September 24, 2004

Social networking apps in the enterprise

Social networking has become a popular seed for entrepreneurs to building ideas around nowadays. Beyond the fad of the already existing online dating applications, there are some interesting web sites like LinkedIn.com which are trying to build paid services around the concept of providing an opportunity to network with the kind of people you want. There many claims and counter claims about the effectiveness of these applications. Not withstanding the unproven nature of these plans, many others have gotten on to the bandwagon. Check ICQ universe on icq.com for example.

While many of these have tended to concentrate on the retail customer, the enterprise customer is already being targeted with a different kind of application of social networking concepts. Combining the math of graph theory with the basics of social communication theory, companies like spoke.com and visiblepath.com are offering some really interesting applications to enterprise customers. Applying the social networking concepts to sales forces and business networking within organizations and combining such ideas with CRM applications these companies results in interesting consequences for the enterprise. It provides a new way of helping its own employees track, follow and close new customer deals using the contacts of fellow employees. The attempt is also to reduce cases where the lack of a referral is a bottleneck while pursuing a new lead. Pretty neat.

Lets also look inward into the enterprise. If you get to dig deeper into the math of social networking, you will notice a striking similarity between what the math helps you find out and what we learnt in term 4 as organizational behavior. Here is a way through which the computer mediated communication mechanisms (in short e-mail etc.) can be used to build a map of the organization that can tell you who is the center of the influence network, where the structural holes are and so on... If an application can analyze that and present it to you, especially if you are managing teams across cities and geographies, wouldn't that be great? If you can easily find answers to questions like, "Is my marketing and sales team in the US talking enough to my R&D teams in India and Philippines", I think there will be many takers.


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September 16, 2004

Applying to the ISB - How we went about it

Looking at the profiles of some of our regular contributors and some who aren’t, their rationale in deciding to do their MBA and why they chose ISB to do it in seemed like a good way to help prospective applicants in their decision making process.

Dhar suggested this and so I sent out the questionnaire and got responses from the following people:

Ranjit Babu (RB), Manoj Ramaswamy (MR), Sumit Dhar (SD), Kanan Nabar (KN), Mamta Goyal (MG), Rangararajan Govindan (RG), Damandeep Soni (DS), Manu Dhir (MD) and Girish Nanappa (GN).


1. Your age, years of experience, last job and educational background

RB: 25, 2.5 years, Market and Media research software, BE Electronics and Telecomm.

MR: 26, 4 years, Planning & Budgeting, Corporate Finance (Dr.Reddy’s Laboratories Ltd) Chartered Accountant

SD: 27, 4+ years, Information Security, BTech

MG: 31, 8 years+, Team Lead(software dev. in telecom), B.Tech. in Computer Engineering

KN: 25 years, 4 yrs 5 mths in Marketing communications. Last job was as an Account Manager in the Rural Mktg Division of Ogilvy & Mather, Mumbai. B.Sc. (Hons.), M.A.

RG: 26, 5.5 years, Research Analyst with Deloitte Consulting, B.Com, CA

DS: 27, 4 years+, IT Consulting , BE Elec. Engineering

MD: 26, 3.5 yrs, Team Lead(software dev. in telecom), B.E (Information Science & Engg.)

GN: 32, 7 years+, ASIC design/verification, BE and MS in Elec. Engineering

2. When did you start thinking of doing an MBA?

RB: Working 1.5 years down the line, I realized I needed a career shift. I talked to a few friends and colleagues and an MBA at that juncture seemed 'wise'.

MR: About 2-3 years into my job when I started to get the feeling that MBAs may be preferred over non-MBAs as one goes up the corporate ladder.

SD: Around 2002. But finalized it only around Mar 2003.

MG: Immediately after completing engg. but seriously considered it around 2 years back.

KN: Started thinking about it in mid-2002 - was the best way to help me steer my career in mainstream marketing.

RG: Was clear about it from the time I qualified as a CA in May 2001. I planned to get three years of work-ex after CA on the CV and start the MBA in 2004 – which is what I did.

