Negotiations Lesson No. 1?

I remember Prof. Dishan Kamdar repeating over and over again.

Get a BATNA / NBA.

(BATNA = Best Alternative To A Negotiated Alternative, NBA = Next Best Alternative).

I love corporate drama. Reading this WSJ article on the Microsoft - Nokia - Google mating dance, I was fascinated about how every lesson we were taught in our Negotiation Analysis course / workshop at ISB can be followed in this drama.

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703561604576150502994792270.html

Awesome!

Value of money

Recently one of the Ultimate players posted the following video on FB.




Pretty interesting video. And, it brought back memories of an old post I'd read on an Alumni's blog. It took me a while to find the link again (I'd forgotten the Alumni's name and the blog name). I read it again. Same emotions as when I'd read it for the first time 3 years ago when I'd just moved back to India.

http://gyaan.blogspot.com/2004/11/150-rupees-year.html

Now, I don't know if the boy in the blog-post was faking or was really genuine. But, the reason I put it up here is to show that the you-tube video wasn't really just some Ad gimmick.

Once again, I'm reminded of my social responsibilities.

ISB Aerial View

Someone in the current batch (Class of '09) took these pictures. He apparently was in the army for many years, and has a flying license.. decided to took one out for a spin and shot these pictures!

ISBian Vivek Pahwa is Asia's Best Young Entrepreneur!

I had written about Vivek being in the list of nominees for Business Week's Asia's Best Young Entrepreneur title. He's the founder of secondshaadi.com, desimartini.com and gaadi.com.

And he's the chosen one! He beat the other 25 Asian Tigers to the title! Read about it at the link below.

Asia's Best Young Entrepreneur: And the Winner Is...

ISBian amongst Asia's Top Entrepreneurs

Vivek Pahwa from the ISB class of 2006 has been selected as one of Asia's Top 20 Entrepreneurs for 2008!

In the past 2 years, Vivek has successfully started multiple ventures, starting from DesiMartini.com (which eventually was sold off to Hindustan Times) followed by SecondShaadi.com (India's largest matrimonial for re-marriages) and recently Gaadi.com (India's No 2 Car portal)

Wooot! Way to go Vivek! First among the ISBians. Many more to come!

The nominations are available in the following link
http://images.businessweek.com/ss/08/10/1008_asia_young_entrepreneurs/22.htm

Gapminder!

Babynav sent me this link. It's an old video. One of my profs showed me this during a class at ISB. Very interesting!

ISB's first official ranking

Business India has come out with B-School rankings and this is the first one that ISB has officially taken part in. It ranked 4th, which is not bad for a first time ranking.. But I still feel that ISB ranks way higher. IIM A, B and C are ranked higher in that order.

ISB can only move up from this point as it starts scoring more on Alumni ratings and better job opportunity ratings.

Click here for the article.

Graduation

Graduation came and went. ISB's done.. But, I'll be going back for the next batch's orientation.

Having moved so many times, I don't think I feel all that senti. But, there were so many others who were feeling very very sentimental about leaving ISB. So many people are having withdrawal effects. Sometimes I feel I"ve become impersonal! :-)

Last exam done!

Phew! I think I'm done with my last exams.. and hopefully my academic life.. forever!
I had absolutely no enthu to prepare for these two exams today. It was a pain.. but the feeling of getting over with them cannot be expressed in words!
Next week, we all get "disoriented" (don't blame me.. thats the official term :-) ). And then graduation day dawns on us on Saturday. And we're expected to get out of here by the 8th.
Time sure does fly by. I just remember setting up my stuff in this room recently.. and already its time to pack them up!

I get to come back for orientation of the next batch though. I'll be a part of the bind-unwind event. It'll be good to interact with the next batch students. I already know some 5-6 of them, and am really looking forward to meeting more people!

But, till then.. its P A R T Y T I M E!

From the Web 2.0 class

What is Web 2.0? A short intro through some videos.. links given by the professor of the Web 2.0 class. A really good idea from the 2nd video for sure!

