Week 5: Assignments, Assignments and....

Did I say assignments...??? Yes, this week was devoted to the assignments for different subjects we are reading in Trinity. Here I am providing a very brief about the various assignments I completed.


1) Managing Project Portfolio (Individual - Due on Mon) - In 2000 words, write a set of 20 questions that can help an organization decide on whether it would be beneficial for them to implement the project portfolio management process. Also provide reasoning as to how each question can contribute towards making that decision.

2) SDMDE (Group - Due on Thu) - In 2500 words, evaluate the Nucor's decision making and negotiation propositions in an HBS case. Run to Examination schools to submit the same as a formal coursework.


3) SDMDE (Individual - Due on Thu) - In 1000 words, critically evaluate the decision making process of Medtronic in an HBS case.


4) Retailing (Group - Due on Fri) - In 3000 words, explain the strategical context of multi-channel retailing and the effects the online retailing can have on the other channels for that particular retailer. Out of ASDA, HMV and Woolworth, our group chose HMV to understand better about the dynamics behind the not so successful online store of HMV and their digital music download store. We also had to prepare a 10 minute class presentation for the class scheduled for Wednesday.


5) Branding & Communication (Group - Due on Sun) - Toughest of all... No word limit. For an outdoor adventure sports company Patagonia, two long interviews were provided. We had to detail the key identity of the person interviewed using information provided, giving details of informant's conception of Patagonia and point out how Patagonia serves as symbolic function for informant's identity. Size of each interview - 32 pages, so you can imagine the task at hand.


Even though the task was mammoth and we worked pretty much day and night to get these assignments polished the best way we can, every second of it was worth it. For the MPP assignment, we got the far better understanding of the need and adaptability needed for the portfolio management process to be implemented. Retailing, by far gave the maximum insight into customer behavior, store design and other aspects of retailing that can either sky-rocket your sales or sink the sales to rock-bottom. SDMDE was an extension of our previous assignments refining further our thought processing and implementing our MPP learnings' as well. B&C interviews tell us about how a person's identity can be sketched without exactly asking him/her directly about the particular brand he/she is being interviewed for. Our final B&C project involves doing three such interviews, which I am still doing analysis for as to how to go about.


We had no time for any other activities but still were able to enjoy the happy hours on a rarely seen bright sunny evening in Oxford. The photo above is of a "SHISHA" ("Hookah" as called in India) bought by Saheel in Morocco. I don't smoke but still took a picture as it looked so cool, though may not be cool for the lungs.


Other than the assignments and a nice Friday evening, I did some work related to some job hunt that still goes on and tried to resolve the visa related issues for our two month summer consulting project at Intel in the USA. We have already sent our query to the US Consulate and are waiting for the response, which is likely by Friday or so.


I sincerely wish to go and work in the hub where we get all the micro-processors for our laptops and desktops developed, even though my project is a diversified one in a different field about which I cannot disclose yet due to non-disclosure agreements. Next week seems to be a relaxed one as got only two assignments due, however the preparation for the big ones towards the term-end will begin soon.


Good Night and Good Luck!!!

Week 4: I passed my Hilary Term

The week as I mentioned in my early post was supposed to be really tough and hectic one for me. It indeed started the very same way. A couple of interviews with different companies were lined up. They did go fine but still the luck did not favor me and the DTC project was awarded to other team.

But the biggest event of this week for me came from Hilary term. I got through in all my subjects in high spirits. That was quite a relief as most of us were not sure what will happen based on the way our papers were framed.


Wednesday, in the retailing class it was fun to know more about the customer insights from Mike Sherwood, the CEO of Zara. We had no further class after Wednesday because of the MBAT sports festival in HEC, Paris over the long weekend for European business school.


On Friday, a few of us MBA guys went to London to meet Sri Sri Ravi Shankar from the Art of Living. It was an honor and pleasure to meet such a personality who is preaching the world to be happy and live life given to us as a precious gift from God. Well, I am not trying to be philosophical but yeah doing some mediation always revitalize a guy. :).


And yes, I got a Summer Consulting Project with Intel. I was really really interested in that project but due to non-availability of sufficient number of people couldn't form a team. The team that was eventually selected had one guy move out of the team due to some personal reasons and I filled in his place. I have a long way now to go in order to get my visa in place before I can fly to the USA...


Our sports warrior returned on Sunday from MBAT and they did make Oxford proud by winning a number of events, especially Rowing. Table Tennis and Ultimate Frisbie. Second in team sports, winner in recreational sports and overall fourth, even though the contingent of 90 odd was very small compared to LBS having around 300. Great job done fellow MBA's...


