What I want out of my MBA?

When I started this blog I asked Same Question to me and now after getting into the India’s top most B School I am asking same question to myself. What I want out of my MBA?

You will say what the hell I am doing by thinking on this? After all I got into IIMA and anyways with two years of rat race I will end up with some decent CG (looking at my mugging skill record and my score labels) and some decent job from campus and I will live happily……so I shouldn’t think much and just chill and relax to prepare myself so to stay ahead in this race.

Same thing was told to me when I meet a tuchcha (senior IIMA student) and asked him my queries on life in IIMA. In his words “What world (companies) look in guy from IIMA is not how much he knows or how much he learnt but where he stands among others? So if you want to end in good companies make sure you will always stay ahead”

Thanks a lot friend for giving me ground reality before entering on battle ground. I always appreciate a healthy competition that always help you to improve but sometimes I seen this competition become so intense that you don’t look beyond the marks and grades and you start compromising on your learning. Same thing happened with me when I spend my four years in engineering.

I am expecting my management career to change this equation. I am looking my MBA as value addition not merely in terms of CG I got or fat pay packages I earned after two years but something that equips me with capability to face anything in life. It should equip me with abilities to grow up in my area of interest which I choose not by chance but my choice,

After all I don’t want to feel that my MBA was by choice but my career by chance.

Admit 06 : IIM I .....Late But Correct

Now you will think what's great in IIM I is getting added in my list of MBA Admits? If you refer my previous post I was 100% sure about my IIM I and IIM K admits but wondered when I haven't found my name in IIM I's list.

It was not a big blow for me as I already had big A on my list but somewhere it had shaken my confidence. After having best among the all IIM's GD/PI performance I had never expected this but somehow I managed to accept it.

But thanks to Tejas who told me that it was the mistake on IIMI site which caused a SORRY message and when entered the DOB in yy format he seen me also getting through IIM I.

That's nice bonus to raise my IIM count by one. I am ACLIK now (I am damn sure there is no such case with IIM B as I was already ruled out on my day of PI :) )

Nothing Taste Sweeter Than a Deserving Success

12th April was be one of the memorial days of my life. The day started at 12.00 AM sharp and IIM C came up with their list of final admits. This was the first IIM to declare it’s GD/PI results also. I entered my number and congratulation message popped up. Yes I got into India’s one of the best B school. It was really a great joy. It was 1.00 AM in night and I even couldn’t call at my home so shared the joy with friends. Then I was anxiously waiting for IIM A and IIM B results to get out but these guys made me to wait further. I waited last 3 years for this day and to wait for even 3 hours was unbearable for me. I tried sleeping but all attempts were in vain.
It was not a usual morning for me. I waked up before my doodwala bhaiyya came to ring my door bell. No signs for A and B results on their sites. I know these guys will declare them in their office time which is not going to start before 9.00. So I used this time to make up my mind and also called many friends and family members and told them that I am least bother about A and B results as now I have one in top 3 with me.

But actually I was not. When you come to such stage and you are sure you deserve the best your mind fails to settle for anything else. Mine was same case.

While refreshing PG n number of times I got the IIM A results link.The page was taking time to load and my heart beats crossed 100 meanwhile. When I entered the number my hands were badly shaking. And I pressed GO what come on screen after that ……

You have been selected for admission to PGP (2006-2008 batch), IIMA.

I jumped with joy….tears roll over my cheeks and last 3 years of preparation passed in front of my eyes in that one moment.

A chap who studied in Marathi medium school up to 12th in a remote place….had already tasted what the failure is in his NTSE and IIT attempts. Whenever he talked in English people use to laugh on his ascent and funny grammar. He came to know about the CAT in his second year of engineering. He never thought he ever crack it so neglected it next 2 years. But after giving NITIE exam he thought he will surely crack the CAT one day. The day came after 3 years. Meanwhile he had been not even selected in any of the top B-School. He never wanted to settle for anything than top B-School. Every time he failed, he waked up with determination to stand there firm. And he finally had done it……

This is snapshots of my journey to IIM A but it will surely not complete without my track record and I am proud to share it with you.

YEAR 2003
Given NITIE --> Out in written test.
CAT 2003 -->77 percentile.
JMET -->Rank 3400 +
Kicked out by FMS, IIFT, NITIE in written test only

YEAR 2004
CAT 2004 -->88 percentile
JMET -->Rank 1965
Kicked out by FMS, IIFT, NITIE in written and IRMA in GD/PI

YEAR 2006
CAT 2005 --> 99.71 Percentile with BLACKI + NITIE

CONVERTED: ACLK + NITIE

I used to say “Beauty of dreams lies in the dreams itself but now the beauty I seen after this success cannot be described in words”

I owed my success to my friends, my family members whose confidence on me always boost my moral and yes the almighty who always there to bless me.