DS: I started thinking about an MBA right out of college. Waited for 3 -4 yrs to get decent work experience and apply to colleges.

MD: During the final year of my engineering course. Seriously considered it about a year back.

GN: My final decision was the result of discussing it casually with friends and acquaintances for about 2-3 years prior and then visiting other b-schools in 2003.

3. When did you take your GMAT? How long did you prepare for it? What was your primary preparation material?

Everyone responded that the resources they used were the Kaplan GMAT Book, Kaplan Test Prep software, the GMAT Official Guide, Princeton Review books and PowerPrep software from
www.mba.com

RB: January 2004. I prepared for about two or three months- seriously began reading the Official Guide and worked on the Powerprep in the last month.

MR: January 2003. Prepared for abt 2 months @ ~2 hours per day. I didnt find Barron’s very useful.

SD: September 2003. Prepared seriously for 3 months. Around 10 hrs a week. Also used quite a few online sources, which while not directly related to GMAT helped me a lot nevertheless. One example is:
http://www.wsu.edu/~brians/errors/errors.html

MG: July 2003. Prepared seriously for two months prior to taking the exam.

KN: Took the GMAT in Oct 2002. Prepared for about a month while I was working - took a 10 day break prior to the test.

RG: Jan 2001 – At that time I had taken the CAT and felt it would be good to place the GMAT close to that date. In my opinion, the prep for CAT and GMAT overlap significantly.

DS: June 2000. Standard prep, nothing special

MD: Dec 2003. Prepared for 1 month.

GN: May 2003. Prepared quite seriously for a month prior to taking exam.

4. Schools considered/applied to other than ISB

RB: None! I was considering INSEAD when I received an offer letter from ISB.

MR: Nanyang Business School – Singapore, LBS.

SD: Wharton, Stanford, HBS, Kellogg and Tuck

MG: Kellogg, Columbia, MIT and Duke

KN: Considered National University of Singapore & Asian Institute of Mgmt, Manila - applied only to AIM.

RG: None

DS: Cornell, Duke, CMU, Indiana, Emory, Kenan Flagler

MD: None.

GN: INSEAD, Simon - University of Rochester, Yale - SOM, Nanyang Business School – Singapore

5. Sources of information about the ISB, prior to joining

RB: ISB website, Yahoo groups, BW Forums, ISB Blogs, emailing alums.

MR: Mani Iyer (Batch of 2002)

SD: Primarily Nikhil Gehrotra, founding batch, ISB Website, various online Forums. Obviously blogs like this were not in vogue that time. :)

MG: Friends, ISB website and ISB session at Bangalore

KN: Alumni (Class of 2003 & 04) - Had 2-3 good friends who studied here & had shared their experiences through out - 95% of my decision was based on their experiences during the course and after. Other sources were the ISB website (for faculty, details), brochure, media articles (largely around placements).

RG: Followed school right from inception. Have had a friend in every batch that has passed out so far, so information has been available all along.

DS: ISB website (for faculty details), Business India, ET articles ,friends from Infy

MD: Alumni, ISB website and ISB road show at Bangalore

GN: Arjun Chittoor – from the ISB batch of 2004, ISB website (for faculty details), Business India, ET articles.

6. What are your top two reasons to join ISB?

RB: Located in India. The Faculty.

MR: Importance given to workex, affiliations (Wharton, LBS, Kellogs).

MG: The faculty and the fee.

KN: The duration of the course and convenient funding options (9 yr loan)
RG: Wanted a quality one-year program. Wanted that to be in India if possible.

DS: The Faculty.

MD: Faculty, exposure and unique one-year program suited for working professionals.

GN: The Faculty. The location (close to Bangalore - hometown) and fee structure.

7. Round of application when applying to ISB – 1st round (Dec 2003), 2nd round (Feb 2004). Did you visit ISB prior to applying and was it helpful in making decision?

RB: Second round (Feb 2004). I couldn't visit ISB because I was based abroad.

