Cyclicity of Life as seen through SurveysPro !!

Among several things that I have learnt during my Marketing class, one thing stands out. Understanding of Product SPT, Product / Service bundle, Logit, and market research etc. is all fine. Those are transaction aspects. What I have learnt in larger context via my marketing services course is that life is a full circle and it all comes back.

While conducting project work on what shapes a customer to buy a car in India, we ventured to conduct a primary research that included a survey. SURVEY – I used to hate those mails for survey request and trashed them right away. But I realized the pain behind the same while preparing a survey myself. A lot of thought and analysis goes behind the same. Let me help you allay that pain, you are likely to face at some point of time in your career.

For a survey, you need access to a reliable survey making resource. During our search, we zeroed onto SurveyPro as a mode to prepare our survey based on its reliability and efficiency to provide skip logics within the survey.

You can access survey pro here. Now using this survey is very simple. You need to first create your user name and ID that will eventually lead you to the following page:



You can those go on to create a new survey for yourself. While building the survey, the website offers you option to include Skip Logic. Now Skip logic is one of key things you need to include in your survey since you don’t want your user, who already are doing a favor to open your stupid survey at first place, to go through random questions. Survey Pro provides the same to you quite efficiently.
Once your survey is prepared, you can open the survey for your friends to fill it up. This would require no registration from them and works out smoothly. You can edit / access your survey on time to time basis. In order to maintain data integrity, survey pro would not let you change the questions / options in the survey unless you delete the data collected for that particular question. We found this feature very helpful since you can’t, in thick of action, change the questions while some data has already been filled. It will simply lead to wrong conclusions later on. You can view total response to your survey in the main page as shown below:



Survey Pro offers a rich amount features and you view the same here . For those you just starting on your journey to start preparing surveys, Survey Pro also offer a wide variety of templates as well as tips & tricks of the game. We found information in most of the tips as well as best practices pretty helpful. You can access the same here.

Lastly Survey Pro offers you well complied bar charts and graphs to decode what has been running through your target segment’s mind. Overall, we were glad to use Survey Pro for our project that we hope to accomplish soon.

I shall certainly share the final report here but remember, Never ever delete a survey when someone asks you out. It all comes back :) !!

Go - Kiss the World - Subroto Bagchi !!!!

I was the last child of a small-time government servant, in a family of five brothers. My earliest memory of my father is as that of a District Employment Officer in Koraput, Orissa. It was, and remains as back of beyond as you can imagine. There was no electricity; no primary school nearby and water did not flow out of a tap. As a result, I did not go to school until the age of eight; I was home-schooled. My father used to get transferred every year. The family belongings fit into the back of a jeep - so the family moved from place to place and without any trouble, my Mother would set up an establishment and get us going. Raised by a widow who had come as a refugee from the then East Bengal, she was a matriculate when she married my Father.

My parents set the foundation of my life and the value system, which makes me what I am today and largely, defines what success means to me today.


As District Employment Officer, my father was given a jeep by the government. There was no garage in the Office, so the jeep was parked in our house. My father refused to use it to commute to the office. He told us that the jeep is an expensive resource given by the government- he reiterated to us that it was not ”his jeep” but the government’s jeep. Insisting that he would use it only to tour the interiors, he would walk to his office on normal days. He also made sure that we never sat in the government jeep - we could sit in it only when it was stationary.

That was our early childhood lesson in governance - a lesson that corporate managers learn the hard way, some never do.

The driver of the jeep was treated with respect due to any other member of my Father’s office. As small children, we were taught not to call him by his name. We had to use the suffix ‘dada’ whenever we were to refer to him in public or private. When I grew up to own a car and a driver by the name of Raju was appointed - I repeated the lesson to my two small daughters. They have, as a result, grown up to call Raju, ‘Raju Uncle’ - very different from many of their friends who refer to their family driver, as ‘my driver’. When I hear that term from a school- or college-going person, I cringe.

To me, the lesson was significant - you treat small people with more respect than how you treat big people. It is more important to respect your subordinates than your superiors.

Our day used to start with the family huddling around my Mother’s chulha - an earthen fire place she would build at each place of posting where she would cook for the family. There was neither gas, nor electrical stoves.The morning routine started with tea. As the brew was served, Father would ask us to read aloud the editorial page of The Statesman’s ‘muffosil’ edition - delivered one day late. We did not understand much of what we were reading. But the ritual was meant for us to know that the world was larger than Koraput district and the English I speak today, despite having studied in an Oriya medium school, has to do with that routine. After reading the newspaper aloud, we were told to fold it neatly. Father taught us a simple lesson.

He used to say, “You should leave your newspaper and your toilet, the way you expect to find it”. That lesson was about showing consideration to others. Business begins and ends with that simple precept.

Being small children, we were always enamored with advertisements in the newspaper for transistor radios - we did not have one. We saw other people having radios in their homes and each time there was an advertisement of Philips, Murphy or Bush radios, we would ask Father when we could get one. Each time, my Father would reply that we did not need one because he already had five radios - alluding to his five sons.

We also did not have a house of our own and would occasionally ask Father as to when, like others, we would live in our own house. He would give a similar reply,” We do not need a house of our own. I already own five houses”. His replies did not gladden our hearts in that instant.

Nonetheless, we learnt that it is important not to measure personal success and sense of well being through material possessions.

Government houses seldom came with fences. Mother and I collected twigs and built a small fence. After lunch, my Mother would never sleep. She would take her kitchen utensils and with those she and I would dig the rocky, white ant infested surrounding. We planted flowering bushes. The white ants destroyed them. My mother brought ash from her chulha and mixed it in the earth and we planted the seedlings all over again. This time, they bloomed. At that time, my father’s transfer order came. A few neighbors told my mother why she was taking so much pain to beautify a government house, why she was planting seeds that would only benefit the next occupant. My mother replied that it did not matter to her that she would not see the flowers in full bloom. She said, “I have to create a bloom in a desert and whenever I am given a new place, I must leave it more beautiful than what I had inherited”.

That was my first lesson in success. It is not about what you create for yourself, it is what you leave behind that defines success.