Term 8 grinds on

In the last 7 terms, I have always followed the JIT strategy for submitting my assignments. These days, in term 8, I'm tending more towards the SHIT strategy.

For the MBA Newbies.. JIT = Just in time, SHIT = Somehow in time (I heard that term first from Doc).

Somehow, I feel that they should ban assignments in term 8. No one has any motivation to do these things. Instead, just make the whole class Class Participation based. This way, people will go through the case and the readings, But really don't have to sit and write stuff to turn in.

This weekend I will be taking a small vacation. Will be good to skip a few classes and really go do something else unrelated! Will be a good workout for my camera too!

In the meanwhile, everyone is starting to feel the cash crunch. 1 year of no income is starting to tell on people. With this vacation, I think I"ll be scraping the rock bottom to get through till my first pay cheque arrives!

Holi @ ISB

A video shot by one of the exchange students from Italy.


Check my flickr page to find more pics of Holi @ ISB

And finally..

it's official. I will be working with Cypress Semiconductors in their Strategic Marketing division in Chennai. I turned down my other offer with Verizon as a Program Manager.
This is a new team being formed at a new location, and so it is going to involve a lot of work. But I'm really excited about the opportunity. This group decides what products the company makes, and who to target.
I'm also happy about the fact that I will be using the knowledge from my MS and past work-experience also, while successfully making a move to strategic marketing. So, in effect, I haven't wasted any years in my life. And to top it all off, it is in Chennai.

Rural Marketing

This term we have this very interesting course called Rural Marketing. An external consultant who does a lot of work in the rural sector is handling this class. As part of this course, we go to a village and spend time with the people there trying to understand the customers there.
For a lot of people, this will be the first time in a village. For me, it will be a refresher. I was born in a village, and my grand parents and relatives still live in a village. I've spent long summers at my mum's village and have had fun. Of course, that has been a long time back. These days a trip to my village, usually involves just short visits to my relatives' place. It will be good to see if things have changed and how things have changed over time.
Coming back to the course itself, we were given an example of how powerful the rural markets can be.
Did you know that less than 22% of the urban women in India use lipsticks? Did you know that more than 11% of the rural women in India use lipsticks? What does this mean to a marketeer? Well, considering that Urban / Rural divide is in the ratio of 30% to 70%, it doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure out that 11% of 70, is bigger than 22% of 30!

Surprised? Well, thats not all.

Think of all the lipsticks brands you know.. None of these are the market leaders in India. Not Lakme, not L'Oreal, not any other of the well known brands. Raja lipsticks have the largest market share in India. This brand has 79% of the Rural market. International brands would kill to get that kind of a penetration in the 1 billion population!
Apart from this, here are some other aspects of this lipstick market. The application factor of lipsticks by Urban women is 1.1 (that is.. on an average, they apply 1.1 layers on their lips). Rural women on the other hand have an application factor of 2.5 (2.5 layers on their lips). This number directly translates into higher usage of lipsticks.
So, what people may consider as a negligible market on first sight, is bigger than what you might actually be in! I guess this is an example of the Bottom of the Pyramid concept by Dr. C.K.Prahalad.

On a personal note, I think I'm driven more to marketing because of the personal traits I develop. The more I get involved with marketing, the less judgmental I become about people. I become impartial and learn to put aside my personal opinions about their habits. I guess it's a way to develop an attitude of "live and let live" and learn to see opportunities in different habits! A good example would be this whole lipstick deal. Urban people buy expensive ones, but try not to make it glaringly visible. Rural people buy expensive ones (expensive to them), and they try to make sure that it's seen. Is there one right way to use lipstick.. probably not. Is there opportunity in the alternate way of doing things.. definitely yes!

Edit : The best way to learn to be impartial about market opportunities is to probably read the Harvard Business School case on ODC. ODC has invented contact lenses for chicken, and shows what a huge potential there is for it! (Yeah, I'm sure you're wondering who the heck would want to buy disposable contact lenses for their chicken.. but trust me, you'll change your mind after reading the case)

Term 8 begins..