MR: 1st round. Visited many times before applying since I was working at Hyderabad. A visit certainly impresses you.

SD: Second Round. Didn't visit prior to applying

MG: 2nd round in Feb 2004, didn't visit ISB prior to applying.

KN: Applied in the 1st round. Visited ISB in Oct. 2003 - meeting alumni & getting a feel of the environment on campus both helped consolidate my decision and motivated me during the application process.

RG: First round. I visited ISB about a year before I applied. I already had favourable inputs on the school, so the visit really just helped reinforce the positive image.

DS: Applied in the 1st round. I didn't visit ISB as I was abroad at the time of applying.

MD: 2nd round. No – did not visit.

GN: Applied in the 2nd round Visited ISB in Oct. 2003, very helpful in making my decision.

8. Who were your referees and why did you choose them?

RB: A senior manager in the firm I worked for and my undergrad professor. I was closely associated with the manager during my tenure; I chose to ask a professor for reference because it hadn't been too long since I graduated. I was sure that both of them would not hesitate to provide me with stellar recommendations :)

MR: First referee - CFO of the organization where I worked. Reasons- he had constantly encouraged me to take up further studies. And I hv worked under him for a few projects. Hence the right person to assess me on my core area of finance. Second referee- Sr VP- Marketing. Reasons – I felt it was important to highlight that I hv worked in cross functional teams and had a holistic perspective of an organization. Hence the choice of the marketing person to underline this.

SD: My referees were both people I had worked closely with over an year. I felt they had guided me quite a bit in my career as well as my MBA application process. One of them was an external consultant who had worked with us on various Information Security initiatives and the second was my immediate boss.

A small note: Someone I know had called me up earlier this week asking if the professors from college days were OK as referees. Ideally I would suggest that you get your recos from your workplace/professional lives. If there is some genuine reason why you cant do that, only then go for recos from college professors etc.

MG: People who I had worked with very closely - one of them was my manager in previous organization for almost 2.5 years and the other was my peer with almost the same experience as I had. They knew me well and were in a position to write a fair assessment.

KN: One of my referees was my immediate superior at O&M who had later moved for another assignment - a lot of my essays revolved around my experiences while working as part of his team. I was quite confident that he would present a balanced view about me. The other was from a Professor who was my guide in the Honours Programme at the undergraduate level. He brought a different perspective (from an academic p.o.v) added added to the to the other referral (that was purely professional).

RG: My immediate boss at Deloitte and the boss one level above that.
My immediate boss – because it’s almost mandatory! J Well, I had worked with this person for the last three years at two organizations – as colleague and as sub-ordinate. I knew he would give me strong, well-rounded reco. My boss’ boss – Expat (Irish) – felt it would add a nice “international” touch to the app! I worked with an offshore team based in Hyderabad for Deloitte Consulting US. All my work was with consultants from the US firm and I felt this reco would kind of help support that position. I had of course worked very closely with this person.

DS: My roomies and a close friend were my referees. One of them was in Stern and the other is extremely profound. Good help in finalizing my essays

MD: Previous bosses. I chose the bosses I was currently working with, because I was doing well at my organization and felt they were the best persons to write a recommendation.

GN: Both of my referees were people who I had worked with fairly extensively. One was from a client company and quite senior and the other was from my own company and a year my senior. I could trust them to provide an objective reference while being reasonably enthusiastic about me.

9. Had you decided on an area of interest prior to joining ISB? Which area?

RB: I worked on Technology for some time, and was in close contact with Market research systems at work. I came in looking for some extra gyaan on Technology and sound fundamentals in Marketing.

MR: I had not decided at that time. In the course of the first couple of terms, I hv firmed up on specializing in Finance.

SD: Vaguely yes. Knew it would probably be related to IT and Marketing.

MG: Yes - Entrepreneurship

KN: Yes. Marketing - that has largely been my area of work and interest. The objective of the MBA is to help me further my career in this field.

RG: Clear again from the start (2001) - Analytical Finance and LCM.