My mother began developing a cataract in her eyes when I was very small. At that time, the eldest among my brothers got a teaching job at the University in Bhubaneswar and had to prepare for the civil services examination. So, it was decided that my Mother would move to cook for him and, as her appendage, I had to move too. For the first time in my life I saw electricity in homes and water coming out of a tap. It was around 1965 and the country was going to war with Pakistan. My mother was having problems reading and in any case, being Bengali, she did not know the Oriya script. So, in addition to my daily chores, my job was to read her the local newspaper - end to end. That created in me a sense of connectedness with a larger world. I began taking interest in many different things. While reading out news about the war, I felt that I was fighting the war myself. She and I discussed the daily news and built a bond with the larger universe. In it, we became part of a larger reality. Till date, I measure my success in terms of that sense of larger connectedness. Meanwhile, the war raged and India was fighting on both fronts. Lal Bahadur Shastri, the then Prime Minster, coined the term “Jai Jawan, Jai Kishan” and galvanized the nation in to patriotic fervor. Other than reading out the newspaper to my mother, I had no clue about how I could be part of the action. So, after reading her the newspaper, every day I would land up near the University’s water tank, which served the community. I would spend hours under it, imagining that there could be spies who would come to poison the water and I had to watch for them. I would daydream about catching one and how the next day, I would be featured in the newspaper. Unfortunately for me, the spies at war ignored the sleepy town of Bhubaneswar and I never got a chance to catch one in action. Yet, that act unlocked my imagination.

Imagination is everything. If we can imagine a future, we can create it, if we can create that future, others will live in it. That is the essence of success.

Over the next few years, my mother’s eyesight dimmed but in me she created a larger vision, a vision with which I continue to see the world and, I sense, through my eyes, she was seeing too. As the next few years unfolded, her vision deteriorated and she was operated for cataract. I remember, when she returned after her operation and she saw my face clearly for the first time, she was astonished. She said, “Oh my God, I did not know you were so fair”. I remain mighty pleased with that adulation even till date. Within weeks of getting her sight back, she developed a corneal ulcer and, overnight, became blind in both eyes. That was 1969. She died in 2002. In all those 32 years of living with blindness, she never complained about her fate even once. Curious to know what she saw with blind eyes, I asked her once if she sees darkness. She replied, “No, I do not see darkness. I only see light even with my eyes closed”. Until she was eighty years of age, she did her morning yoga everyday, swept her own room and washed her own clothes.

To me, success is about the sense of independence; it is about not seeing the world but seeing the light.

Over the many intervening years, I grew up, studied, joined the industry and began to carve my life’s own journey. I began my life as a clerk in a government office, went on to become a Management Trainee with the DCM group and eventually found my life’s calling with the IT industry when fourth generation computers came to India in 1981. Life took me places - I worked with outstanding people, challenging assignments and traveled all over the world.

In 1992, while I was posted in the US, I learnt that my father, living a retired life with my eldest brother, had suffered a third degree burn injury and was admitted in the Safderjung Hospital in Delhi. I flew back to attend to him - he remained for a few days in critical stage, bandaged from neck to toe. The Safderjung Hospital is a cockroach infested, dirty, inhuman place. The overworked, under-resourced sisters in the burn ward are both victims and perpetrators of dehumanized life at its worst. One morning, while attending to my Father, I realized that the blood bottle was empty and fearing that air would go into his vein, I asked the attending nurse to change it. She bluntly told me to do it myself. In that horrible theater of death, I was in pain and frustration and anger. Finally when she relented and came, my Father opened his eyes and murmured to her, “Why have you not gone home yet?” Here was a man on his deathbed but more concerned about the overworked nurse than his own state. I was stunned at his stoic self.

There I learnt that there is no limit to how concerned you can be for another human being and what the limit of inclusion is you can create.

My father died the next day. He was a man whose success was defined by his principles, his frugality, his universalism and his sense of inclusion.

Above all, he taught me that success is your ability to rise above your discomfort, whatever may be your current state. You can, if you want, raise your consciousness above your immediate surroundings. Success is not about building material comforts - the transistor that he never could buy or the house that he never owned. His success was about the legacy he left, the memetic continuity of his ideals that grew beyond the smallness of a ill-paid, unrecognized government servant’s world.

My father was a fervent believer in the British Raj. He sincerely doubted the capability of the post-independence Indian political parties to govern the country. To him, the lowering of the Union Jack was a sad event. My Mother was the exact opposite. When Subhash Bose quit the Indian National Congress and came to Dacca, my mother, then a schoolgirl, garlanded him. She learnt to spin khadi and joined an underground movement that trained her in using daggers and swords. Consequently, our household saw diversity in the political outlook of the two. On major issues concerning the world, the Old Man and the Old Lady had differing opinions.

In them, we learnt the power of disagreements, of dialogue and the essence of living with diversity in thinking.

Success is not about the ability to create a definitive dogmatic end state; it is about the unfolding of thought processes, of dialogue and continuum.

Two years back, at the age of eighty-two, Mother had a paralytic stroke and was lying in a government hospital in Bhubaneswar. I flew down from the US where I was serving my second stint, to see her. I spent two weeks with her in the hospital as she remained in a paralytic state. She was neither getting better nor moving on. Eventually I had to return to work. While leaving her behind, I kissed her face. In that paralytic state and a garbled voice, she said,

“Why are you kissing me, go kiss the world.” Her river was nearing its journey, at the confluence of life and death, this woman who came to India as a refugee, raised by a widowed Mother, no more educated than high school, married to an anonymous government servant whose last salary was Rupees Three Hundred, robbed of her eyesight by fate and crowned by adversity was telling me to go and kiss the world!

Success to me is about Vision. It is the ability to rise above the immediacy of pain. It is about imagination. It is about sensitivity to small people. It is about building inclusion. It is about connectedness to a larger world existence. It is about personal tenacity. It is about giving back more to life than you take out of it. It is about creating extra-ordinary success with ordinary lives.

Thank you very much; I wish you good luck and God’s speed. Go! kiss the world

A day at ISB !!

This post has been long overdue and something or the other kept me away from this. I finally get a chance to write about a typical day at ISB and here goes the same:-

7:15 A:M – The alarm goes off and I immediately put it back to snooze. It’s just 4 hours and this cruel mechanical alarm wouldn’t understand the benefits of a sound sleep. I and my snooze played for 3 more rounds till it told me that this is last time it will snooze. The battle is over. Snooze wins and I wake up. Get ready speedily with a fundamental objective – to get one cup of coffee before the 8:15 class and as usual, I missed.

8:15 A:M – First class – Organization Behavior and Prof. Pinto discusses the HR practices and people focus of GE leaders. Eye opener case in many aspects and learned some very practical insights in managing teams as well as organizations at large.