Good Night and Good Luck!!!

Week 3: SCP presentations and Mr. Stelios Haji Ioannou

This week was bit relaxed in terms of classes but still we had two formal coursework to be submitted at the examination school alongwith attending number of SCP presentations by various companies, some of which were quite interesting.

The assignment due this week included one for Airbus as to whether Airbus should proceed with its investment in building the A3XX jumbo to cater more number of passengers in long haul flight. As we were doing the calculations for this case, an A380 was landing for the first time at the Indira Gandhi International Airport in New Delhi, India, courtesy of Mr. Vijay Mallya, the Chairman of United Breweries and Kingfisher Airline in India. I must say that except for strategic benefits, most of us calculated the NPV of A3XX project to be negative in discounted terms and suggested that A3XX should not be built. Another assignment was to reflect our understanding about the different negotiation exercises that we went through in Module-1 of SDMDE class in week-1. This was another interesting assignment where we had to discuss with our classmates who played the role of opposite party during the negotiations.


In Retailing class, we had the pleasure of listening to Mr. Ian Cheshire, CEO, B&Q UK and Ireland about how the geography and location of any particular retail store can affect the profitability of the store.


Also we had Mr. Stelios Haji Ioannou, founder of Easy Group, deliver a short speech before taking on questions from the attendees of the session. I was amazed to listen to the story of a man who set up a low-budget no-frill airline at the age of 28, giving due credit for his success to his father's belief in him.


On Thursday evening, I received a desperate call from Sampath, one of my friend to join his team for the pitch to win the SCP project from Dell. One of his team member had to leave for an internship and hence the team of 4 was left one short. I was quite interested in the project earlier on but due to the non-commitment of other people withdrew myself. However, when I got the offer again I did not hesitate a minute in plunging for it even though I had Diamond Trading Company (DTC) and Macquarie project pitches lined up for the next week. The interview and presentation in Bracknell office went well and we were satisfied with our performance, however later we found out that the project was rewarded to the other team. May be the company director was not happy with the reshuffling of resources and decided to go with the first team. Nobody knows the real reason though...


Saturday was all about the Restructuring assignment where we had to evaluate the friendly bid made by CSX to acquire CONRAIL against the hostile bid of Norfolk Railway company. An interesting case dealing with the synergies involved that went beyond increasing the benefits of shareholders.

MBAT is for the weekend of week-4 and I wish my fellow students good luck for an awesome performance in all sports in HEC, Paris. This week also has a couple of interviews lined up for different SCP's and job related so need to prepare for them. Wish me luck...


I always use to boast amongst our friends here about my rich neighborhood and probably a Ferrari standing right next to my house can be a small token of proof to all those who didn't believe it. The pictures in this post were all taken from a mobile phone camera, so apologies for not so good quality.


Good Night and Good Luck!!!

Week 2: May Day and Malhaar

For the Monday, it was the usual except the Branding & Communication class that really had my interest in it. The case discussed was about Snapple, where we discussed about the comparisons between conventional models of branding and cultural branding. Further the discussion went into the fundamental weaknesses of conventional models, which motivate the demand for a new approach to branding.

May Day - I had to wake up at 430 am on May 1st, which is celebrated here in Oxford as the May Day when the choir of the Magdalen College perform for 6-7 minutes from the Magdalen Tower. It was indeed a different experience for me and for all those other standing in perfect silence listening to the choir. The follow up festivities included a college breakfast and few performances along the streets of Oxford. Since had three classes, the day before and woke up way too early in the morning so decided to procrastinate for a while before getting on with the daily work. Of course, the weather in Oxford was way too nice considering how it has been acting on us during April month.

Thursday, I went to the Examination School to attend a lecture by Indian Commerce minister Mr. Kamal Nath about the Global Trade Governance project. It was quite an interesting lecture talking about how the globalised world is perceived by India and how India is confronting the challenges of the new economic architecture.

One thing I am not sure of as to whether the way I take pictures is good or the software I use to give some special effects to it that gives me that credibility... I guess its the first one, considering the pictures that I came out from other people's camera. I am not trying to brag about myself but anyways, I was invited at the annual cultural festival Malhaar-2007, organized by the Oxford Indian Society to cover the event as a photographer and seems they came out fine as per other's feedback. Here is a video clip of some of the pictures. Please note that since it was an Indian cultural nite so I did stick to a sufi song played on shehnai and flute.