DS: I wanted to dabble with Product Management. Consulting as usual was a backup.

MD: Yes - Marketing.

GN: Based on my knowledge/work-ex outside of ISB, I had decided Technology and was also keen on International Business (not at ISB).


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September 13, 2004

Life in a B-school (Part 1)

The quality of life in a B-school provides a constant source of fodder to gossip mongers. Rumour mills thrive on outrageous stories of sleep-depriving work schedules, mind-numbing assignments, back-stabbing peers and blood-sucking professors.

Are memories of life at B-school days snapshots from hell or postcards from paradise? This article marks the first of a four part series on life in ISB (covering students, professors, academics and parties) and would aim to explode many of the myths that surround the B-school lifestyle.

The Party Scene

ISB is caught in the grips of a party frenzy at this moment. Term 4 has just started, the exams are a long way off and there is an unexpected respite from projects and submissions. With the weather gods being benevolent, it was partytime this weekend at the campus. In a short span of three days, I attended five parties, and others around me claim to have attended more! The parties in ISB are generally well attended and dignified affairs, keeping in line with the maturity levels of the individuals on campus. Obviously, they also provide the students with a much needed opportunity to let their hair down for some of the craziest and whackiest times on campus. Here is an inside glimpse into the kind of parties ISB has:

Birthday bashes:(Rating **) (The rating is based on how happening the parties are)

An e-mail to all students at precisely ten minutes to midnight, marks the beginning of a birthday bash. The mail draws students in all forms of night-wear to emerge from their retreats and head towards the birthday hosting flat. These parties are marked by cake cutting and smearing, followed by the smearing of anything edible on the face of the birthday boy / girl. Past parties are known to have had instances of smearing of pizza's, pastries, pasta's, maggi, egg, ketchup, namkeens, apple pie’s and even cheeku-shake!! The party then cleans up and proceeds to the swimming pool for a dunking session. The success of the dunking session is measured by the distance the guest of honour is thrown, the number of somersaults taken and also the number of people dunked.

Patrician socials: (Rating ****)

Strictly 'by-invitation-only' parties, these are known for their fine alcohol, a great deal of dancing or just good conversation. Open air barbeque's are the latest trend in these circles. An invitation to these parties is a measure of the social standing of an individual on campus. These parties are held by select groups of individuals on a regular basis, have a good mix of guys and girls and are some of the most happening parties on campus.

Plebian 'baithaks': (Rating ***)

Plebian baithaks are a free for all. Boisterous and disorderly, these parties are notorious for the exchange of the most scandalous gossip on campus, which is generally exaggerated in direct proportion to the drunkeness of the gossip monger. The activities at the other parties often form the basis of many discussions. The lingua franca is Hindi and the conversation is liberally sprinkled with the choiciest of hindi, punjabi, telugu, tamil, bengali and oriya expletives. These are strictly 'men-only'.

'Ghar ka swaad' parties: (Rating ***)

Usually held by the married people on the campus, when pestered by their friends beyond the resistance point. These parties are held in the studio apartments and are marked by the sweet aroma of home-cooked food, light music floating in the air and the sounds of pleasant but curtailed laughter. Entry to the 'Ghar ka Swaad' parties is very restricted and strictly by invitation only. These are by far the most difficult parties to get invited to and the most rewarding also.

School Bashes:(Rating *****)

The Big daddies of the party circuit, these are organised about twice a term for all the students. Held in the mirror pools, these are large affairs, with DJ's from the city, disco lights, fog machines and huge speakers. Attendance is very high and several rare and exotic species of students, sighted only in the habitats of the library are finally seen with liquor in their hands. The dance floor is the most happening place and despite the large size of the mirror pools, these get very crowded. These parties are known for some very interesting (read naughty) themes, which make them even more fun!