10:15 A: M – It’s 30 minute break between two classes and the time flies that included a small clarifying conversation with the Prof. and my breakfast.

10:45 A: M – Second class – Government, Society, and Business. Diverse topics such as Women Empowerment, Human Security, and Human Development Index were discussed by the prof. followed by Group Presentations by three groups. I wasn’t particularly attentive during the presentations part and have some fun with Saikat and Pranjal in the class

12:45 P:M – Hungry and Lunch time. Wrap up by 1:30 P:M and had some light hearted discussions with my classmates at lunch

1:30 P:M – I head to LRC to accomplish two things a) I wanted to revisit the GE case and compile the learnings from the case. I was pretty impressed with the class b) I have to glance through my CV for my Resume review session with Moi Foi consultants ISB has hired

2:30 P:M – I conduct 45 minutes discussion with Mr. Mandeep from Moi Foi about my career objectives, past experiences, way to represent my CV, and picked up couple of things to improve in my CV.

3:30 P: M – I reach back to my quad. My quad-mates were leaving for a session on Placement portal but I wasn’t particularly interested in the same. I spend next hour or so surfing on net, answering several pending emails, and calling couple of friends outside ISB. Also, worked on my CV and sent it across to few friends for review.

4:30 P: M - I opened McKinsey quarterly’s report on “Offshore and Captive Units” and gather few old articles. This is to prepare for my discussion with CTO of a large organization at pre-scheduled 6:30 P: M who agreed to speak to me previous day.

5:30 P: M – I am done with my readings and preparation. With one hour for the call, I decide to take a quick 45 min nap. It has been a long day already and I am running on 4 hours of sleep. I deserve more, I thought.

5:40 P:M – I get a call from the CTO to prepone the call as he would be engaged later. Thank God I prepared earlier. One part of me was happy, as now I will get free early and will be able to attend my dance class. Second part, awww… what about that 45 minutes nap.

5:45 P:M – Since call got pre-poned no-one else from my group could join me and I navigated through the call on my own. Extremely insightful & practical perspectives that will help in the project I am pursuing on Back Office and Captive units for my client.

6:15 P:M – The call gets over and I quickly rush to Recreation Center – elated that after missing two classes I will be finally able to catch up my Salsa. Spend next 1 hour – away from all sorts of distractions. No CP. No Management. No Best Practices. No Beta. No CAPM. No Experience Curve. No Bull-shit. Just one hour of pure fun.

7:30 P: M – I reach back to my quad and quickly compile the notes from my discussion with CTO and send it across to my group. Also, I set up agenda for meeting with client the next day.

8:15 P: M – Hungry and time for Dinner but the food hasn’t been delivered. I hang out a bit with people in lawn until food arrives at 8:40 P: M

9:00 P: M – After quickly having my dinner, I rush to Atrium to attend a session by Parthenon Consulting on Case Analysis. The speakers talked about the projects they were involved in, culture of Parthenon, and general aspects of Consulting. Ended the Session with a Hi-Tea with the Alumni from Parthenon!

10:20 P: M – I get in call with a junior from my undergrad college, who has been trying to contact me to seek suggestions and guidance on his ISB and MBA applications in general. Talked to him for 30 min and he seemed satisfied with some of my inputs. Hope it helps him. Always great to get in touch with people from your undergrad 

11:00 P:M – I head to LRC to finish off the Investment Analysis assignment only to realize I am not carrying notes required for the same. Kicked myself and headed back to my quad to wrap it up.

11:25 P:M – After some TP, four of us – Vinay, Sohel, I, and Rachit get together to discuss the assignment (Thank God Prof. allowed discussion for the assignment) and solved the questions. I wasn’t willing but Sohel pushed that we write the assignment in fair as well and finish it once and for all. The deadline is Friday 7:00 P:M but I am done by 2:00 A:M. Some rare moments that I have assignments done with such a huge time lead.

2:00 A:M – Time for a tea break and discuss several aspects of the Case Competitions and other ideas that are important to set agenda for the weekend.

2:45 A:M – All done and I face a dichotomy – whether to go for sleep and glance through the readings for tomorrow’s IT class. I choose the former only to be pulled out of quad by Niyaz for another(his) break. We sit out in the lawn and discuss how the day went. It is there it struck me that this discussion has been long overdue for my blog.

Thanks to Niyaz for showing up that I am writing this post. BTW, tomorrow class starts at 8:45 and it’s already 4:15. The same story awaits – wake up in morning, fight with snooze, loose, miss out coffee before the class, and ………………………

The No: 2 Phenomena !!

A close friend gave an amazing perspective and followed up with the amazing and insightful piece of adds by AVIS rental car. I generally speak about Law of Average and perhaps these adds help put the same thought in perspective.



A connected thought shared by one of the professor "Your Biggest strength is your last failure and your biggest weakness is your last success" !! The No: 2 phenomena helps tie up this argument as well into a coherent story. So the moral is that continue to chase the No. 1 and if you are No. 1 - continue to set higher standards for yourself. The moment you rest, there is always someone trying hard to catch you up !!!!

Richard Bach's - The Bridge Across Forever

I finished up reading this amazing book by Richard Bach. As much I am awed by the story, I am ever further impressed by his unique writing style and insights. Some of the things I noted are:

1. The observer funda – Richard explains something and then prints what an observer, sitting on his shoulder and taking notes would have said at that time – Rates himself and notes the reactions of the situation. An insightful way to write the conflicting parts of yours.
2. He frequently talks of things that could have happened as Alternate Future.
3. Richard writes a letter to himself – when he was 20 years younger. Wow !!
4. Touches the gate and speaks to her love lady – someday you will be touching this gate along with me.
5. Says close your eyes and think that when I open my eyes, the world that I see, the moment I live is the world that I have created. How did it happen and what led me here? Then write about it. Beautiful.
6. The only thing that shatters dreams is compromise.
7. Keep notes that capture thoughts. Turn them into stories n anecdotes. Remember n re-quote.
8. Can be a listener as well as a talker
9. Losing, in a curious way, is winning.
10. Dream lady – should complement in every manner, should have stories that you can listen forever, should listen to your stories as if it excites her to hell, you can talk to her long after the food is gone, you can listen her the whole night, may be next day. It should be mystic, mutual, and very natural. Nothing fabricated.
11. Have u ever been so happy that you could not stand it and want it to end?
12. You have money, fine. But never try to use it to buy women.