Today Term 8 kicks off! Hopefully this term, I will get to everyone outside their quads, just like back in orientation week and Term 1. People have been disappearing after that for some reason! Last term was the worst in that aspect. The whole campus looked like a nuclear war zone. Hardly anyone on campus. People were sleep walking!

This term I think will be a lot more relaxed for most people (except for those who're still looking for their 2nd job). It's the time to P A R T Y!

Day 8 - Embarassment of the Riches!!

Day 8 starts today and the number to be placed has reached single digits. Job market seems to be amazing.

At the same time, it's a little sad to see so many great companies going back empty handed 'cause no one is attending their interviews today! I just came back from the Placement Control Desk which co-ordinates the whole event. Today they're really scrounging around to find students to attend the interviews!!

Brings me back to the same point I made in the last post. Lot of students were shortsighted this placement season! For example, today there is a leading international Real Estate firm on campus and no one left in the placement process to attend the interviews! This would've been the most ideal situation for a student to do a career shift into Real Estate Finance which is one of the hottest sector now! All he/she would have had to do was to get up in the morning, go through the website for about 15 min, and attended the interview showing some interest!! Couldn't have been simpler. Tomorrow there's a good Consulting/Market research company coming, and I doubt there will be a single person left eligible in the placement process!! They do great work on best practices around the world, and are highly respected throughout the world! (Oh.. BTW.. there are hardly any people remaining on campus to even call on to attend interviews. Most students have taken off to party already! A little pre-mature perhaps? Maybe they could've bettered their previous salaries or found more interesting roles?). The placement cell is considering calling up the recruiters and telling them not to come, because it just doesn't make sense anymore for them to come here beyond this point.

So, an important take-away for the next batch students would be, to not let the pressure get to you. Start telling yourself that you will sit through atleast the entire placement week to find yourself the best fit! There is nothing achieved by getting out of the placements on the 2nd or 3rd day by taking up a job with a mass-recruiter who you don't even want to work for! The relief that you get by signing out of the placements, can sometimes blind you from the opportunity cost (the cost of the missed opportunity!). Today's job market is such that, anyone who can do mental arithmetic will probably get placed. Question would be.. are you getting a job with maximized potential for the future!

I can probably put up some pictures from the placement week in the next post.

Day 6..

Into the day 6 of the placements, and I would say that things are going on a good clip. We might actually see 90% of the batch have atleast one offer by the end of the week. Great job market I would say.. and increase in brand name is pulling far more good roles. Of course, there is/was extreme pressure during the week itself, and a lot of people succumbed to that pressure and took up an offer with a mass recruiter, just to keep one in hand. Each student is allowed to receive two offers (or accept to take up one offer.. whichever comes first), and they are out of the placements. However, each offer comes with a deadline to accept the offer. Hence, people are finding themselves taking up their "backups" because the deadline is running out, and they don't have the guts to take a risk and wait for better roles. And then, finally there are lots of great roles coming out on the later days, and people miss out on those good opportunities.

I want to take a step back and look at these "backups". So, some of the advantages of having a good backup can probably the following

* Definitely relieves you of some pressure
* Gives you confidence to go for better negotiations on the next offer
* If you don't get a better offer, well, one can still be happy.. its definitely a good job to be at.
* Can help focus on only very particular roles in the next few days.. and make sure that one can actually do targeted preparing. Usually till the first offer arrives, everyone is spread thin across multiple roles they are shooting for.