Casino reminiscence meets: (Rating ****)

Held by a very select and limited lot of students on campus, these parties usually go on till the early hours of the morning. Very discrete and understated, card meets are known for their ample liquor and heavy snacks. Although the parties start with small stakes, as the night gets along, the stakes get higher. The winners are often spotted treating one and all in the cafeteria on the next day. Blackjack, Baccarat and Poker are extremely popular amongst this very tightly knit set.

Group camaraderie dinners: (Rating **)

These are marked by small groups of individuals going across to Hyderabad to dine in the fine restaurants that the city has to offer. Very private, these dinners are known for the good food and even better conversation. Such dinners are preferred by groups to enhance their team spirit and bonding, which often hits rock bottom after some disastrous group assignments. A lot of students generally not seen in other parties are spotted at these dinners.

Boozard binges:(Rating ***)

Boozard's binges begin without warning, as and when the bacchus worshippers on campus realise that one amongst them is in possession of intoxicating substances, which are not in the nature of cough syrups. Male dominated parties, these go on till the liquor lasts. Generally open houses, there is no invitation extended for these parties. The people blessed with a good nose can smell these from a mile and they dominate these circuits.

Gourmet soirees: (Rating ***)

Held by the connoisseurs of good food, gourmet soirees are held at irregular intervals in certain select flats on campus. These parties are closed door affairs, and have a very favourable sex ratio (generally three gals to a guy). They are well known for ‘theme’ cooking and many an exceptional talents are uncovered during these parties. These parties provide an excellent opportunity for students to impress their loved ones.

Pub Visits: (Rating ****)

A mail to the students from the social events co-ordinator signals an ISB pub party. These are alternately hosted by the pubs of Hyderabad. Marked by Karaoke / special DJ's, these are widely attended by all students. Dancing and boozing are the main activities. Well known for their stress-busting powers, these provide an ideal party for the ISB’ians to paint the town red.

Other assorted parties: (Rating **)

The campus also play’s host to a number of assorted parties including ‘professor-sponsored’ parties, club parties, women's pyjama parties etc. Rare and far between, these parties are kept hush-hush. Entry is restricted and the author confesses that he possesses limited knowledge about these parties.

Singers Meets:(Rating *)

Organised at night in the common area, these go on till very late. Marked by a guitar player, surrounded by a perimeter of enthusiastic chorus singers, old hindi songs still rule the charts here. These are held on a fortnightly basis and are well attended by the singing brigade and members of the lonely hearts club. The lack of talent is often made up by the enthusiasm of the participants. These get-togethers though much appreciated by the music club members, are hated by all others whose sleep is disturbed due to the obvious lack of talent of certain members in the club.


This was a small glimpse of the parties held at ISB. Obviously, these are indicative enough of the extent and the number of parties held, catering to a wide cross-section of people and preferences. However, let this not deceive you into thinking that the b-school world is a world of parties galore. Watch out for the article on academics as part of this series to clear your misconceptions.

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September 10, 2004

E.F. Schumacher on Buddhist Economics...

Earlier today, I read that you are doing GSB this term. Thought that some of you might it find it worthwhile to ponder over E.F. Schumacher's thoughts on economics. Maybe, you could raise it with your prof, and post his thoughts on Schumacher's ideas. Anyways, here goes...

Let us take some fundamentals and see what they look like when viewed by a modern economist and a Buddhist Economist.

There is universal agreement that a fundamental source of wealth is human labour. Now, the modern economist has been brought up to consider "labour" or work as little more than a necessary evil. From the point of view of the employer, it is in any case simply an item of cost, to be reduced to a minimum if it cannot be eliminated altogether, say, by automation.

From the point of view of the workman, it is a "disutility"; to work is to make a sacrifice of one's leisure and comfort, and wages are a kind of compensation for the sacrifice. Hence the ideal from the point of view of the employer is to have output without employees, and the ideal from the point of view of the employee is to have income without employment.

