Workaholic

Passion and Team Work!

2010-06-27T10:13:00.000-07:00

Being passionate on what I want to do at work, will give me motivation, energy and direction on what I want to accomplish. Without passion I am just doing my job. The difference is humungous.

However, the reality is not so simple. My passion should be combined with my team work. The team you work with may or may not be on the same page as you. It's important for me to realize that I have to be aware of this all the time.

My passion may be construed and interpreted as aggressiveness, which will increase the temperature in the room. When the temperature increases it is hard to accomplish things.

The lesson I learnt was "Passion is important for my drive and enthusiasm. However, I need to be aware and keep checks in place so that, my passion at work is not mis-interpreted."

Importance of Implementation!

2008-04-27T21:58:00.000-07:00

"Genius is one percent inspiration and ninety-nine percent perspiration.” as told by none other than Thomas Alva Edison. I wish Edison could blog during his times. He has contributed to so many similar quotes around the importance of implementation. I have listed a few ctrl+V's

1. “Opportunity is missed by most people because it is dressed in overalls and looks like work.”

2. “I haven't failed, I've found 10,000 ways that don't work”

3. “Many of life's failures are people who did not realize how close they were to success when they gave up.”

4. “The value of an idea lies in the using of it.”

5. “Our greatest weakness lies in giving up. The most certain way to succeed is always to try just one more time.”

We do come accross a number of ideas everyday but we don't take time and courage to implement them.

Enter the Dragon!

2008-03-28T22:13:00.000-07:00

China is a reality in the global IT world today. Days are gone where Chinese companies are a distant competition. Today, many Chinese companies are competing heavily where price of execution is crucial. Many managers are trying out few low risk projects in China. The growth in this region mirror's Growth in India a few years back. While, there are still a lot of challenges for Chinese in terms of language, capabilities and capacity, there are advantages in terms of price, brain power and most importantly hunger to prove.

Here are a few questions and my inferences:

1. What does it mean for the Indian companies and Indian Engineers?
I think the top 10 Indian IT companies are not Indian any more. They have become truly global and their head quarters happen to be in India. I know for a fact that all the big 5 have development centers in India and are consciously moving certain percentage of work to China. Some logical reasons are:
a) To de-risk their business
b) To exploit cheap labor
c) To tap the Chinese market
d) To ride the IT wave
I will add another logical reason here. Access to Large Talent pool. One of my customers I was talking to has this to say "A Chinese engineer today is an un-polished diamond. It depends on your polishing skills, to extract the true value." For Indian companies, China is another job market. For Indian engineers, it is a different situation. To differentiate themselves, they need to work much harder and not satisfied with the low end work. They need to constantly strive towards moving up the value chain.

2. Are Chinese companies a competition? Really?
Chinese companies are definitely a competition if Indian companies are competing on the basis of billing rates. The difference is huge and the IT decision makers are thinking harder and asking the question "Why not China?" or "What type of projects can we do in China?". Microsoft is going further here because of the commitment to Chinese government. "How can I do my projects from China? and how do Lower my risks of project failure" This is an opportunity I think for Indian companies which are truly global.

3. How can China and India work together?

Here are a few lessons

China does not provide cost advantage if you are doing your projects in cities such as Beijing and Shanghai.
China as a market is much bigger than India but to succeed in this market, you have to take help of Chinese companies.
Chinese IT companies are typically good in areas such as localization and Globalization.
China is a good place to execute large scale IT projects.
China is not a good place to execute projects which have high customer interactions such as Support.

Given the above scenario, there are large synergies between India and China and it makes every business sense to exploit these synergies.

Gospel of Fearlessness

2008-03-23T19:44:00.000-07:00

The theory of Fearlessness applies to business as well. However, like fire this is a very powerful concept. If you use it in a sustained way, you will reap the benefits but if you abuse it, you will get burnt.

