New Year, New Journey, New Destinations!!

It’s been long time since I have posted anything on this blog. The reason is obvious. I have nothing great to share and I refrained from posting anything that would impact sanctity of this blog. Over the last few years this blog served as inspiration for students who wanted to fulfill their MBA dream against all odds. Thanks for many of yours encouraging comments in pasts which made me to feel good about my writing effort.

Once a recruiter asked me a question, can you tell me about myself that can’t be described on my CV? I told him that achievements on my CV are like milestones in my ‘dream journey’. When I look back when I was in school I dreamed to become best engineer. I dreamed for IIT and landed up in COEP. Then I dreamed to get my MBA from best b-school and ended up at IIMA. It wasn’t an easy journey but what made it more interesting were my dreams and my faith in them.

The reason for not writing is I stopped dreaming (or in other words I was dreaming for wrong things :) ). You won’t believe but last few years I was in the mode of optimization. I optimized my performance in MBA, my job choice and even many more things. This overshadowed my ‘dreamy mind’.

….and then I asked myself a question what’s my FINAL DESTINATION? Do a consulting career in USA or a swanky corporate job back home? The answer wasn’t any of this and I started dreaming again. Only difference is this time I am dreaming to make DIFFERENCE!

I am resting my pen for this blog and you can catch my New Dream, New Journey, New Destination at my blog Dream A Day. Best wishes for new year!

Alvida Ahmedabad !!!

Finally its time to say bid adieu to Ahmedabad !!!

Every good thing have to end and so is my stay at the WIMWI. The place gave me more than what I asked.

Today when I was wandering around with my clearance form my legs were not moving with the usual speed. I was not whistling my favorite music tune while passing through 132 feet underpass. When I took the final sign on the form it was all ended !!! I looked at LKP and it took me down my memory lanes.

A guy had a dream to do MBA, he was not sure where that dream will take him. One thing he was sure that he would not settle anything other than the best. His efforts got paid off after 3 years of hard work and perseverance. He got admission to none other than Best B-School. All this made IIMA a far more valuable for him than anyone else and today the same thing is making it more difficult for him while he is leaving this place.

The two years here are really great time of my life. Though I am leaving all that behind to move ahead the memories will always remain with me.

Alvida Ahmedabad !!! Alvida IIMA :)

Delighted with Deloitte :)

The suspense on my placements ended on Saturday when I got the Deloitte offer. I happily accepted it without doing some more shopping around :)

I never had a dream company in my mind. What I had is Dream Profile which I would like to work on after my MBA. This profile got a shape through 2 years of my MBA. I will be getting was I dreamed for. My love for strategy and passion for consulting career finally got paid off.

I will be working at the Deloitte India's office at Hyderabad in Strategy & Operations Consulting division. Though I will be missing Amachi Mumbai and Pune, I am planning to compensate it over next 2 months.

What I will be doing during this long vacations ?? Keep watching this space as there is lot more things coming up.

Success VS Satisfaction

Few things I found unique to IIMA is fantastic courses that get floated in second year. I took Shodhyatra- A Journey for exploration where we traveled to the valleys and mountains of Sikkim for a week. Then in fifth term I opted for Strategy Safari which involved a week long industry excursion in Malaysia to study the strategies of organization in context of different cultural and economic settings.

When it comes to sixth term people prefer to play safe. They don't prefer to opt courses which drain their energies which they want to better utilize for the placements. I had chosen the mixed route. There are certain courses people perceived as fraud courses, which are not much demanding in terms of efforts required. When I chosen subjects for this semester, I heard similar things about a subject LVMR ( Leadership, Vision, Mission and Reality). This course involved study of 14 novels and 4-5 films which help to understand the various context of leadership with the practical examples.

I was excited when I got the set of novels at the start of the course and decided I will try my best to read them. Though I haven't done enough justice to this course but today when my group has to present on 'Success Vs Satisfaction' there is no way out for me. I just finish the class and kind of discussion we had is I felt worth sharing here.

