Way2Top

Wow…! My first mobile blogging effort

Still enjoying the ‘free’ days….

Watched the movie “Ice Age-2″ in Satyam movie complex yesterday. For the same price of Rs.90/=, the quality of movie watching experience is lower compared to PVR or Prasad’s in hyderabad. The pricing scheme was funnier…”Satyam Budget”, “Satyam Premiere”, “Satyam Elite”!!!

Purchased couple of books. One was “The Greatness Guide” by Robin Sharma (The author of The monk who sold his ferrari). I wanted to buy another book “The undercover Economist”. But decided to postpone the purchase after seeing the price tag of Rs.500/=. There are some more books that I want to read once, but I don’t want to possess. “How Opal Mehta got a kiss, got wild, got a life”, “5 point something” and “11 minutes”. Will borrow from my friends or from a library…

Couple of chennai friends are beginning their Post-MBA career today. One in Cognizant and other in TVS. Many others are starting on May 2nd/3rd. Life will be on high speed track once I join work. Will relax for 5 more days

An attempt at my own 2 x 2 matrix creation …Don’t read too much…

The X-axis represents the amount of interest you have for any topic.
The Y-axis represents the amount of knowledge you have about any topic.

You might come across any topic/person/activities in your life. You might either know about the subject already or not. You might either have interest for the subject or not.

This framework suggests you 3 ways for knowing and generating interest about any subject. So you basically start at the “Don’t know Don’t care” quadrant. You have to reach “Do know Do care” quadrant. As you can see, there are 3 ways to reach the destination.

1. Generate interest about the subject and simultaneously learn about that! [Travel diagonally]
e.g., You are forced to do a project in your work with a particular technology. You don’t know the technology and you don’t have interest for that either. As you work your way through the project, you get to know about the technology, and as you know, your interest grows parallely!

2. Learn about the subject and then generate interest for that subject! [Traverse Y-axis first, then X-axis]
e.g., You are going to a restaurant..You see all alien menu items! You are hungry. So, you should order something and try it out. If you like it then you will generate an interest for it!

3. Generate interest for the subject and then learn about the subject! [Traverse X-axis first and then Y-axis]
e.g, First impressions, Love at first sight, Infatuation etc., If your further learning about the subject reveals more unpleasant ’secrets’, then you will ‘permanently’ go back to “Do know Don’t Care” quadrant!

So, everyday in your life, keep exploring subjects that you “don’t know and don’t care”…and then consciously make effort to deposit the subject under your “do know do care” quadrant! Only very few subjects make it to that quadrant…and stay in that quadrant…Whatever remains in that quadrant, nurture those!

Looking back at the evolution (or revolution) of cricket, I am wondering if the following things are changing the nature of the game.

Positive mindset…
Ambitious players…Strong players…Strong hitting…
Changing rules like Powerplay…
smaller grounds and Shorter boundaries…
Better pitches…
Better bats…
Advent of 20/20 matches…

Need to think about these points as well:
Psychological impact on bowlers?
Cricket is commercialized? Lose of purity?

The records are broken everyday…Be it the lowest score or the highest score…In the end, spectrum is widening…That’s good for cricket…But care should be taken that it does not become an overdose…

After a long time, I had that overhang after watching a cricket match…you know the memories still fresh on mind the next morning, the next evening…and for few more days to follow…:)

This sort of game can life the spirit of entire nation…enhance the intensity of the fan-following for cricket in the winning nation… Just like the world cup victory for India, the world cup victory for Sri Lanka, the world cup victory for Pakistan, this win is right up there for South Africans….

Read somewhere that the request for a DVD of this game is flowing in from all parts of the world to the South African cricket board. They are promptly preparing one… Expect one in week’s time… The demand is originating from India and Australia…Biggest Ambassadors for Cricket!

On its part, ESPN will be repeat telecasting the match on 3 occasions over the next week! Make hay while sun shines Now the expectations for the South Africa-Australia Test matches have gone up many notches! Advertising revenue will go up by multiple millions

Hats off to both South Africa and Australia…

If the first day was a perfect yorker, second day saw me handling the ball myself and getting out! Yeah, I was not so keen about this firm…I was ready to take their position if I receive better salary or location…Both didn’t match up…so, didn’t show any interest in interviews…

I would like to say something about one particular panel from the same firm(Had two interviews). Absolutely unprofessional. If they have made up their minds and filled their quota, they need not treat the remaining candidates like dolls!

16:00 - Welcome…introduction…formalities…
16:02 - Mobile rings…Interviewer excuses himself…
16:05 - Enters again…”Where were we?”…Again, mobile rings, excuses himself…
16:09 - Enters again….Mobile rings…This time continues talking inside the room itself…”I am in the middle of interview…but I can talk with you…Yeah, X is good…he is very good..we will take him…Y and Z are also good…they are shortlisted for further interviews…”…My self-respect took a jolt…but stayed quiet…
16:12 - Another interviewer enters…talks with the first interviewer…Then they say looking at me…”We are keeping our interviewee waiting…”!
16:20 - Finally…interview gets on…Another 2 disturbances happen afterwards…
16:25 - Tea comes…So, I have to continue speaking as server keep watching…(!!!)
16:35 - Ask me some useless questions…Really had no clue…”Suppose you have ten line paragraph…how would you use a single slide to convey the message?..would you use bullet points or paragraph…”. I said, “You can take 3 key messages, including the central message.. and use bullet points…Even better would be pictorial representation…As a picture is worth 1000 words(!)…or if the para is small, you can paste the para as such!”…”Ok, any other ways…??”…Silence for next few minutes…
Finally completed the round after facing few more such useless questions….