37.5% MBA

They say, by this time, the worse is over. Dean’s projected happiness curve is set to rise and as Prof. Nerkar put across, with more than 33% done, you guys are good enough to run a business now. All sounds so glamorous and scary at the same time.

Term 3 started with a buzz in the student body - with more assignments submissions than total number of days in the term, with three out of four subjects heavily quant oriented, with advice from Alumni that Term 3 is the peak of your MBA life. If I were to follow the suit, I am glad that Term 3 is behind me now.

As I normally do after each term, this post is also going to be about my comments on each of the subject we studied in this term and other major events.

• Corporate Finance: - A very interesting course and important course to understand the nuisance of capital structures followed by various companies, the divided payouts, IPO’s etc. More than anything else, as Prof. Bhubna put up – the number of terms this course provides can help shut off any normal person easily -terms such as WACC, Beta, EBIT, EBITDA, Agency Problems, Levered firms, Un-levered firms etc. I personally liked the course as it helped understand the basic concepts one should be aware off for any managerial positions.

• Operations Management: - Pretty quantitative, interesting, and practical course. I have no intentions to further my skills in Operations Management but the concepts covered here will certainly be applicable in any B2C business. On top of everything, I have developed an incessant love for all simulation games and deeply enjoyed “The LittleField Game” in this course

• Managerial Accounting and Decision Making:- One of my fav course from the term, given that this course helped understand deep hidden nuisance in cost structure that will help refine decision making process forever. This course illustrates the concepts of Sunk Costs vs Variable cost and inspires several new thoughts.

• Entrepreneurship: - Well, my top pick from the last term. I have no intentions to start my business right after MBA but as Prof. Nerkar put up, the learning will fade but the cases will stay with you for life. A very inspiring professor who certainly motivated quite a few people to pursue entrepreneurial journey. The CP style in the class – a more of debate – rocked!! This class was really the one I used to look forward to do during the term!!

Other than these, I have been engaged with my ELP work for my Pharma client. It is quite an interesting project and I like the way the project scope is shaping up. Another major event of the Term was Bandhan. I was part of the core committee for organizing Bandhan and it was one of the best days I ever spend at ISB. ISB hosted a bunch of 300 kids on Independence Day. We had spend around 2 weeks to prepare and plan everything perfectly. Student Volunteers turned out in large number. The kids from various NGO stunned ISB with their speeches (in English), with their skits, songs, dance performance, and most importantly by beating ISB Class of 2010 in tug of war competition.

As we head into shortest Term at ISB (~32 days), ISB Class of 2010 is gearing up for new set of activities that are about to start – Resume Preparations, companies visiting for placement pitch, and more students discovering their interests and hence, commencing their placement preparation. Yet, as I mentioned earlier, the happiness curve is about to go up now and hopefully their will be more time to spend on extra-curricular & parties.

Entrepreneurs and Risks !!

“You have to be risk averse to be a good entrepreneur” told my amazing professor of entrepreneurship. Sounds counter-intuitive but the real funda is that an entrepreneur thinks through everything, tried to cover himself for every aspect, and then implement his plan like hell. Same concept was reinforced in this amazing story of Mr. Sanjeev Bikhchandani, CEO of Naukri.com. Check his amazing story here. Waiting for hear directly from Mr. Bikhchandani in ISB’s Media Conclave….More to follow on this.

Demystifying the Dragon - ISB's Emerging Market Club !!!

Emerging Market Club at ISB kicked off today with an interesting speaker series from Professor Ram. Prof Ram has an interest in entrepreneurship in emerging markets and he engaged the whole audience with his vivid description of anecdotes of his experiences in China and statistical data about China / India.

He opened up the conversation by stating that he continues to consider himself a student of China since its nearly impossible to understand a complex country like China in couple of years that he has spent there. Before China, Prof. Ram spent 21 years in India, 20 years in Europe, and 4 year in US. He worked as faculty at IESE Business School in Spain (One of my fav schools). He quoted some of the comments that his colleagues made – pun intended – that he is not qualified enough to teach management if he hasn’t been to China. Prof. Ram added humor to the discussion further when he mentioned that most Chinese, especially older generations, sing Indian songs from the movie “Awara” but they invariably make it sound ‘Chinese’. Further he mentioned that China especially Shanghai offers you infrastructure of developed countries of luxuries of developing countries i.e. Housel hold help!! He reflected that he has noticed three categories of Indians – in large numbers – in China a) Indian Business People b) Indians working in Indian MNC c) Indians working in top positions for US / European MNC. He was intrigued by the third category given that you don’t find similar proportions in India. That is reflective of demand supply and comparative language advantage of Indian Managers to integrate with Global economy.

The discussion became analytical from here on and Prof. Ram showed us several key data elements for India and China, providing his analysis and inference of each. Some of the figures that I noted down include:




* Chinese market is several times bigger than India since income level is higher in China
* Technology Diffusion: China has 10 times fixed landlines, 1.5 times mobiles. 4 times internet users
* Almost all women in China are working, huge labor force. Literacy, Healthcare, and gender equality drove the Chinese economy & were not a result of the growth.

India’s Advantages

1.Democracy – Slow but sustainable
2.Free Press
3.Younger Population – Advantage if employment gets up
4.Economy is dependent on Private Initiative
5.Lower Dependence on Foreign trade (37% vs 62%)
6.Stronger in Pharma & IT ( IT China – 8 Billion vs. 40 Billion)

India’s Disadvantages
1.Literacy
2.Healthcare for masses – Innovate at top but not for masses
3.Gender Equality
4.Fiscal Position – P & L statement
5.Infrastructure – Airports in 2/3 tier better than Delhi. Huge investment in Railways
6.Speed of political decision making
7.Manufacturing Costs – Gap is narrowed, if India moves quickly, we can expand a lot. Labor cost of china is going up as impact of single child is coming up. Labor environmental legislation that increases Chinese cost n leadership things cost based strategy is not sustainable.

Challenges to open business
1.Language
2.Unstructured business environment – Negotiation and Indian people are equipped. American/European are not.
3.Communication in queues – Seating arrangement in Dinner, Chinese will never say no, as they don’t want you to loose face.
4.Networking – Difficult for Chinese do business with stranger. They want to know you first.

