Hardness, Maintenance and Reliability...

Guess what those words in the title of the post mean?! No, not the qualities of a Bridgestone tire but apparently, they’re the “crucial elements of a quality erection…” J

ED (Erectile Dysfunction) was the name on everyone’s lips today, not because the ISB curriculum took the ultimate toll, but coz Viagra was the case for discussion in the Marketing Metrics Class today. Class started off with indepth analysis of a Viagra commercial; from why the background score was Queen’s “We are the champions” to the “phallic shaped” picket fence to what the limp garden hose in an old woman’s hand meant J The prof, who’s on his first visit here, was very entertaining and has a great sense of humour as was evident by his choice of case. There’s also a bunch of simulation exercises as part of the course called MBTN (Marketing by numbers), Allocator, RATE (Resource Allocation Teaching Exercise) and Pricing Simulation. Different, but very interesting.

BPMT (Business Performance Management) was my other ‘official’ course and it was a bit of a disappointment as far as first impressions go. Struggled to keep awake through class and saw that most of the class was having the same problem. Maybe it just felt that way after the high of MKME, but things better pick up in subsequent classes. Sampled MGEN (Managing in a Global Environment) and found its about macro-issues with managing firms and the discussion was about comparative advantages and subsidies. Interesting stuff, but think I’ll stick with Strategy in Multi-National Firms, that way I have 2 classes everyday instead of 1 and 3.

Tomorrow’s free with the subjects to be added and dropped a final time for Term 6. Now to kick back and some loud Nickelback…”I’m so high…I can hear heaven…”

Term 6...and sampling

Day ONE of term 6 and like any elective term, the first 2 days are spent ‘sampling’ i.e. sitting in on various classes to decide what subjects to sign up for. Kinda like getting a free taste of the weird looking flavours at a Baskin Robbins outlet before finally settling on good ol’ chocolate-chip. It’s an important exercise for the unfortunate ‘have-nots’ who could not get their desired subjects in the first phase of bidding and thus have to decide between the ‘butter pecan’ and ‘bubblegum’ flavours J actually I’m not being fair to the subjects in question, they’re never that bad, just not what some folk think they ‘ought’ to be doing. I dare not be one to judge though, only makes sense that a few high-strung individuals are needed on campus to cancel out the effect of laid-back folk like me J

Sampled ‘Strategy in Multi-National Firms’ (STMF) since I couldn’t get Pricing, and it wasn’t bad at all. Had a lively discussion about the benefits/drawbacks of an Indian BPO firm getting into a JV with an established US firm. The fact that there’s a writeup due before every class will ensure that all pre-reading is done, but can’t argue with the ‘No Final Exam’ policy. The other course; ‘Customer Focused Product Development’ (CFPD) was kinda slow with the prof taking us through the course details for most of the class. Think things will get interesting in the weeks to come though. No exams on that one too, things are lookin’ up already J

Tomorrow I get a look at ‘Marketing Metrics’ (MKME) and ‘Business Performance Management’ (BPMT) and might also sample ‘Managing in a Global Environment’ (MGEN) to then decide between that and STMF. For now its time for a substantial dinner and then to complete all pre-readings till week 2…yeah right!

Victory...Oh so sweet!

Today 10 grown men openly proclaimed how much they all love the same guy! This wasn’t a “mass coming out of the closet” exercise, but the real reason was just as sensational.

The ISB Cricket Club won its first game of the season!

We were playing Intergraph for the second time this season. After having lost to them by a slender 5 run margin, we rrrreally wanted to win, considering our played 5 – lost 5 record. All games thus far had been scheduled in the wee hours of 10-11pm and we’d had a few heartbreaking losses as you undoubtedly know if you’ve as much as scrolled on this page J but this one was under bright sunshine at noon. They won the toss and batted on a reasonably green pitch that was fast drying out. Abhijit and I opened the bowling and while A found his line immediately, I had trouble adjusting to the red ball (previous games had been with white) which does not swing as much, and bowled quite a few wides down the leg-side. Nikhil then came in and took 2 wickets in his first over and it would’ve been 3 had ‘yours truly’ not dropped a sitter at mid-on. Our bowling was accurate with Pratik and Nikhil not giving them any four balls. RK and Phani were tidy too but some horrendous outfielding gave away too many extra runs. I alone was guilty of 2 dropped catches (the 2^nd was off my own bowling) and a misfield that cost 4. Intergraph’s captain played an awesome innings to remain not-out on 100 odd and they got to 177 of 20 overs.