I ran into this website while helping a friend. Very powerful compilation of Mahatma Gandhi's views about Fearlessness, thought I would post it here for larger auidence. I think all of us should take time and read these beautiful tit-bits, assimilate, agree or disagree and implement.

My Heart is in the work - Andrew Carnegie

2008-03-15T15:14:00.000-07:00

http://myhero.com/myhero/hero.asp?hero=a_carnegie

Mistake Proofing

2008-03-09T18:31:00.000-07:00

Clarity of Thought!

2008-02-24T23:50:00.000-08:00

There was a king who had twin sons and nobody else. Obviously, he had difficulty in choosing the right one. He called his sons and asked each one of them on how the twin princes would rule the country after he denounce his throne.

The first one said "I will work with my brother and mother and serve the people to the best of my capability........bla ...bla...bla".

The second one said "I will rule."

In my 16 years of professional experience, the most successful people, I interact with fell in the second category. Unfortunately, I believe clarity of thought is like an art and not everybody is equally born with this skill. However, I think we can conciously develop clarity of thinking and avoid lot of clutter in our minds. Here are a few pragmatic ways and means I was able to improve my clarity of thinking:

Arrest Information overflow: Information is powerful when it is optimal. In today's world, we have so many options and choices, we get confused with too much information and the decison making becomes harder. For example, when I get 1 million hits for a simple search in the Google, how do I know which information is correct. As long as you have information as to not to reinvent the wheel, you are good to go.

Don't be a Gadget addict: Use gadgets only to improve your efficiency. For example, checking email every 5 minutes is counter productive. One best practice I try to follow is to check emails only 3 times a day. It's easier said than done but believe me, you have so much free time and can be extremely productive @ work. Try this for three days and you will realize how addicted you are to the emails and how much free time you will have if you follow my approach. If someone wants to talk to you immediately, they will call you. Also in the same lines, close that browser when you don't want it. Email, internet and Cellphone combined will hamper your thinking and eat most of your productive time.

Frameworks Help: There are a number of techniques and frameworks available and accessible to help your decision making. SWAT analysis, Root cause analysis etc., are tools many of us are familiar with now a days but ask yourself how much are you using these tools for your day to day activity. One tool I find extremely useful for my work is to divide my activities into four categories: 1) Urgent but not Important 2)Important but not urgent 3)Urgent and Important 4) Not urgent not Importent. Category 2) is the place you should try to put as many hours as possible and make sure nothing is pending in this area. Because if its Urgent and important you will do it anyway. If it's Urgent but not important you will do it or you will probably delegate it.

Chose Best times for thinking: Pick your best times for work which involves thinking. Early mornings for me are usually very good to be productive at my best. Some times late nights also work better for me.

Postpone decision making: I have experienced many a times that simply postponing my decisions has solved many problems. I am not saying you should postpone all decisions. But many a times, postponing a decison will actually buy you an option at minimum or no cost. Consider this as an alternative options very similar to non-of the above options in GMAT.

Bosses

2006-03-20T02:25:00.000-08:00

Who do you prefer as a boss?
Who do you want to be when you are a boss?

Mentorship

2006-02-27T00:38:00.000-08:00

To do or not to do.....how do you decide? I have come accross many ambiguous scenarios in my business and personal life, where, in spite of my knowledge, experience, resources and aptitude I sometimes don't know what's the correct approach. I think finding a right mentor helps us to solve our toughest problem.

It's a mere coincidence that when I was thinking about this issue I ended up taking the course. Leadership Lessons in the world literature. It's a unique but very effective way of teaching leadership lessons. As a part of the course the movie Matrix was screened. I have to admit that this is the first time I completely understood the movie. And the credit goes to professor Rajeshwar for describing the mentor/mentee relationship.

