to give shape to our EP presentations and documenting the business plan, leaving it open for incorporating feedback from VC's.


Friday evening we had a party at the business school to mark the end of term (Well, atleast from lectures point). The theme of the party was - "Saïd goes to Bollywood". Chad was in true Indian outfit and faced a tough challenge from Patty to win the coveted prize for the evening. It went on till late though I could not stay till the end because had to go out the next day for data collection for our Operations Management (OM) assignment.


In short, OM assignment is about a business process analysis of a customer-facing process in Oxford. We chose STARBUCKS coffee shop for the purpose and collected data for the queuing process at the shop. Since it being a Saturday, we got a better understanding of any problems associated with the performance of the process and can give recommendations with far improved reasonings.


Sunday, began the revision for the exams and I am expecting to get over with them by the end of this week so that I have Sunday to relax a bit more before the exam week begins.


For now, it is the time to dig into my books, notes and whatever study material I can lay my hands on to prepare for the final battle of this term.


Good Night and Good Luck!!!

Week 7: Less than 3 weeks to the Hilary D-Day

Yes, the time is fast approaching for our Hilary term exams. This was the penultimate week of lectures in this term and each subject has reached a stage from where the next week classes will be more of the revision classes along with a few final concepts. This week had nothing much going on except working on EP project for which the schedule of presentations due in the 9^th week of Hilary was announced.

Last Monday we discussed about the need for a firm to "Go Public" & make additional equity offerings. We also talked about why the firm would ever take the recourse back to being a “Private” company.


In Tuesday’s Marketing class, the discussion was around moving from a value proposition to the Brand. Indeed companies face tough time in devising appropriate brand strategies that can provide company with a better customer acquisition and at later time with effective “Customer Relationship Management (CRM)” practice can have better customer retention rate.


Wednesday, the discussion was concentrated around the concept of “Applying Process Thinking”. Key objectives of the session were to discuss the feasibility of ideas about process thinking in different settings. We also attended a talk on “Managing a firm in Crisis” by Mr. Anjan Lahiri, Executive VP of Mindtree Consulting. Mr. Lahiri’s passion and commitment about the company and the work he does was clearly reflected in his dynamic approach to the topic. He indeed is a kind of man I would love to work with.


On Thursday we focused on the issue of “Power and Politics” in different kinds of organizations. When I look back at history, I can correlate the topics discussed with my experiences in Infosys. Don’t take me wrong because it is always the people who bring in the aspect of P&P in the organization.


We also attended the much awaited and worked upon event of the term, “The Saïd Business School Venture Fund” (SBS’s version of Dragon’s Den). The fund was born last year at one of the forums in Saïd, where Sir Philip Green (UK Retail King) proposed that he is ready to put forward $500K towards a venture fund, if Mr. David Bonderman (Founding partner of Texas Pacific Group) agrees to do the same. Four finalists, selected out of 83 initial contestants, presented their business plan to the panel of Sir Philip Green, Mr. David Bonderman and Sir Victor Blank (Chairman of Lloyds TSB Group) for an investment from the venture fund. In the end, two of the four got the funding for their business as Mr. Bonderman and Sir Green kept audience entertained with their witty remarks. The other dignitaries present were Mr. Wafic Saïd (Benefactor and founding Trustee of Saïd Business School), Dr. John Hood (Vice-Chancellor of the University of Oxford), and Professor Collin Mayer (Peter Moores Dean of the Saïd Business School).


On Friday, we shifted our focus to the ‘Role of the corporation in the Global Economy’, primarily from the Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) perspective. In recent years, in the wake of the globalization impact on the developing world, companies are carefully addressing their debatable social responsibilities, be out of moral obligations or under government pressure. Moving away from the level of “a hands-off approach towards CSR”, companies are taking every step to ensure being “a role model CSR company for other businesses". General Motors has sponsored a film about AIDS in the world (A CLOSER WALK).


Saturday was one of the occasional sunny day in Oxford and an Indonesian Cultural Nite organized by the Indonesian Students Committee. I couldn’t attend the same considering had a lot to finish for my EP with presentations and documents all going through number of revisions before the baseline version can shape up. The Lunar Eclipse was witnessed by millions around the globe. Few images of the same captured at different places around the world are available at LUNAR ECLIPSE.


Sunday was back to normal rainy day in Oxford and I decided not to step out of my house, enjoying the day sitting inside. 'HOLI', the festival of color was celebrated in India today with loads of vigor and enthusiasm. People throw colored powder and water on each other. Feasts and celebrations continue till later in the evening. I miss the true nature of this festival and the delicious sweets prepared on the occasion. Well instead of playing colors in India, here I was without any regret finishing my last practical work assignment and reading for the formal works due by end of this month. I apologize that I have not been able to write more about the “Value Pricing Thermometer” but surely will discuss this in next couple of days.


And yes, the biggest event of this week for me on personal front was that I decided to go home (India) during the term break. But still the travel date is four weeks from now and I cannot wait till then but before that have got exams to deal with.


Good Night and Good Luck!!!