This was at par at what we’d scored in the past games and gave ourselves a good chance of a successful chase; Llewellyn even offered special weightage on ELP projects for the top-scorer J. I and Neeraj opened and set about knocking singles interspersed with the odd big hit. Just then their first change bowler got N caught behind off his first delivery. Abhijit replaced him and we played the bowling on merit with some calculated hits. Abhijit 51(43 balls), was in awesome form lofting the bowlers to all parts of the ground and we got to 130 in 15 overs. We’d just had a chat and decided to stay till the end when A was yorked by their stand out bowler – a spinner who got good purchase from the green-top. Phani came in and set about busily collecting 1s and 2s. the next over I was given caught behind to a ball that was nowhere near the edge – I have a vague recollection of almost tearing off my helmet in a rage and saying words not suitable for all ages. The equation now was 3 overs remaining with 36 to get and we had that sinking feeling that this would be yet another close loss. But RK (11 off 3) gave us some hope but Nikhil was DA MAN, smashing their bowlers from the first ball he faced to score 25 amazing runs off 11 balls to win it for us with 5 balls to spare! Sure, I was given Man Of the Match for my 54(36 balls) but seriously, it was Nikhil’s (in case you didn’t figure, that’s the guy who everyone loves J) heroics in the end that made the difference.

The Hindu: (search for ISB or anoop ;) http://www.hindu.com/2005/11/29/stories/2005112909582200.htm

Hot Spice!!!

India was just shot out for 188 in the 4^th one-day against South Africa. I’ve got bigger problems to deal with though, in the form of the Managing IT write-up. Didn’t do a whole lot yesterday with the morning spent on the MKTR assignment which had already been completed for all practical purposes by A. Went to Prasadz with S to watch Garam Masala…well, it was either that or Harry Porter! The movie was abominable! It actually managed to fall below my already sub-terranean expectations from a David Dhawan flick. The highlight of the evening would have to be the auto ride to angeethi, what with flashing lights and loud hindi ‘ballads’ that S told me were from ‘Maine Pyar Kiya’. it’s a miracle neither of us toppled out of the vehicle, we were laughing so hard! Was almost sorry when we reached our destination. Dinner at angeethi and some mind-blowing seekh kabab masala that I couldn’t have enough of though I was stuffed to the gills!

After much procrastination, finally got some documentation from one of the clients I worked for ‘in my past life’ J and have been trying to tie all of it into something cogent enough for 30% of the grade. Better get this done and start on the Strategy Writeup or else Shammak and Koshie and Jyoti are gonna lynch me.

T5 done...well almost

Marketing Implementation, my last end term for term 5 was done today. Doesn’t feel the same as the core terms where the campus heaved a collective sigh of relief, since other exams are still on.

MKTI had a case to analyze for 2 hours followed by 65 multiple choice q’s to answer in an hour. Made a mockery of the whole ‘open book’ concept. The Managing IT and Strategy Implementation submissions remain. Only then will be done with Term 5.

Can’t believe we’re done with more than half the course!

“It's astounding, time is fleeting

Madness takes its toll

But listen closely, not for very much longer

I've got to keep control…” –The Rocky Horror Picture Show Soundtrack

MKTR and COBE

Marketing Research and Consumer Behavior end terms were done today. Went alright, unlike the routs I have grown accustomed to over the last 2 terms. The research paper was out of 200 points and covered pretty much the entire course from sampling, multiple regression, factor analysis, discriminant analysis and conjoint. The note saying “more than 2 bullet points for this answer will be penalized!” in the MKTR question paper was hilarious. All in all, was a good course with decent coverage of content given the ever-present time constraints.