Key Trends
1.Composition of Entrepreneurship is changing – More first generation, self motivated, young people opening start-ups on their own choice rather than opportunity driver model earlier.
2.In China, imitation with brief innovation leads to be good enough product to keep international MNC’s at bay. This is primarily due to the language factor e.g. Baidu, Tudou (Chinese Youtube), Dangdand. These companies although providing similar features to MNC, hold around 80% of Chinese market share.
3.In both the countries, growth in knowledge industry that requires less capital is also leading to more first generation entrepreneurs.
4.Growth of PE/ VC Investments in happening India and China. Early stage VC invests more in China than in India because it has higher diffusion of technology (Mobiles, Telephones, and Internet).

In all it was quite an informative and learning experience. I enjoyed the Dragon ride and hope to visit the country in near future. Hearing someone sing Chinese “Awara Hoon” would be pretty cool :P !!

PACIS Conference at ISB !!!

'PACIS conference was conducted for first time at ISB during July. Interesting set of events where Panel discussions were conducted among industry leaders from IT sector. I prepared a brief scribe of a panel discussion conducted by Mr. Bipin Paracha & Mr. Narsimha N'

On the third and the final day of PACIS conference, Professor Nishtha opened up the panel discussion introducing Mr. Bipin Paracha from Wipro & Mr. Narsimha N from Infosys. Professor Nishtha laid down the background of linear growth of employee count and revenues for Indian IT firms, an unsustainable business. Hence, the topic of the discussion was – Indian IT: Moving up the value chain.

Mr. Bipin Paracha (Wipro)

Mr. Bipin provided his insights into how the role of Indian IT is changing over time. He mentioned that IT has transformed from providing the ‘Mainframe’ oriented solutions to ‘helping businesses perform’ better. Prof. Nishtha then enquired about Wipro Consultancy and the acceptance of the same among the corporate. Mr. Bipin provided an excellent framework for Wipro Consulting position:-

Value Chain Progress path: - Provider > Contributor > Facilitator > Advisor > Change Agent

Further, Mr. Bipin emphasized the Wipro Brand has played a significant role in getting acceptance for Wipro Consultancy among clients. Along with Indian clients, Wipro Consulting is getting increased traction in Australia where bigger markets in US & UK still relate Wipro with only IT. However, Mr. Bipin was optimistic about a gradual diffusion process in these markets.

Mr. Narsimha N (Infosys)

To start with, Mr. Narsimha provided an account of gradual progression of Infosys. Initially, the company started as a cost arbitrage, with quality and quantity as its distinctions. However, the organization later realized the pivotal important to add more value to businesses and hence, moved from technology focus to Business solution provider. They focused o capturing the space before the execution stage that includes the elements of problem identification, problem solutions, and solution design.

Mr. Narsimha also mentioned that due to past success stories of solution implementation, Infosys holds an advantage over companies such as Accenture, as end-to-end solution implementers. He also suggested that within next 5-7 years, different Indian IT providers will differentiate in different capabilities and will offer a wide array of services.

Later, Mr. Narsimha also provided his insights about the growing trends in Industry due to emerging use of Profit revenue sharing model, where IT companies hold a stake in the game. For instance, TCS is conducting the Indian Passport project where TCS gets Rs.200 for every passport issued. These types of projects will bring more accountability and increased role of IT companies in various businesses.

Finally, before closing of the discussion, Mr. Narsimha reflected upon the opportunities provided by global recession. As industries change fundamentally and seek opportunities for cost reduction, it’s up to IT companies to up the ante and provide avenues for businesses to do so.

ISB Essay Analysis & Tips

Just thinking for a rare moment about the world outside ISB, especially about the aspirants who are eager to transition from the world outside to the universe inside ISB, I reflected on the Essays posted by ISB this time. I have taken a shot at analysis of these essays and hopefully will help some of the potential candidates.

Here you go:

Essay 1

Give 3 reasons as to why you should be selected to the class of 2011. These reasons should ideally differentiate you from the applicant pool and should be backed with some data. (300 words max)

This essay is direct challenge to candidates to state three to-the-point and specific things why ISB should worry about your candidacy and read your application any further. The fact that ISB has specifically asks for data to back up your claims demonstrates that you need to be direct in your approach and provide examples of your claims.

Explore your finest accomplishments and fit the best three here. It is important to maintain a fine balance among the points you choose. A good balance will consist of Professional demonstrating your uniqueness, Extra-Curricular manifesting your leadership potential, and Academic / Personal stories that personify you. You also need to consider that peer learning is a crucial aspect at ISB. While words will be scare, you also need to succinctly cover the ground about how each of your accomplishment will add value to your peers at ISB. Such corroboration and direct connection to ISB’s resources will provide a much more coherent view to your stories. Also, remember to take care of the overall structure of the essay through a short and crisp opening statement and a coherent & impressive ending statement.

Being the first essay, you need to create an impact on the reader and give her an “Aha” moment that makes her interested in you at the onset.

Essay 2

Describe a challenging assignment you have handled (at work or outside) to date. What were the challenges and how did you handle them. What were the personal learnings you derived from this assignment. (300 words max)

It is recommended to pick up a professional story either if you belong to non-traditional background (chance to score points on diversity) or if you handled a really challenging situation. If you have compelling story from your extracurricular, it will click as well. Many a times, in extracurricular setting you deal with people who have no formal obligation to respond to your initiatives. Such stories speak volume about your ability to influence people. The objective of this essay is to demonstrate your ability to take ownership, handle ambiguity to bring focus on the problem at hand, and take corrective measures to achieve your objective. Try to reflect to stories where you lead / contributed out of turn to a team rather than a stand alone accomplishment. Also, remember that a key challenge in this essay will also be to avoid repletion from the already stated stories in the first essay.

As for the structure of your response, read the question carefully as the structure is already inculcated in it. Follow the START framework (S – Situation, T – Tasks, A – Actions, R- Results, T- Takeaway) to craft your response. Don’t forget to devote a good chunk of space to the personal learning because the chances are that most of the candidates will come up with solid stories, it’s your learning and self-reflection that will give Adcom a peek into your personality.

Essay 3

Briefly assess your career progression till date along with your assessment of your future career goals. Discuss how your career goals will be met by the ISB’s one year program. (300 words max)

Aha! Finally, ISB has also come with a standard goal essay in sync with most global business schools. Ideally this essay is asked in 750-1000 words by most schools and ISB once again compels you to draft story of your lifetime in 300 words. Fun, isn't it.

While the structure is implied in the response, remember to address adequately each of the following five components:

Career Progression: Detail your career progression while keeping an eye on your goals and keep your theme limited to the same.