But, here's the deal.. a backup shouldn't be an offer that one takes just for the sake of having a job. My take on jobs is as follows

* Getting a job is an eventuality. I haven't ever met anyone who's always been without a job! Everyone gets a job. When they get it.. is the question. It is as simple as that.
* A lot of people stress themselves out by asking themselves stupid questions like "damn.. will I get a job or not?". Duh.. you'll definitely get one! A more pertinent question probably will be "Will I get the job I want, by day X of the placement process?". But then again, what's the point of getting stressed about it when the answer is a "no". It could be one of two things.. You don't fit the role, or you'll just have to wait longer. Easy enough to deal with either way.
* If you are looking for something specific/unique.. then just by definition of the word "unique" which means that it's not something common, you will take time to come across such a role! If it were lying in abundance, then it wouldn't be "unique". So, be patient!
* Note for career switchers.. You need to persist! Not take your backup and get out of the placements on the 2nd day! There are 9 days just in this placement week, and then another month and a half. So what if you don't get the role on day 2? Obviously, someone with a marketing background will get a marketing job first! Take two resumes, and you'll know why someone would want to pick the first one which has a marketing background.. as compared to someone who's looking for one.. and has no background in marketing! It's not rocket science! But, as the first few companies take their picks, most people with the strongest background will be gone. For the next wave of companies, switchers stand the best chance!
* Define your backup properly. A backup should be something that you are willing to actually work on! If you really don't want an offer and take it as a backup.. then well, all you have done is waste one of your offers.
* Pick something that will be long term.. This year quite a few people had trouble 'cause they'd switched too many jobs in a short span of time. Many companies consider this a negative, especially if their employee acquisition cost is high (in terms of the amount invested in recruiting and training the new employee). Its simple, they require returns for their investment in you, and if they're not convinced that you will stick on to give them returns, they won't invest! Example this year would be a Dean's lister who really felt the pinch of this 'cause in 32 months of experience he had switched 3 jobs. You don't want to be labeled as a person having the "one-year itch". Pick a company where you'll stick around for atleast 3-4 years!

I'm out of the placement process as of last night. I got both roles I really wanted to get. And just a small view point here, just 'cause I didn't get roles I interviewed for 3 days back, doesn't mean I'm a duffer.. and just 'cause I got one of the really meaty great opportunity roles yesterday doesn't make me a genious either! Nothing changed from that day to yesterday. Interviews are quite random. One day you can do everything and still nothing will come together. Another day, you can do the exact same thing, and everything will click. Most people sitting through placements at ISB will agree on this! Sometimes it could just be that you're not the best fit!

My quaddies have all managed switches successfully as well! One of them consulting, one of the other sales in a finance company, one of them moved into Private Equity.. and me into Strategic Marketing (I think). The successful switches, especially into finance, all came due to a lot of patience, resilience to the pressure, and not succumbing to it!

DDay minus 3

Its 3 days to placement week. I have a few interviews lined up. No complaints so far about that aspect. But tensions ride high here at ISB where a majority of the people don't have any shortlists yet. A majority of the companies have not released their shortlists yet, which is pushing people to the edge of their seats. I guess a lot of it is peer pressure. Though it is a known fact that a lot of people will not be placed within the placement week (which is when a majority of the placements occur), no one wants to be the one who goes into the 8th term without a job. I guess it would suck to watch the majority of your batch party, while you're still wondering where you're going. I sincerely hope that everyone has atleast one offer by the end of this placement week! This whole deal is a bed of roses probably from the outside world, but to be in here, is to be sitting inside a pressure cooker for a lot of people :-).
The people who find it most difficult to differentiate are the IT people (something for the next batch to note maybe?). IT guys with 6+ years of experience will probably be able to differentiate themselves. IT women with 4+ years of experience will probably be able to differentiate themselves too. Anyone with lower experience than this, well, think again before you come to ISB. Every employer probably will get a 200 applications similar to yours. Whatever exceptional feat you have done, there's a strong chance that atleast 10 other people have done. Services background especially. IT product backgrounds have fared much better till this point. So, next batch students, know what you're getting into and set your expectations right. Get the right experience and differentiating factors in place before doing your MBA in an Indian B-school.
There are a lot of people with less than 2 years experience coming into ISB, expecting some 14-15 lakh jobs! Hmm, read my post last year about the 2006 placements. If someone was making some 3 lakhs per annum pre ISB, how can he/she expect a 400% increase in salary just by coming to ISB??? Your salary will be a function of your experience (there will always be a few exceptions.. but exceptions are not examples)!! ISB is not a money multiplier :-). Be prepared for a sub 10-lakh job. Thats probably more than the fair rate of returns (still an approximate 3x multiplier). Later you will probably blame everyone else around you, but, probably will not realize that you made the decision to come here. No one held a gun at your head and asked you to go do an MBA!
The CA's are also having a tough time with the non-finance background guys stepping into their turf for those rosy Investment Banking, Private Equity, Corporate Finance jobs!
Other than that, there are some "funny" things going on with the placement process itself; politics, collusions, arm-twisting etc.
We still have a good 1.5 months to go for placements to finish. But, in the meanwhile, the cooker gets hotter, and pressure mounts inside!!