The prof had promised fun in the COBE exam and he was true to his word. The note on the first page went something like… “this paper shouldn’t be a problem for those who listened in class and for those who surfed their way through the course…yes you! You, you and that gal over there, well, tough!” J his questions were along similar lines what with caselets on skin-darkening creams called “Wheatie” and “TanMan”. The last section even had a ‘bonus’ section where you could write him a poem or draw something or basically do anything to convince him to give you the 2.5 points. The paper was also very well-constructed asking questions that had us flipping through the textbook at warp speed. Unusually though, since this was one of those courses I really enjoyed, it wasn’t my first time with the textbook and I think most answers turned out ok. Of course, I could get a C and that would be that. Now for some dinner and to Marketing Implementation…

Weekend before the End Terms

It’s the weekend before the end terms. While the customary hush prevails around campus, the difference this time is people have their exams on different days with Marketing towards the beginning of the week and finance in the latter half. There are even some lucky souls gallivanting around campus with just the 1 exam. I have 3 tests with M Research and Consumer Behaviour on the first day followed by M Implementation on Tuesday. Have 3 submissions due in the term-break, so, can’t wait for that!

What with judgement day (read placements) creeping closer now, people seem intent on their prep for interviews. I’ve had this very efficient system of dealing with the myriad things that crop up; push everything to the term break. Of course, the term break is then exclusively spent getting drunk and sleeping late till the guilt of not having accomplished anything hits on the Sunday before the term starts but then who works on a Sunday?! J this time better be different though, have to atleast get started on the paper on Brand Equity that we’re supposed to do for Prof. Raju. It’s a good thing he’s at Wharton or I’d already have flunked out of this place.

Now its back to the enervating exercise of pretending to study till its time for dinner or till I can think of something urgently pointless to do. Come to think of it, its been a while since I reorganized my music…;)

Cricket update:

Stumbled across online scores of our game (search for isb):

08/11/05:
http://www.hindu.com/2005/11/08/stories/2005110810011800.htm

15/11/05:
http://www.hindu.com/2005/11/15/stories/2005111506882000.htm

Its Killing..oops Bidding Time!

Bidding season again…but this time there isn’t as much fanfare. Guess ppl got sick of trying to outthink and outbid their ‘mates’. Bid for 5 subjects with the intention of dropping one of ‘em making up some excuse. Got 3 of them, waitlisted for Pricing and Strategic HRM (go figure!) As of now, will be doing CFPD (Customer Focused Product Development), BPMT (Business Performance Management) and MKME (Marketing Metrics). The arduous task of forming groups all over again, cant even be sure who’re all in my group this term! Hope to get Pricing by the time the dust settles though.

COBE final presentation due tomorrow and have spent the better part of the day peering into our research results to figure out why TOI (The Times) does not sell as much as the Deccan Chronicle does. 6 hours later, I still don’t know! So what else is new?!

So near..yet so far...

Another week and another week packed with assignment submissions. The highlight, for me, however was the cricket match against Franklin Templeton. Having just made the deadline for the COBE essay of 5pm, we set off for Glendale High School, the venue of the Xius corporate cricket tournament.

As usual, there was a delay as the match before ours ran over by an hour. We won the toss and elected to field on one of the greenest playing surfaces I’ve ever seen! A decision was debatable to an extent, considering chasing has never been fun, ever. We had a different set of bowlers for this game and were optimistic about restricting the opposition to a manageable score of about 120 to 140. However, things didn’t begin too well with 18 coming off Doc’s (Rakesh) first over mainly by way of wides. Its never easy for anyone who’s not played any cricket in months to come and bowl with the new white ball. I opened from the other end and after an edged 4 past gully, landed one just right, that moved back off the seam and went between bat and pad and clipped the top of middle stump. An opening bowler’s dream J! After that there were some quiet overs as the batsmen played cautiously because of the movement, both in the air and off the pitch. I had a few near misses against their left-handed batsman getting good movement into him (whom I incidentally dropped off Pratik – a ridiculous effort where I had aeons to get in position and yet cudnt get a hand on the ball!). I ended with figures of 4 overs – 22 runs – 3 wickets. Nikhil, Pratik, Ruchir and RK were the other bowlers. All kept things under control for the most part, especially Nikhil and Pratik. Doc finished off his overs well after a bad start. A couple of expensive overs from Ruchir and the odd flurry of boundaries got them up to a mammoth 183.