Goals (Short Term & Long Term): Be as specific as possible. Your short term goal shall be tangible and direct. Explore school's website or your contacts within ISB to find out exact positions offered at ISB and stick to the same. Further, avoid putting a blanket statement in your long term goal. If you came up with "I want to be CEO of XYZ Company" you need to think deeper.

Why MBA: If you have done good job in the above two section, you must have created a void by now that only a MBA education can fill in. Bring out the specific things you need from MBA that will bring you closer to your goals and this piece shall further your candidacy.

Why Now: It is extremely important to bring a crisp argument about why you think now is the right time for you. Don't make the mistake to leave a gap for Adcom to think that you need another year or two before coming to ISB.

Why ISB: Goes without saying, this aspect is extremely important and will speak volumes about your passion for ISB. An ideal strategy is to connect ISB's resources - Academic programs, Clubs, and Special programs to your specific needs. Attempt to write a paragraph with each sentence containing something unique about ISB.

Again, remember to take care of the overall structure of the essay through a short and crisp opening statement and a coherent ending exclamation statement.

Wish you Gud Luck! Interesting times await....

*Note - My analysis for ISB as well as for other international schools can be found at General Education's website as well. Click here to view the same.

From an INFOSCION to a POLITICION - Nandan's Chronicles!!

"An absolutely brilliant write up. I love the subtle message in the note :)"

Continuing my tryst with capturing the life and times of Nandan Nilekani in his new avatar as a Cabinet Minister, here is what he had penned after his first day in the Parliament. The last entry stopped when the House was just about to begin. Let’s see what happened thereafter….

The House was in pin drop silence. I was brimming with anticipation and excitement!!!! Manmohan had informed me that my introduction was one of the important points of the agenda. I hoped that I will be able to make my speech properly. After so many interviews and conferences, I was nervous today!!!! After the Speaker indicated that the proceedings of the House could begin, Manmohan formally introduced me to the entire House. He mentioned that as the head of the Unique Identification Authority of India, I was responsible to ensure that each and every Indian had a digital smart card as a proof of his existence.

Manmohan spoke about why I was selected and also some references to the various projects executed by me in Infosys were mentioned. The House listened with rapt attention. I was asked to say a few words and I did exactly the same!!! I thanked the Government of India for having given me this opportunity and I assured the House that I would strive to successfully deliver this project. The Speaker then formally inducted me into the House and before the proceedings could move any forward, there was a small commotion on the other side of the hall.

It was Minister of Textiles who had a comment to make before the next point on the agenda. He made a request that I should be attired in a more austere way instead of a flashy suit. It did not go well with the image of a minister who should live to serve the common man and should be less ostentatious in his habits. I stood up to reply. I offered my apologies to the Honourable Minister and assured that I shall be in a more acceptable dress next time. I felt that he was right. We also used to have corporate dress code in Infosys. So it's here as well!!!!

I sat down and felt somebody nudging me. I turned around and to my surprise; it was the former Indian skipper and one of my favourite batsman Mohd. Azharuddin. I remembered that he had recently won the elections. I smiled at him and mentioned to him that I used to like his game very much, shaking his hand. No Rolex, I noticed. Azhar told me that he would “fix” me an appointment with an Italian designer who had designed his dapper Kurta suit. An Italian designer in Milan doing Kurtas!!!!! I made a note of this and reminded myself to give this example to Friedman for his next book,” The World Markets are flattened”.

Since there was no doubt about the “Fixational” capacities of Azhar, I told him to give me the details and I would consider. The proceedings of the House went on with numerous bills being debated and passed as I sat as a passive audience waiting for my project’s turn to come up. After the lunch break, it was the moment for me!!!!

MY PROJECT”S FIRST REVIEW CAME UP FOR PRESENTATION.

I was at sea. My laptop did not have any reserve power. I went to Manmohan and apprised him of the situation. I was sweating. He calmly replied that this would not be a cause of concern. I was flummoxed!!!! The Speaker asked me to explain to the House on what were my plans for the Unique Identity Project. I replied that I have a plan prepared for 30-60-90-120 days’ milestones and I have presentation to make for which I need a power socket, a projector and a screen. I had no idea what was going to happen after this.

The next couple of minutes were a complete jolt for me. I was completely in a tizzy. Let me just summarize what happened. A Joint Cabinet Secretary Committee was set up to judge the feasibility of my request. The Under Secretaries for the Ministries of Power, IT and Broadcasting will prepare a Viability Report after scrutinizing National Security threats to my request. This was because the power socket comes under Power, laptop comes under IT and projector comes under Broadcasting. I have also been told to reconsider my timelines of 30-60-90 days and start thinking in terms of years. Probably, they are right. I did not have the foresight in this matter.

The summary of the issue is that I need to come up with a more inclusive, democratic, comprehensive long term plan for this project to be executed over the next five years. I have also been given a presentation slot 3 months from now (by which the issues related to the power cord etc will also be resolved). I am filled with mixed reactions. I was planning for a quick resolution; the management wants a strategic solution. I come out of the House and text Murthy.

“You won’t believe it but these guys work just like us. I am on a NATIONAL BENCH for the next three months!!!!!!!!”

10 Things MBA school's don't teach you about Start-Ups

In midst of Term3 and while studying fascinating course in Eunterpreneurship, I came across this article.

I guess it would be an overstatement that B-schools don't teach you these aspects. Infact, if you are truely eunterpreneurial, you can't be taught the aspects that define an eunterpreneur - the zeal to execute & ability to manage the uncertainity. Atleast, ISB does a fair job in order to make cognizant of these facts and rest, I trust is up to you !!

25% MBAed - ISB way !!

We are 25% MBA’s now. It time to celebrate!! While the whole campus has gone crazy with parties, I choose to travel back home to take some off. I am celebrating in my own way, through an intense 16 hour sleep schedule at my home. Parents are little concerned with my sleep timings and worry whether this is what I do at as well ISB. 20 Lakh for sleeping is little too much:P. Really, time flies at ISB. I heard that so many times, but its one thing to hear and another to experience the same. Many of us have been caught by surprise that Term 2 has already ended. Most of the people still remember the flow of Term 1 and connect back to things that happened there. But how exactly did Term 2 progress? Everyone thinks they hardly ever interacted with people sitting next to them in Term 2. There was hardly any gap between Mid Terms and End Terms. It’s like just yesterday when we spend 16 hours locked in a room understanding that Mark Start !! How come we ended so soon? Here is the brief snapshot of what all happened in Term 2 – as much as I vaguely remember!