Okay.. kicking myself to go study. More later!

Placement week gets closer!

Placement week is 10 days away. I see a lot of people walking around with dead-pan expressions. I find it very funny that the tension is almost palpable. Some of the international offers have just started flowing in. For some reason, this seems to put more pressure on the rest of the people. The way I see it, people should be relieved. Those people who get their offers now are usually less serious about later interviews. This means less competition. I am very very happy that lots of people are getting offers already. Both in terms of having seen how hard they've been preparing.. and also for my own selfish reasons of them not being in my way for the jobs I'm targeting! So far, the salaries are looking good. Guess its a great job market out there! Looks like there's some real dearth for talent out in the industry that they're willing to pay so much for people with even a few years of experience. Guess, it's also the 6.1% inflation speaking :-).

So, if you're asking me what I"m doing in the middle of all this.. This is what my schedule looks like on all days except Tuesdays and Thursdays.

9.00am : wake up and start working on resume/EOI for the job application due by 12.00am
10.25am : rush to the cafeteria to have breakfast. (Note, cafeteria shuts down at 10.30 :-) )
11.00am : come back to my room, finish my application and turn it in just minutes before the deadline.
12.00pm : Read the newspaper and watch some TV at leisure
1.30pm : Go have a shower.
2.00pm : Check out slashdot for an hour
3.00pm : damn, I woke up so early.. need to sleep for a while
4.30pm : wake up and check mails
5.30pm : Go play Ultimate Frisbee
6.30pm : Go work out in the gym.
7.30pm : come back from the gym, generally browse the net
8.30pm : Go have a shower
9.00pm : Go for dinner
10.15pm : Meet up for some interview prep with my prep-group
11.30pm : Come back.. and start reading case for next morning 8.00am class
1.30am : Hit the sack

On tuesday's and thursday's I wake up at 7.30am and so my whole days are screwed anyway. Nothing productive happens except for the 2 classes I go to!

Hmm, and now I'm wondering when the panic attack will hit me, so that I can actually prepare for my interviews! I need to atleast revise some core-term stuff.. but absolutely 0 enthu for that!

Placement Prep - The buzz on campus.

Everyone is seriously into their preparations for placement week. The whole campus is buzzing with groups meeting up to prepare for some common interest fields. Mock interviews, mock group discussions, mock day 1 (where you have 8-9 interviews in a single day), mock me, mock you.. its all happening here on campus :-).
I am part of 3 different preparation groups each geared to a different concentration. However, I don't feel like I"m doing justice to anything :-).

3 weeks to go for placement week. Lots of people are nervous. Lots of people are having sleepless nights. Lots of people are cursing themselves for doing 4 courses this term.

I'm just lazing around. Watched 3 movies over the last 2 days. I haven't done any serious preparation or anything yet. I've revised like 3 chapters from one of the easiest core-term subjects. Others have revised every core-term subject 3 times. I get a good 8 hours of sleep every day.

However, I haven't been totally useless. I've been going to the gym regularly these days. Spend about 1.5 hours everyday. I've started running again to fit back into my suit which I just before I got here to ISB. I've gained close to 7kgs since I got here to ISB. Sarovar feeds us unadulterated pure fat! I also got my suit dry cleaned. Gave myself 2 brownie points for doing that before everyone else did. So, a little content with myself.

Now to go eat and go to catch up with that 9th hour of sleep I didn't get last night!