Admit 03:04:05: IIM A + IIM L + IIM K

Here comes few more admits and yes the best one I was anxiously waiting for
IIM A..

The dream come true performance :)

IIM B kicked me as expected......IIM I was shocking to me but why I should worry when I have WIMWI with me.

Will post the detail reaction very soon.....

Admit 02 : IIM C

The day I was waiting over last 3 years had come.......never thought I ever crack into the India's top 3 B-Schools.....but finally my hardwork paid off....

IIM C results declared and me sailed through in PGDM.

Now waiting for IIM B and IIM A

Two stories on the eve of IIM results

The last few days were just gone in dormant mood. But I thought I need to wake up before the IIM final result will give me a wake up call. After the 3 long years of the waiting I am expecting a birth in some top management institutes in India. But meanwhile under the clouds of the B-school ranking, hefty pay packages and lucrative international offers somehow I missed my path and forget after all MBA is nothing other than education and became one of those who look it as remedy of all the worries and that itself created the biggest worry that I will be in or out. Questions like will I be in top three? Why not IIM A? What if all IIM say me thank you and try best next time? popped up in my mind.

While wandering on net while waiting for the results, I got some good read on the eve of my IIM results. These two examples are people who not only believe in their dreams but also followed them.

Meet Alwin the PagalGuy who once rejected by four IIMs, belived in his dreams, rejected MDI, started the famous Pagalguy.com and became youngest Indian ever to get in Wharton.

Meet Sarath Babu IIM A passed out who like to follow the entrepreneur path other than safe corporate career.

This are really inspiring examples especially for a person like me who is struggling to hold his patients.

After reading these stories what I had done last week? I visited many temples around not to lobby for my seat in IIMs but to ask God to give me courage to face my results if there is anything bad stored for me and also give me strength to keep my feet firm on ground if anything good happening in coming days.

My Vision, Mission and Values.

When I started this Blog, there were few things I want to focus in my future posts. In one of my previous post I started a Self Management exercise to weed out some problems in my personality and to excel in self-management. The reason for this initiative was every good thing should start from you and excellence in management is also one of it. But somehow this initiative took back seat due to my indulgence in CAT GD/PI preparation. Thanks to my self-analysis and mistakes I committed until now I came to know about the holes in my personality and feel strong urge to work on them.

I was just thinking on from where I should start but thanks to the pondering mentioned in my last post, which helped me to start from defining vision, mission and values for myself. Someone of you might feel that I am going one step further by disclosing this publicly but reason do so is crystal clear, I just want all of your to know it so in case I digress from my way you will help me to come back on track.

Vision:

With continuous learning and optimization approach live a life such as God should proud on his creation.

Mission

To equip myself with knowledge and skill to build a successful career which will enable me with ability and power to serve the society.

Values

1. Continuous learning and building a complete personality.
2. To optimize under given circumstances to perform at best.
3. Knowing, accepting and learning and developing approach.
4. Affecting the conditions rather than getting affected by it.
5. Strengthening myself so as I can effectively help others in need.

Vision, Mission, Values do they really add value?

One of the difficult exercises I done last one month was to remember the vision, mission and value statements of various IIMs and my last and present employer.
While mugging these flashy statements an obvious question popped up in my mind, how much value these statements add to an organization? That time I didn’t looked beyond mugging them but thanks to Gita Piramal’s Smart Leadership I realized the real importance to an organization.

While reading Becoming Great an essay in above book by Dr. S Ramadorai of TCS who aptly describes the importance of these statements to align individual interest with the common interest of an organization, my view to look towards these statements changed drastically. One more important thing I noticed about these statements is, it better for any organization to define them at right time. From my opinion such right time is when you are starting a new setup or restructuring your organization. I am not at all agreed that you can introduce these statement any time and force employees to accept them. The onus lies on the shoulder of the leader not only to make sure these statements should reach to each and every employee but also they should get reflected through their every action.

After getting aware about the importance of these statements I realized if I define these statements for SPANDAN it will be surely helpful. The result was after pondering over this for1 hr in my train journey to Mumbai I came up with Vision, Mission and Values statement for SPANDAN. Now my next responsibility is to take steps so that they will reach at every SPANDAN member very soon.

Thinking on same line an idea came up in my mind that could an individual have these statements? If I go by my above statement of aligning interest how an individual can get benefited with these statements? In organization context there these statements are helpful as everyone have different vision and they help to achieve the convergence of these vision. If you look at personal front each one of us have different mission at different time of our life. Our vision gets change with time and many times we found ourselves lack of values or compromising with our values. This all result into diverting from our mission. So having clearly defined mission, vision and value statements will surely help oneself in journey of his life. So one more exercise for me to define these statements for myself and I am thinking this is right time to do so as I am going through one big transformation in my life. Very soon you will find my mission, vision and value statement on this page, which will surely help you to define your own statements. I hope you will enjoy this exercise. After all it’s not of anyone else’s but for your own benefit.