In terms of Academics, Term 2 will always be remembered as Mark Strat and DMOP term. Two subject where opportunities to learn were immense yet the workload ensured that we succumb to just keeping pace with latest assignment submissions of these subjects. Personally, I really enjoyed the MarkStrat game. I think it helped me conceptualize everything taught in the class and it helped that we did well overall in the game. Given the addictive nature of the game, I am looking forward to participate in E-Strat – the global competition in the game. DMOP was a tough for me as for any non-engineers. Many engineers on campus were actually hiding their identity as engineers – such was the impact of the subject. Understandably the concepts taught in the subject have significant applications once we move to real world but most of us, looking towards marketing or strategy as career options, think we would not be directly involved in Operation related activities. Now coming to the subject that I and perhaps the whole campus loved and learnt most – Competitive Strategy!! Our section was unfortunate to miss out as we didn’t get Mr. Prashant Kale as our prof during first half but we were compensated with even better option – Mr. Harbir Singh. Each of 10 classes of CompStrat covered a case and opened up new dimensions for each of us. Whether it was about Potler’s five forces, or Cost based advantage of Southwest or Sustaining C.A. case for Wal-Mart – everything was so fascinating. The best part of each case was that we used to put over selves on a layer higher that CEO and analyze each and every move the CEO. No wonder Strategy Consulting is most sought after profession among MBA’s. My final comments on the fourth subject – Macro Economics! Excellent subject with huge implication of decoding the complex terminologies of Capital Markets, Labor Productivity, Debt-to-Equity Ratio, Free Trade etc. Economic Times has started way more sense now and I realize how superficial was my reading of ET earlier and what depth I used to miss. Also, I believe Macro Economics may not be of immediate use in short term for our careers but going forward, understanding Macro Economics concepts will be required to take decisions about operating any firm.

Along with these aspects, the number other activities took place at Campus in Term 2. I wish I could write on details of each. GSB Core and extended Core has been formulated, all CLUBs are functional now, already couple of conferences have been held at ISB, the bidding for Exchange Programs is over and many of CMs have got their first choice of exchange programs, ELP projects have already been declared and we have submitted our EOI for the same, ICON – Internal Consulting Initiative of ISB has also been kick started, LDP – Leadership Development Programs are also in progress, B-Plan competition preparations have started among several groups, Section Wise competitions for Relay Race, Swimming, Football took place and my section did well overall, number of Alumni have been pouring on campus to guide us further, and etc etc. It’s amazing how we manage to pull off all these activities along with on-going pressure of studies. I think this will be the biggest take away from ISB. Nothing will seem impossible or even difficult after this. You just need to jump into the waters and you are sure to find your way out.

All said n done, I think there is a huge conspiracy going in time theory. I think someone is manipulating against me and my holidays back home are getting expired quickly. I have mixed feeling while heading back to ISB to face the toughest term at ISB – Term 3. Nevertheless, I will be just matter of few hours (at least that’s what it appears) that Term 3 will be over and I will be writing a similar write up for 37.5% MBAed !!

ISB Application for Class of 2011

ISB Application for next class and it reminds of the applicant days. You will read essays, chew them multiple times, and digest them thinking you got it. Then again, some butterflies in stomach, and you are back to chewing part. Again! Again! It happened to me all the time. Before coming to ISB, writing essays was the best experience I went through. You get to traverse through so much, learn about yourself, about the school, and everything else in life. At the best, the essay you end up after numerous reviews is very different than what you chewed it for. All the best to all applicants for this year! It’s not going to be an easy job but trust me you don’t want an easy task as well. That’s why you choose this track. Good luck!

Luck vs. Logic!!!

I had an interesting experience today in my Marketing Strategy class that reminded me of the movie Ajnabee in which Akshay Kumar makes well calculated moves, and bases everything on perfect logic but still losses out to Bobby Deol who bases his moves on sheer “Itefaq” in win-loose game. We were asked by our professor to play a game. The rules of the game were that each person has to write a number on the paper between 0-100. Anyone who writes a number equivalent to 0.7 of the class average will win the game.

Did you catch the caveat! You know that everyone else is trying to win and hence try to put across a number that is 0.7 time of what other will think will the winning number. The concept the Prof was trying to push across was to think the rationality of the competition and understand the level to which we should try to go before killing each other. Imagine this number was your profit margin and with this win-loose situation whole industry is going to crash. Anyways, back to the game. I applied my rationality that most people will think till three steps – 0.7 * 0.7 * 0.7 * 100 ~35 (we were to write in whole numbers). I decided to go one step deeper to win and came up with 25. I wasn’t still convinced as I thought i can’t win at 25. First because many people will write 25 and second, some people will be just 2 steps deeper and some will be 4. I trusted my class to be more rational than me and decided to push my no: from 25 to 27 to accommodate the increase in average the 2-level-deep rational people will cause. I applied my logic and was eagerly waiting for results. Results were announced & class average was 26. I missed by a whisker.

A quite shy guy, Manoj, sitting next to me emerged as the winner. He was the only one to write 26 in the whole class. Wow, I thought my logic was pretty close but he did better. I was fairly satisfied though until I happened to talk to Manoj how exactly he came up with 26 and here’s what he said that left me dumb-folded. “My b’day is on 13th and its extremely lucky for me. I submitted my ISB application on 13th, interviewed on 13th as well. Numerous times, it has paid off to me. So, I was sure that I will be putting any number as a multiple of 13. 13, 26 & 39 were the only options since I know people here will go for a kill. I choose the middle one and it worked. That’s it”. As simple as that and he defeated me!

I may sound too committed to win above. The story is just a little anecdote but think of other issues we face. We put across our best foot forward to learn & win something but things work out in favor of someone who’s thought process was completely radical. Logic vs. Luck - isn’t it. I realize that we may complicate ourselves as much as we can but the true beauty of life lies in simplicity. Many times things are not in our control beyond a limit, and it’s best to leave those elements at the fence and move forward. Accepting and consciously living this fact that luck has a role to play in our lives makes life lot easy to understand, live, and love.

Term 2 --- What a fun!!

Term 2 started with interesting set of subjects and lot of twists to the cliché of assignment, quiz, and exam followed across all subjects. We are breaking heads with Marketing Strategy, Competitive Strategy, Macro Economics, and DMOP this time.