Absolutely needless for me to face them…

As my journey continues, lot of good news in the campus. Consulting firms and Financial firms have made good offers…100+ offers so far made in just 2 days…Almost 50% of the jobs has been accepted as a backup by people…(Less salary, but an offer in hand gives confidence..that’s the philosophy)…I will wait for 2 more days to follow that approach…

Today, I gave one more interview…Went with a free mindset, played the ball on merit…few good balls and few good shots…overall, I think went above average…but fingers crossed…If I get this job, will take it up…

I have been going for some sort of interview for last 4 days…getting up, wearing the suit and tie has become a ritual …Boy, will miss it once I get an offer…

Every coin has two sides…while life has been smooth and lucky for some people here, it’s been tough and not so friendly for few…I seem to be some kind of niche product who will fit in only very few roles…Still searching for my matching piece to complete the jigsaw puzzle…Few days back, I said my test of positive attitude will come under pressure…Now is the opportunity to develop it and prove it …Many opportunities and jobs in pipeline…Kuch tho mil jayega!

PS: I respect the opinions and comments a lot.. sometimes, even overwhelmed…but, excuse me for disabling the comments section for the post…

Everyone’s ears will be tuned to hear about India in the World Economic Forum that began today! This is India’s perfect opportunity to exploit the attention…

This is what Businessweek has to to say about India
“India’s showy debut at Davos is yet another sign that this newly confident country is ready to strut its stuff on the world stage. Branding and marketing itself hasn’t come easily to India, a culture where the preferred path is understated and unspoken. But some of India’s most prominent native sons thought the time has come “to raise India’s profile in the global community”…”

Also, stumbled upon this link “India Everywhere”, a $3 million promotional venture for India (by CII, IBEF (India Brand Equity Foundation)). It will be worthwhile to catch up with some of the promotional materials hosted there!

When the professor mentions that the Mid-term papers and End-term papers can be done at our own convenience in home, many of us jump in joy! atleast momentarily…After all, What better way than writing your answers at the time convenient to you, place convenient to you and in the way convenient to you.

But hold on…that’s just an illusion. To my knowledge, the take-home exams are highly painful in nature, especially if the subject is highly abstract. They suck up considerable amount of our time and energy. Take my case for example. I have all my mid-terms and end-term examinations this term in the form of Take-Home!

Knowledge management [1 Mid-term, 1 End-term]
Managing IT [1 Mid-term, 1 End-term]
Negotiation Analysis [2 Write-ups]
Rural Marketing [1 Final write-up, minimum 30 pages, no upside limit!]

I spent almost all of my weekend reading articles, framing the answers, penning down the thoughts and reviewing the answers for Managing IT and Knowledge management. In effect I spent 14-16 hours for both the mid-term papers!

The trauma of completing our Competitive Strategy project paper is still looming in my mind.

Officially, the term is coming to an end this Thursday[17th] for me. From Friday [18th] till Sunday [27th ], I have to complete 5 write-ups for all 4 subjects. Painful! No doubt, there is an opportunity to learn. But very tough to motivate myself…Somehow, should complete it soon, so that I can use the remaining days for other important activities.

Interestingly, it would be almost 87 days before I will be in examination hall since my previous examinations!! I am longing to be in examination hall

2 days back, my roomie was mentioning that I am lucky to have all exams as take-home. But he had taken Knowledge management course. After completing the KM Mid-term paper spending full sunday night, he came to me today morning and said “I can understand your situation…Pity you” !!!

The most awaited B-school event in India, “POSEIDON 2005” is coming soon (December 16-17, 2005). The Poseidon website will be launched tomorrow. This year the theme is entirely ‘Greek’. [Colour schemes, background images, fonts, event names etc.,] The website will go live at exactly 10:00 p.m. November 9th night. There will be online fireworks marking the opening ceremony! Actually i am curious to peek into the contents of website…! Loads of events, prize money, honours up for grabs…

http://www.isb.edu/poseidon

The name that we gave to our Business venture is ‘Prapanjam’. Prapanjam in Sanskrit means Universe. Knowledge is universe. That’s the idea for naming the venture..S might give a very nice description for choosing this name.

We had to design a logo. So we came with an image above. The justification came later Brahma created the universe while he was sitting at the center of a flower. Also, the core of a flower represents the Universe. The soft rose petals surrounding the core represents children. Children are by nature very soft. Our concept (Prapanjam) is dedicated for the children and their values. So that part is justified.

Next, the letters. The letters are not that clear and dark. There is a reason to that! Prapanjam is aimed at providing Value-based and character-based education through workshops. Since values and characters are intangible, the letters have a sense of serene, dull, unclear look. It is there but it is not there…You see!

MBA helps us to provide justification to anything and everything….Never mind!

BTW, I unearthed following two websites which hosts logos of leading brands. If you are a quiz lover, you will love this website, even otherwise it’s an information resource…

http://www.goodlogo.com
http://www.logotypes.ru

Resolve Query.

“Are you a student? A Professional? Do you have a question? We can help you to get your query answered…” this is the mission of a newly formed venture called ResolveQuery.com.

This website is started by 3 young engineers from different backgrounds united by a common goal - to provide a one stop solution in career counselling to students and professionals. In the recently concluded TiE-ISB Elevator Pitch, conducted at ISB, this venture made it to the final round. Within 3 months time this website has taken a solid shape and almost available for public service. Explore it yourself.

http://www.resolvequery.com