A few learnings from my experiences:

Multiple mentors. A mentor is one whom we go to when we are in darkness. In my experience, I could not find an ideal mentor who knows everything in every subject. I have identified different mentors for the three main categores: Personal, Professional and Philosophical. Sometimes, the areas overlap and optimal decision should be taken based on the context.
Ideal mentor Obviously, a mentor should be either more experienced and/or more knowledgeble than I am in the particular area. Preferably a mentor should know my strengths and weaknesses very well and should be mature enought to understand my context and my environment. I prefer not to bug my mentors too much and approach them only when I am in an impasse.
Be a mentor to others By being a mentor to others I came accross priceless valuable insights. The satisfaction of being able to help others in a tough or sticky situation is priceless. You will also perfect the art of the mentor/mentee relationship.
Listen more talk less When I am with a mentor, I try to listen more and talk less. I discuss the problem and start listening. I interrupt with very small questions for clarifications if necessary.
Provide Feedback Irrespective of the results of your actions, it is always a good idea to provide feedback to the mentor. Feedback, especially when positive gives lot of motivation to the mentor. Negative feedback provides opportunity for improvement.
Be your own judge Inspite of what a mentor says to you, you have to take the final decision and you are responsibile for the decision. Blindly following whatever your mentor says may lead to different type of problems.

According to the HBR article, Probing Options, top executives who have had a mentor derived greater satisfaction from their career and work. Of course, they also ended up getting higher pay.

Think like a Fish!

2006-02-13T09:06:00.000-08:00

What is the best way to catch a fish?

My answer: The best way to catch a fish is to first think like a fish. Let me replace fish with a customer.

How can I win a customer?

To propose any winning solution to the customer I have to think like a customer first. I will put myself in customer's shoes and try to analyze what is best for me. I will probably validate the solution with the customer, to make sure I understood the need correctly. There are probably a million books written on this topic, so what's so new in what I am trying to say?

My definition of my customer includes but not limited to:

external customer
internal customer
boss
colleague
team member
partner

The function of a manager in my view is simply to meet or exceed the expectations of the customers. Most of the problems in business arise because I don't know who my customer really is. For example: All customer interfacing roles such as sales or service, need lot of interaction with the customer, yet, external customer is not the only customer he needs to deal with. Some times the bigger customer in these types of roles might be the boss.

Once I have identified my customers, my next step would be to identify what they need. This is probably the most difficult part. I have to wear different hats so that I understand the problem from all angles. Unless I do this, I will not be able to come up with a possible solution. I have learnt a host of new priceless theories in the Consumer behavior course on how customer thinks before making a purchase decison.

The next thing I would do is to identify what are qualifiers and what are winners for each type of customer. At a minimum I have to meet all the qualifiers and depending on the competition and context I have to look for the winners. For example: In today's IT outsourcing, CMM Level 5 has almost become a qualifier and not a winner for global MNCs anymore.

The next step would be to propose a solution. Ideally I want to satisfy all the customers but practically it may not be possible. One way to find a way out is to identify who are my major customers. If I identify all the customers, it will at least help me to set the expectations for the smaller customers. Of course, it depends on the context.

To summarize:

I have to identify who my customers really are.
I have to identify what my customers really want.
I have to identify qualifiers and winners for my customers.
Come up with a solution which satisfies at least majority of my customers.

Treat me like a king and I will treat you like an emperor

2006-02-02T01:48:00.000-08:00

Title of this topic kind of crystallizes on how I am conditioned to behave. If someone encourages me and honestly appreciate what I am doing, I will go great lengths to pay the person back. Ditto with the team I work with. I pick and choose the team if I am allowed to. I do my best to encourage them, show them guidance and set them free. They always pay me back and stretch their limits to make things happen. These are ideal scenarios and have always worked for me when they happened.

I wish, life is so simple. I wish, I don't need to write anything more.

There are a few limitations with the core idea. Few questions:

What should I do if someone is not treating me with the respect I deserve?
What should I do when I see people working with me lose integrity?
What should I do when your respectful behavior is mistaken for easy to deal with?
How should I treat my team when I know that they are making mistakes which they can't see?
How do I deal with people who are emotional?