The course involved story of a lady Rohini ( Thirsting for Water - Milind Bokil) who opted to enter into the fight of dam affected village. The other characters are Aai her mother who stood firmly behind her, her selfish husband and her sister. The theme was does success and satisfaction goes hand in hand or there is trade off ? What is important the joy of attaining destination or journey towards it? Is uncertainties create dilemma of knowing what is meaning of satisfaction for you and how one can resolve it?

You might predict that the discussion followed by this must be global but believe me this is most pertaining lesson. At many stages of life we keep on doing this trade off and end up facing these dilemmas. It will long and boring for you if I share whole discussion here. The summary was....
'The satisfaction comes out of meaning one attach to one's work. It is internal phenomenon where as success is something that is attributed to you by external factors. One should be very clear about what one is looking for. Some people are successful but not necessarily satisfied....some satisfied but not necessarily successful ...and some manage a fine balance between two"

I can't end this topic without sharing this fantastic video by Guy Kawasaki ....here you go

Nasha hi Nasha hai !!!

First thing you wonder after seeing the post title is what this Nasha is all about ? IIMA has its cultural fest in month of JAN which brings new zest and zeal to the mundane life here on campus. Though it is not one of the biggest cultfests in country, still people don't want to miss it as it gave them opportunity to spend 3 days on IIMA campus and enjoy the 'Gujju' crowd :) For insiders it is a best chance to 'break free' and to extend their social networking sphere.

This time the theme of Chaos was NASHA. Even though I was not much excited (compare to my normal excitement standards) about the event still I can't escaped its fever over last 2 days. First it was Fusion who enthralled the crowd on Saturday followed by Kay Kay on Sunday night. What you call if music take you on high and keep you on your toes continuously for 3 hours? Henceforth I would like to call it as 'KayKayed' !!!

The fever haven't get ended here but got culminated at the RAMP (the DJ party). I am among the few people who never ever missed the Ramp on campus. So even though I already completed my dance quota at concert I won't stop myself heading towards RJM. It was the most memorable ramp I had here over last 2 years and was special for many reasons.

The 'Chaos - Nasha' ended in 2 days but there are many things that I experienced here over last 2 years whose 'Nasha' would stay for lifetime. Now you got the reason why I never bothered about Gujrat being a 'dry state' :)

The Road Ahead

As lats process got kicked off at IIMA, the temperature on campus started rising in chilling winter here. Last few weeks I was busy and bored with polishing my CV. Believe me it is most time consuming and daunting task before placements. Your have to write about all you done in last 25 years in less than 25 lines !! and that also in glorified language to differentiate.

This word is not that simple as it looks. It is the RULE of the game. People come to IIMs so that they can get brand to gain differentiating power. Once they land up here they realize there are plenty like them around and that make them restless. Then starts rat race for one more level of differentiation and if that is not enough one more .......

I had willingly or unwillingly seen or been part many of these rat races over last two years.When everyone was getting ready for the final race I was not sure what to do. The 'placement holiday' (one can oops out of placement and come back anytime over next 2 years) created some more confusion.The confusion is finally ended in my recent visit to Pune. I doused my 'entrepreneurial spirit' and winded my 'off the track' plans to take a safe road ahead. I also started believing Dash who once said "IIMs are nothing but placements agencies make best use of them"

Kingfisher's Innovative Business Model

The Kingfisher-Deccan JV is yet to prove the test of time but before that I witness great synergy between them last week. When I booked my air ticket online, I seen there were two choices one offered by Kingfisher and other by Deccan. There was small note below Kingfisher flight saying that this flight is operated by Deccan Airways. I was confused which one to choose so I checked few more details. I conclude that as the flight numbers and prices offered were different these two flights must not be same. So with the expectation of getting better 'service' and food during journey I happily put my money on Kingfisher.

When I landed at the airport in Mumbai, I was shocked to see there were no such flight operated by Kingfisher. This was nothing but the Air Deccan's flight which they claimed Kingfisher's operated by Deccan. I kept wondering on why the hell they charged premium from me ??