Chasing this total was never going to be a cakewalk, but we felt we’d have a go and see what happened. I and Aditya opened with me taking strike. I’d felt the beginnings of a cramp in the last over that I’d bowled and was not very hopeful about lasting long at the crease because the last thing I wanted to do was eat up overs with an asking rate of over 9. After a good first over, all hell broke loose. I got some room from the other opening bowler and cut 2 fours. The bowler compensated and overpitched the next ball which I picked early and deposited out of the ground. We now had 16 in 2 overs and the chase was on! Aditya played anchor, unfurling the occasional big hit and turning the strike over while I continued chancing my arm and got away with it as the short square boundaries came into play and we rattled along at 10 an over. We got to 50 in the 6^th over and to 100 in the 11^th. I went to my 50 off a misfield off a drive that was hit powerfully but should’ve been stopped. Particularly enjoyed the shot next ball; was pitched up by a medium-fast bowler and took a big step out to meet the ball and hit it flat and hard over extra cover for 6, even stayed in the follow-through for a second to savour it! J With no wickets down, we were looking good to pull off a fantastic win. However, Aditya was asked to hit out and perished LBW playing across the line in the process. RK looked to hit one too early and we’d lost 2 wickets in quick time. Their leg-spinner was doing a good job of keeping things quiet with some very temptingly slow bowling. Neeraj joined me and we kept taking singles and the odd boundary. I was keen on staying till the end but a bad call from me for a single off a misfield that resulted in my runout for 87. The asking rate of over 10 at that point and it was unfair on the batsmen that followed to come out and hit out from the word go and we lost wickets regularly after that. Neeraj, Nikhil, Pratik all made a valiant effort with some lovely hits to the fence, but there were just too many runs to get and we fell short by 16 runs.

A heartbreaking loss for having got so close but I won’t forget one of the comments from the opposition new-ball bowler after the game – “That was the best innings I’ve ever seen”. Yeah I know what you’re thinking, “Enough with the self-promotion already!”…but that’s the whole point of having your own blog I guess  J

Cricket at last!

We played our first game in the Xius corporate cricket tournament yesterday. After our first attempt a couple of terms ago(0-3), we wanted this time to be different. Our game for 6pm was delayed by a couple of hours because of a soggy field. After twiddling our thumbs for that time and declarations from each about how we’d have finished a couple of assignments in the time lost, we were asked to bat after losing the toss by the Applabs team.

Kamalesh and RK started off well enough with 9 and 12 runs off the first 2 overs. Just when they looked settled, RK was ‘stumped’ off their opening bowler as he slipped while trying to get back in the crease after playing and missing at one. Ruchir then joined Kamalesh and the 2 of them set about collecting runs and the odd boundary. A driven six over cover by Kamalesh was a treat to watch. Ruchir injured his shoulder going hard at a widish delivery and retired. I went in and in the very next over Kamalesh charged the bowler and was caught behind. We’d lost 3 batsmen in 2 overs and hence had to go through a quiet period where the run rate hovered around the 6 mark with the odd boundary. Just when I and Venky were starting to get going, Venky was dismissed dabbing at a wide one. I decided to keep one end up and went about taking singles and chancing my arm every now and again to score 46. We lost a few more wickets at the other end and some lusty hitting by Nikhil in the final over got us to a respectable 159 off 20 overs.

Defendable as the score was, our rustiness showed with the ball as all the bowlers struggled to keep a consistent length and were dispatched to the short square boundaries by their opening pair. Applabs rattled off to 100 off 10 overs before the spinners slowed them to an extent. Nagraj bowled some excellent leg-spin to take 4 wickets and bring us back into the contest. In the end, they got home in the last over with 5 wickets to spare.

Amazing how you feel the exhaustion only after a loss, but all in all, a good change from the usual grind of assignments.

Midterms?

Its Midterm time…and for a change, I’m NOT sitting up at 4am wondering (wud be for the 5^th consecutive term) why I hadn’t been regular with my readings! That’s coz its that time of the year when segregation rears its ugly head on campus. Not so much on the basis of race/sex/religion but something much more intrinsic…your choice of major! The Fin people (not the country), are busy preparing for their opFr (Options and Futures) midterm and puns you’d only trust people of that branch to come up with…”No Option and Dark Future” are doing their rounds on campus. Of course, when these folk say they are unprepared, usually means they’re ill-equipped to add anything to the existing body of knowledge.  That’s not to say that I don’t have my cross to bear with assignments and take-home midterms due next week.