The consequences of these attitudes both in theory and in practice, are of course, far-reaching. If the ideal with regard to work is to get rid of it, every method that "reduces the workload" is a good thing. The most potent method, short of automation, is the so-called "division of labour" and the classical example is the pin factory eulogised in Adam Smith's Wealth of Nations. Here it is not a matter of ordinary specialisation which mankind has practised from time immemorial, but of dividing up every complete process of production into minute parts, so that the final product can be produced with great speed without anyone having had to contribute more than a totally insignificant, and, in most cases, unskilled movement of his limbs.

The Buddhist point of view takes the function of work to be at least threefold: to give a man a chance to utilise and develop his faculties, to enable him to overcome his egocentredness by joining with other people in a common task; and to bring forth the goods and services needed for a becoming existence. Again, the consequences that flow from this view are endless. To organize work in such a manner that it becomes meaningless, stultifying, or nerve-racking for a worker would be little short of criminal; it would indicate a greater concern with goods than with people, an evil lack of compassion and a soul-destroying degree of attachment to the most primitive side of this worldly existence. Equally, to strive for leisure as an alternative to work would be considered a complete misunderstanding of one of the basic truths of human existence, namely that work and leisure are complementary parts of the same living process and cannot be separated without destroying the joy of work and the bliss of leisure.

From the Buddhist's point of view, there are therefore two types of mechanisation which must be clearly distinguished: one that enhances a man's skill and power and one that turns the work of man over to a mechanical slave, leaving man in a position of having to serve the slave. How to tell the one from the other?

To be continued...



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September 03, 2004

Things to do in ISB during the term break

So you have a 5 day respite between two terms, popularly known as a term break. While the break is usually over by the time I've caught up with my sleep, here's a few activities hyperactive students indulge in:

- Movies on demand
Now that we have the uncrowned king of downloads in our midst, movies are just an email/phonecall and a day away. Else corner the dude at the cafeteria, tell him about your heart's desire, and you shall find it on the network the next day. Here's ISB's version of the fairy Godmother. For who else will give you Shrek2 and KillBill Vol 2 at the touch of a magic mouse?

And with the lecture halls being free to screen movies, the only thing missing is a surround sound system to complete the movie experience.

- Trekking
On a night of the full moon, a few intrepid souls trekked to the dam, hacking through the shrubbery, with not a care for the coiled serpents hissing in the dark, their hypodermic fangs waiting to punish the fools who had the temerity to cross their lair. Once the brave souls reached the dam, they appeased the moon God with the holy water of Sunny Wines and meat from Hyderabad House.

For the timid, the dam can also be reached in the daytime. The view isn't great, but you can rejoice; you will inherit the world, eventually.

- Go-karting
Wannabe speed freaks embark on a perilous journey to Runway-9 for their gokarting fix. The real speed freaks are found at night, driving their cars back from BnC. This is what separates the men from the boys. The roads are full of kamikaze cyclists, crazed autorickshaws and bone-crushing truckers. The odd pedestrian running across the road provides the added spice.

- Partying
The party crowd makes its presence felt everywhere, and it is reported (the veracity of this may be doubted) that the party goers take offence if the establishment does not welcome them with a 20% discount and a welcome message from the DJ. Neverthless, it is true that we provide valuable business to Liquid, BnC, TDS...

- Healthy living
The part-time health freaks are seen at the gym, some at post dinner, pre-snack times like 11 p.m. More enterprising ones are seen in the swimming pool, and the daring ones have been spotted flinging their racquets with reckless abandon in the squash courts. The ISB administration is reportedly considering introducing a rule making helmets mandatory in the squash courts.

Of course, the real health freaks are found in the lonely confines of their rooms, working out with their corporate finance text books.

While I claim first on the healthy living list ( sleep-eat-surf-eat-sleep, and the odd cameo at the squash/tennis court), I have been ejected from the list due to the environmental pollution caused by my sleep-inducing aid: the air conditioner. Repeated arguments about the a.c being non-freon have fallen on deaf ears.

- TV and hibernation
A lot many students have chosen to sacrifice their time at the altar of passive entertainment. As for the rest, who haven't been covered in any of the above categories, I believe they are in hibernation.




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