On Saturday, along with Anubhav I was busy with my Branding assignment, trying to understand and pen down our thoughts about the rise of Starbucks during the late 80's and early 90's though these days they are fighting hard to keep their brand image up in the global world because of losing its touch of providing a "third place" for professionals and family people to sit back and relax. Instead it has now become more commercialized trying to maximize the profit rather than giving a cozy, quiet comfort ambience to its customer while they enjoy their cup o' joe.

Sunday was fun filled attending Aman's birthday and watching Spiderman-3. Archit, Naser, Abhishek, Swapan, and Arash went for Spiderman and were not at all enthralled by the storyline of the movie though the special effect were awesome but it was more a comedy movie rather than a superhero's movie. I wish the movie good luck.

During the week, we had presentations for our Summer Consulting Projects by different firms that included Macquarie and De Beers, which did attract me the most. I have already been selected for both the firms to form a team of 4 before we can proceed with our 'pitch' (as is called by our BPO office) to bid for the project along with 2 other teams for De Beers and 6 for Macquarie.

That was it from Week 2 and I hope I am catching up a bit on my posts and hope to be with the week-3 pretty soon.

Good Night and Good Luck!!!

Week 1: Oxford - Cambridge Varsity Day and other events

Week one is when our classes officially begin though this term a couple of classes were held last week to adjust for the classes that will not take place during the MBAT weekend. MBAT is the sports tournament organized by HEC Paris business school for the students from international business schools.

I have three classes scheduled every Monday from morning 9 AM till evening 8 PM. But the subjects are interesting so they don't really make me complain about the busy day. Amongst Restructuring & Implementation (RI), Branding & Communication (B&C) and Managing Project Portfolio (MPP), I like the subject of Branding the most. The first class was setting up the basic concepts building on what we learnt in Marketing course during the last term. It was quite fascinating to take a plunge into understanding as to what can happen to the image of a brand in consumers mind, with a slight change in the branding strategy. Restructuring & Implementation talked about the problems associated with Mergers & Acquisitions (M&A's) whereas during MPP class, discussion was based on managing a project using the cass study of "Mission to Mars".


Tuesday was fairly relaxed with no classes to attend though the day went by in catching up what was taught the day before. Along with Puneet, I attended dinner at my college where I got the chance to meet the Chancellor of Oxford University, Lord Chris Patten. Incidentally I knew about him before coming to Oxford just because of the fact that his daughter Alice Patten played lead actress role in a Hindi movie "Rang De Basanti". Alas, she did not turn up for the dinner...


Just before going for the dinner, our Corporate Valuation group comprising of Chad, Janis, Puneet, Saptarshi, Vijoy and myself met to discuss about giving the finishing touches to the first assignment of Corporate Valuation.


Wednesday was all about "Retailing" and the "Walmart effect on society". With the increasing FDI in India, and big retailers trying to step into the budding retail market of India, this particular subject was of a primary interest to me. Also had to work on my other assignment about "A prior negotiation experience of mine". Sometimes these topics are easier said than done and it took me a while before I could gel my personal thoughts about negotiation with the theories provided in the book.


Thursday class of Corporate Valuation was spent discussing the contract of A-Rod with Texas Rangers, who paid a whopping USD 252 million to him though further transferred the contract to New York Yankees only after the Rangers agreed to pay $67 million of the $179 million left on Rodriguez's contract. In the evening began the class of my final subject of "Strategic Decision Making in Dynamic Environment (SDMDE)", which indeed is a very long name for any subject. Anyways, our first three classes for week 1, 2 and 3 took place in week 1 only, discussing how to successfully negotiate the deals with the party sitting on the other side of the table. The exercises conducted were fun to attend but occasionally we all felt if there was a need to take up this course instead of taking an elective on "Negotiation Skills".


So my Friday afternoon and Saturday morning went into attending the SDMDE class performing roleplays involving different kinds of negotiation situations.


Saturday, we had an Oxford Cambridge Varsity day and students from the Judge Business School of Cambridge University came all the way to Oxford to attend a day of sports and other fun-filled activities. Our guys did put up an excellent show and thrashed the Cambridge team in all but one event of Rowing. In cricket, Murtaza played an inning that reminded me of Adam Gilchrist and Sanath Jayasuriya. evening saw the dodge ball event in the courtyard of SBS followed by a late night party. The pictures from the event are posted in my photo album on Picasa, the link to which is available in side navigation bar. And yes, Australia continued to perform like a champion to lift the ICC World Cup Cricket Trophy for third time in succession.


I declared Sunday as a complete holiday to myself and did nothing except procrastinating all day long, though had to do some reading later at night for the busy Monday that accounts for three classes. Will get back with week two pretty soon...


Good Night and Good Luck!!!