Unarguably, the sheer amount of coursework and difficult level of courses such as DMOP has truly tested the mettle of the student. Mark Strategy is an addictive, time sucking, and most interesting game ever made in this world, Comp Strategy never stops surprising you with tougher and tougher cases, Macro Economics every time makes me think how much information I used to miss while reading all those Economic Times articles, and last perhaps most importantly, DMOP – a subject that has made all non-engineers give up and all engineers, increasingly hide their identity as “so-called-comfortable-with-number” fellows. A quant oriented subject, DMOP has continued to give night mares to everyone at campus.

I will be writing more about the current terms, especially on MarkStrat in the posts to follow!

ISB Updates - Term 1

Terrible. That’s the word. That’s simply the perfect word that truly resonates with my bloging, about my performance in terms of my ISB life updated. It’s not the case that I didn’t want to write. I am tempted to think that I couldn’t write because of time crunch although I am not totally convinced. One thing ISB has clearly taught me is that there is always time for what you want to do. The bigger challenge is to identify the same, and devote your time to “important” and not “urgent” things. I think I have failed to do so, atleast as far as bloging is concerned.

There is so much to write and say about my life at ISB. I see my last post around a month back and world has literally turned around in these 30 days. As I believe that fun of writing is to cover it while fresh and virgin, I wouldn’t be able to delve much in past.

Some quick updates:

Term 1 ended: I was a proud 12.5% MBA as Term1 ended with a bang. Term 1 was pretty relaxed (Relatively) and we touched upon the Micro Economics, Finance, Marketing, and Statistical subjects. Each subject at that time seemed to be independent of each other but with wider subjects such as Competitive Strategy picking up in this term, it is beginning to make sense.

Term Break: Hell broke loose at campus as soon as Term 1 got over. Parties, Music, booze, food, and energy flew across the campus. There were back to back night long parties, numerous club events, etc. A perfect time to catch up on sleep, to just hang around, and have a good time!!

So much other things have passed by. GSB core team was formed and all Club core teams have been formed. I have picked up a position in General Management Club to handle Alumni Affairs. More importantly, I am going to join Dance classes by “Shiamak Davars Dance Academy”. Really excited about it!! I am getting good at Squash, and also hope to learn something about Spanish and French culture from International Club at ISB. Over past 1 month, our section has put in a lot of effort to stick together and we have had some wonderful parties at Class of ’08 lounge, Pot lock parties etc. The informal small group of HKP@ISB that composes of 12-15 most notorious people around the campus is getting tightly bonded and with the pace we are going, there will be a hell lot to write about the same in future.

That’s all for now!! I know time is going conspire against me to take me away from my bloging. But I am determined to conquer the devil this time. I have used technology as a tool, my calendar to remind me of bloging twice a week. I am definite to make this change this time and live these wonderful moments at ISB forever via my posts.

Minto's Principle !!!

Its amazing, the pace with which everything is happening here !! Last weekend for Term 1 and I face daunting task of surviving another Exams - this time end term. The pleasant side to look at it is the 5 day break after Term 1 and Ahahaa !! Life will be back on track, at least for some time. Lot more to ramble about yet a ever lasting time crunch constraints me to go on.

This blog is supposed to be Concise, Inductive, and Deductive well reasoned. I know its not and can't be so. Ideally, I should be introducing you to a structured writing technique that happens to be my key learning for the day. You think in a pyramid that starts with a theme at top, a set of inductive questions in the second layer, and finally well reasoned and thoughtful elements based on deductive reasoning based on facts at the third layer. I learned about this - Minto's Pyramid - in my today's interactive session with Deloitte Alums and Speakers. So much to take away from this place !!!

I am gonna close here. I know I haven't done justice to the subject through this brief write up. I will definitely come back to revisit this link. If interested, you can check out Minto's Principle here

General Management Club – Interactions with Alumni from Microsoft!!

We conducted our first Alum Interaction session last week with two alums, Surya Shastri (Co2003) and Rao Korupolu (Co2008), both from Microsoft who shared their insights about the role and work of Program Management at Microsoft. First, Surya and Rao detailed their profile and typical work day. Later, they took time to patiently address queries from students. Around 80-100 students attended the informative meet and provided real good feedback about the same.

Some of the key excerpts from the Q & A session including Alumni response are:

• Microsoft has four divisions in India that include sales and marketing, consulting, program management, and product planning. At Microsoft in the Program Management roles, you will get opportunity to work across multiple functions such as legal, marketing, finance, corporate planning, sales, etc

• Not everything in each business is done from India. Hence the overall picture of the business will not be pretty clear from India.

• When it comes to placements is what you have done before and not what you have done here at ISB. They look for what’s transferable from past, can you solve real world problems.

• An important question was asked on Work life balance and the Alums provided real good picture of life at Microsoft. Of course they agreed there may be difficult times but that’s not the order of the day.

• Surprisingly, the Program Management role does not entail P & L responsibility.

• Microsoft conducts 4-5 back to back interviews and goes at length to hire candidate.

• During interview short list, they look for clear stand out things in CV, brand names from school help, leadership stuff in CV, and it can be little harder for people not from technology backgrounds.

• Differentiation at ISB vs. IIM: - Several ladder levels within Program Management. The SVP of Windows and a Software Development Engineer joined the same time in 1985. IIM guy with 1 year experience would need lot more years to reach the level experienced guys will be hired. Interviewers will put everyone in the right place.

• What applies from ISB – You get very good at asking good question via MBA. You may not have answers though.

• Negotiating during interview – Do your job, ace your interview, 5-6 round of interviews, don’t worry about things such as salary n all. Microsoft takes care!! Don’t worry about that.

Overall it was an interesting start to learning experience from ISB via General Management Club and will continue to. I hope I will do a better job at reporting the same next time  !!

6.25% MBA Completed!!

Geeky stuff to list, 6.25% MBA complete but I couldn’t find a better subject to enlist the roller coaster ride till now. ISB loves to take exams – once every 3 weeks and that means we are going to take exams 16 times over a period of ~11 months. After completing the first 6.25%, it’s such a nice feeling. We passed through the intense times of handling the quizzes, assignments, and those tricky questions in term exams. Once done, we celebrated. Big time!! On a single day, 4 parties were going on in parallel. We partied till dawn and then, for the first time, the exams look well worth

Looking forward it appears that every moment this ride is picking up speed. Sometime the speed is imposed by assignments, exams, and quizzes. Other times the speed is self imposed via parties, outbound activities, and sports/fun activities. I strongly feel that if ISB is going to inculcate something common among all the 579 students, it’s sure going to be the spirit to “Work Hard & Party Harder”…and I am looking forward towards to eventual intensity with gleaming eyes!!