The answer can be easy if I answer "No" to the question "Do I care?" I believe majority of the scenarios, you don't need to worry so much.

In a few scenarios, where I want people to care, I need to deal with these sensitive situations with extreme caution. Following attributes are most important:

Develop ability to function well under pressure(crisis)
Practice patience and self-control under these extreme conditions

Solution will come automatically to you. For example, if some one is not treating me with the respect I deserve, I have to be patient and earn the respect through my actions and not words. Answer for all the questions start with I have to be patient and ........

Patience is the secret of success for many successful managers according to a Stanford university study. As a manager, you will be automatically treated like a king if you practice patience, otherwise, no matter how good you are you will not get the treatment you deserve.

Can Game theory explain behaviors?

2006-01-26T03:31:00.000-08:00

Operations Strategy has turned out to be a fantastic course. I wish my antenna is more receptive though. Last class was on Game theory and its application to the operations. I think this is such a nice topic and is applicable to many business problems dealing with competetion. If this is true, my argument is that Game theory can be applied to many places where there is competetion. Some examples:

Competetion with in a company for a CEO position
Competetion between fellow students who rat race towards grades
Sub-optimal performance by employees, students etc.,

While the first two in the above list are easy to understand the third one is a bit complicated. Let me try to get into the details by trying to answer the following question:

Why do some employees do not perform with their full potential?

Some possible answers

Employee do not have enough resources.
Employee is not capable.
Employee thinks he is not capable.
Employee thinks other things are more important than work.
Employee thinks that by working better. the result may not be necessarily beneficial to him as an individual
Employee works in an environment where failures are not encouraged and successes are not rewarded
Employee works to only certain extent that his promotion, recognition etc., are assured

I might have missed a few more situations but my point is that employee is either not seeing the payoffs or payoffs are simply not worth taking the risks. In my opinion, all the above situations can be rectified or at least mitigated by better work practices.

I haven't seen a perfect compensation system which really works. Most of the compensation systems are at best designed well but used poorly. And compensation may not be the only thing which can be causing the behaviours. A few other factors I think which can be controlled and there by leading to optimal behaviors are:

Recognition
Environment
Culture
Lack of guidance
Lack of structure
Freedom

In otherwords payoffs can be a combination of a compensation plus other such qualitative factors which affects the behaviors.

Conclusion: Game theory can explain a few behaviors in the work place; understanding the theory will enhance our capacity as future leaders to fine tune work practices in the best way possible.

Rationality and Conflicts

2006-01-25T05:31:00.000-08:00

Most people do behave rationally; you just have to discover the rationale.

I used to believe in this argument very strongly but the word Most in the argument is bothering me now a days. According to the learnings in one of the courses here (I think organization behavior), conflict can be explained when there are differences in

Norms
Values
beliefs
Data
Assumptions
Context

If you go by Rational thinking , everybody commits to an action based on the above categories. I believe this is a very important framework for us as future managers. Majority of our time goes into conflict resolution. When conflict happen; many times you can explain the conflict based on the above framework.

Nonethless, conflicts can also happen because of irrational behavior. Usually pejorative, the term irrational is driven by emotion-driven and impulsive actions which appear to be, less logical than the rational alternatives. In my opinion most of our Indians are almost always on the emotional side rather than the rational side. I believe this explains more number of conflicts in the Indian work environment compared to the US work environment.

Key learnings for me in the future is:

Use the above framework to deal with conflicts
This framework will help me understand and probably solve many conflicts and mis-understandings
However, if something cannot be explained, I need to be cautious of irrationality
Most important: I should not take crucial decisions when I am emotional or impulsive

Summary statement: As a manager, my heart should be burning but my mind should be cool.

Un-leashing full potential

2006-01-20T19:04:00.000-08:00

What prevents me to un-leash my true potential?
How can I find the right activity so that I am working with my full potential?
Can I get around with my problems so that I can do my best everywhere?

