Half way of MBA over ..

So the curtain will fall on the third term on Thursday and half way of becoming a MBA is going to be over . And myself and Navin were discussing what is our take away from these 3 months .... we couldn't decide at that time and then I have been thinking about that for last half an hour .. So is it the ability to speak global or is it the ability to deliver ppt at an instant or is it the diamond model , the P's of marketing or something else .. so many case studies and so many tools of analysis .. 

One thing which has changed... I have started to appreciate the cycle ... that which comes down has to come up and so the fear of losing the status quo and by that process missing out on the thrills of swing will not be there .. and yes one thing I have learned ... it is not about suffering ..it is about sharing the burden ...

Cultural aspect of doing business

So one of the lessons that you learn while doing MBA , specially international business is that "While in Rome , do as Romans do" i.e. you have to admire the culture and do your job according to that . Though it can seem not new but when I think now , I can recall that I had an such culture shock in my carrier earlier . I left my job at Bangalore and I moved to Kolkata  .

In one of first assignment I had to send one mail for getting the approval for setting the application server . I did as I did in Bangalore . I send one mail and expected that in the end the job will be done .I had forgotten that I am at a culture where doing your job requires a personal touch .

My team-lead came and told me the same . He was also a guy from Bangalore and he told me in Kolkata , to do a job you have to give it a personal touch . so go and talk .

I did that and my job was done instantly .

At that point , I just felt bit annoyed about the whole process , but in the end I adopted the process .

 But now when I recall , I just admire the way things get done differently even in a single country .

Just curious to see how different it will be from country to country !!!!

A victim of own success

What happens when something  becomes a victim of its own success ?? I believe the whole of business world is full of example how a company once in fortune 500 list files for bankruptcy and then suddenly vanishes or becomes the victim of own success .

       I used to  think  how a company which is doing tremendously good by doing in a certain kind of way can fail ? .. You take everything granted because of your success story  .. You suddenly believe the success your birth right and you suddenly try to unlearn all the good virtues that you have learned ... A level of arrogance , a care for no one attitude overwhelms the once successful entity ...And to make things worse the result of the all the wrong doings because of such arrogance seems excellent in the beginning .. and that initial success creates a layer of deception which becomes an impediment to see all the wrong doings .. in the end it creates a vicious cycle of going down and down .. 

      But this happens till one fine morning .. as on that morning you rise from bed and think it would have been better not to rise at all .. so what can be the solution ? The solution is to keep challenging the status quo ....and how to do that ? I don't have the answer right now ..

Best Feedback

We had a panel discussion today and two persons from the industries came to interact us . In the panel discussion as per maam's instruction  our CR and me were also part of the panel to ask questions to the guests .Believe me I had not prepared a single sentence to ask to them ,but somehow I managed to ask couple of questions . After the session was over one of my friend came to me and said "Kya Mohanty , wohi rata hua questions ?(U r asking questions after memorizing them )".

                            First I thought to clarify him that I have not prepared a single word and all are impromptu .But that time a thought stroke me and I said to myself , "If the way I spoke could look others as I have practiced , rehearsed before coming  then Hold on .. I have done the perfect justice to job . What can be better than your impromptu speech looking well-rehearsed ...." Thank you god for giving me such an wonderful feedback and keeping my mind cleared enough to decipher this wonderful gift from the box ... Sometimes wonderful surprises come from the places where you least expect them and I have got one ....I will keep on improving ..

The story from Tibbet

I was on my way back to IMT Ghaziabad and my train was destined to be late by 12 hours . But the best thing to happen for me in the journey was my meeting with this person from R.Udaygiri . In the year 1959 , at the age of 20 , this man with is mother ran away from his motherland Tibet . He came and settled himself in Orissa .

      One fine day he got the message that his father and brother have been killed by the Chinese . He got over the trauma and joined Indian Army . He fought the war against Pakistan in the year 1972 and led his team towards Chittagong .And his eventful story doesn't stop here .

In the year 1995 he was travelling in the Delhi bound Purussottam Express which rammed into stationery Kalindi Express and was severely injured . That day he was travelling to Benaras to have a get together with his family members who have come from all over the world and then stay for someday at Sarnath .My salute to this man for showing such indomitable spirit all through his life .

The best year to do MBA..

I could have done my MBA in the year 2005 , 2006 ..2009 but somehow in the end I am doing this in the year 2010 and have earned the senior citizen tag in my class . But today I got one reason why god gave me this year as the year to do MBA . This thought came to me in the Macroeconomics and Corporate finance class .

       The whole of microeconomics teaches the behavior of the economy as a whole and how to manage during recession . The whole of Corporate finance tells of the risk and return and the managing during recession times .Now you guys can find out  where this is going . The whole world is trying to come out of a recession , everywhere government is trying to do something , every corporate is expanding  and what can be the best case study to learn management of recession than to observe all these above in the time of happening ? Just imagine studying recession during boom of the 2005 . I would have completely discarded the learning as rubbish  as all the world did that time . None could foresee the recession and when that really occurred , everyone ran for cover . Now that I have seen the recession , seen the complete boom of 2005 to recession of 2007-08 and the corresponding recovery through active government intervention , I do buy the theory what I am reading .

    So in the end i got one solid point why 2 year MBA so late . I can tell everything has a time and hence stop worrying , start doing ..

Brand Rajni..

We all know brand is a set of promises and delivering the promises to the customer is the brand management .Then where does the Rajni Brand stands ?If one see the bald-headed , thin Rajni off the screen , then one can never understand why fans are so crazy about him ? But let's ponder .

                    Whenever Rajni makes a movie it promises it's fans (read customers) a grand extravaganza of music , action , fun and emotion which is intangible .If we take movie making as a service and then we can know how the intangibility of movie experience is , then we can admire the fact how this brand delivers what it promises . The important fact to remember is how the man carries himself off the screen .People say he is the altar of modesty and he is a superb gentleman and these are the characteristics which makes him look larger than life . All this is of utmost importance for brand management where you try to win the heart of the customer through excellent service delivery . The gap between what people perceives and what the brand delivers is almost nil and hence the Rajni Brand rocks ....As a future marketer I do salute the Thalaiveer or the Brand Rajni ..