My disappointment is aggravated by seeing a male cabin crew greeting me at the doors of plan (who said Deccan has changed !!! ) . When I took my seat I realized both seats next to me were vacant. After some time one of that was occupied by an Air Hostess. I realized that by no way she looked like Air Deccan's crew. After talking with her I came to know she was from Kingfisher. The last thing I should do is to complain about this incidence. But I couldn't stop myself doing that. She also wondered how this can happened.

I realized one more innovative lesson on creating synergy and yes I realized why I paid few more bucks !! I missed Kingfisher's food but thankfully not its service :)

From classrom to boardroom !!!

Imagine you get a chance to meet Businessperson of Year and discuss his business strategies over coming years sitting next to him in his boardroom. That was most interesting part of my one day journey from classroom to boardroom last week !!!

My new year started with this opportunity. As a part a project on 'Enterprise Solution for Poverty' we got chance to meet leading corporates and their leaders last week. Though I was highly pressed for time, I can't stop myself from joining this project team ( which consist of students from IIMA, HBS, MIT and Stanford) during their Mumbai visit. During this we met with CEOs of Tata Chemical, Godrej and Mahindra & Mahindra.

The project consists study of the corporates who are working in the areas like products,services and agri business which will affect life of masses especially farmers. We studied business like rural distribution, cash and carry, retailing and financial services which are targeted at bottom of the pyramid market. Though these corporates are doing it for profit in this process they are including people who yet to get taste of fruits of development.

Bye bye 2007 !!!

Most of you ( who still visit this blog though it is inactive since long time) will surprise to see me back in action. Few of you might think that it must be part of my new year resolutions to resume blogging. But you are wrong this time. This year end is unusual for me as I decided to give break to my usual practice of making long list of resolutions. This I learned after realizing that last few years I was making same resolutions :)

So just after witnessing the last sunset of year from D-22 (my dorm in IIMA) terrace I concluded end of 2007. When I looked back how the year went and I realized that there were many promises I made to myself and others which included keep on sharing various things happening in my MBA journey but somehow I failed to keep them. Few of you kept sending me mails on how you felt after reading my blog and why I should keep writing. That made my mind to bring back this conversation ( I call it so because I always felt like talking with you rather than writing)

This year started with my third and last term ( which is known as most hectic in IIMA) here. The next 3 months went so fast and I celebrated completion of one gruesome year at IIMA. Next 2 months I have to go through my summer internship. I took this as an opportunity to have some nice time. Thankfully the workload was not much and I enjoyed traveling to different parts of country as a part of my work. For sake of change I also worked sometimes during this period.

I started my second year with 4th semester in June about which I already talked in last post. This semester ended with a outdoor course 'SHODYATRA' which is known as journey for exploration. We went to Sikkim and it was my first chance to witness Himalayan beauty. The journey was lifetime experience and I will cherish memories of it throughout my life. Though the exploration turned into a group trek but I still believe that though I was not able to achieve major breakthrough in my life ( which is one of course objectives) it made some long lasting difference.

I already made a choice to stay on campus for 5th semster rather than going on exchange. This choice was made after lot of deliberation. I set some goals for semester to support my decision and one of that was traveling around to visit the places which I haven't yet seen. I had even chosen subjects that had classes on only 3 days of week so that I can get rest of the week free for other activities. I attended two B-school festivals at IMT and FMS in Delhi to get few more labels of achievements on my CV. Even I gave a serious thought to team up with 3 other guys on campus to take on some entrepreneurship plans but we have to wind it up before anything significant happening on this front.

This semester ended up with one more outdoor course called Strategy Safari in Malaysia. It was great experience to visit Singapore and Malaysia over 15 days. It was my first time experience of traveling outside India. So apart from admiring South Asian beauty I had some learning out of this tour as well.

I landed up on campus to start with 6th semester which is very important for obvious reasons of placement. I polished my CV and now will be busy sharpening few fundas that I learned over last one and half year. After all I must sound knowledgeable enough to impress corporates. So 2008 will be very important for these companies who will fight among themselves to decide whom I should choose over coming days :)

Bye bye 2007 .....I am anxiously waiting for 2008 !!! Happy New Year to all of you !!!