These questions have been bugging me from ages. Today I think I have a few valuable insights:

Dream big: Why should I think about problems when I am dreaming? Let me think of the big picture without any constraints. Think of ideal scenarios. Example: Imagine India as the economic super power.
Think radically: Many historical inventions happened because of radical thinking. That's why professors keep saying that no idea is a stupid idea. If I feel I have a stupid idea, I don't disclose the idea to others unless I am comfortable about sharing them. But I start jotting down these stupid ideas as soon as I get them.
View Problems as Constraints: I think this is what Goldratt means by his Theory of constraints. Why should we view problems as road-blocks? Why can't we view them as constraints? We know the big picture and we have the idea. Focusing on solutions and working with constraints is a better approach. Once we know what the constraints are, we can try eliminating one by one. We should bring focus on solutions. Some times some constraints actually guide you to work in the right direction. For example: If you do not have thirst for money why will you work?
Get Inspiration: I have to thank my dearest friend Vijay for giving me the inspiration to write this blog. He is the inspiration for me to do many things after coming to ISB. By being with the right people around you, you automatically start thinking differently. We will be able to remove many mental blocks by getting inspiration from the right people. Some professors are a great source of inspiration. They have much more depth in their analysis when compared to us. Books are another source of inspiration.

Ask Tough questions: I start asking tough questions about the problem. If I have run into a roadblock, I try to go back a step and see if I have missed anything.
Try doing peculiar things: We need to do a number of idiosyncratic activities once in a while to generate ideas. Some of them I try to do are driving to an unknown place, seeing movies from unknown languages, taking an impulsive vacation etc., Hardest thing I have tried and suceeded is not to do anything.

Debate: Debate your ideas with people who have experience in the problem area. They might have already thought about it and they may be able to give you better insights. But make sure not to reveal too much if it's an IP.
Use Research: It is very likely that somebody might have thought of your idea or a simlar idea already. Research is a good place to look for those problems.
Freedom: Search for freedom. If you keep doing same thing over and over again, it is very likely that either you are getting bored or you are not bringing quality. Stop doing monotounous thing at least temporarily.

All of these are motherhood/apple-pie statements but that's where the secret is.

Why can't I stop thinking?

2006-01-18T08:59:00.000-08:00

This is my typical position now a days. Thinking helps me in a number of ways. After joining this course, I have been doing too much thinking. I think this is what happens when you are serious about finding solutions to the problems. I am able to think so much because I am really not having any constraints. I have been able to think and find solutions to a number of business and personal problems I have encountered in my earlier life. But I have a few problems with this mode.

I am not able to implement many of them. Implementation is where fiction becomes reality. While on the paper the idea looks perfect I know there will be tons of implementation challenges and people issues. It is frustrating to realize that I may lose the idea completely.
I am not sure if I have enough persuasive skills to convince other parties that my idea can work. I think this is a very difficult task. Sooner than later, I have to develop these skills.
I can't turn off myself which is causing insomnia. This is a big problem I am facing now a days.
I can't concentrate on what I am currently doing. I am worried about what I should do next without completing the current task.

Having experienced the advantages and disadvantages of this situation. I have come to a conclusion that you need to stop doing in order to start thinking and you need to start doing in order to stop thinking. Have I confused enough? Any comments?

P.S.: I made the above awful picture.

My Ideal CV

2006-01-15T23:13:00.000-08:00

What is more important than getting your dream job? Many friends have asked me to review their resumes. While, I strongly believe that every resume has to be specific to the job profile you are applying for, I also think there are some generic insights which may be helpful to everyone. I am writing this blog with an experience of reviewing more than 500 resumes in the last 3 years.

Did you know?

Recruiters spend not more than a few seconds on your resume? Strong impressions are made with in the first few seconds.
If a senior manager is interviewing you, she is most likely seeing your resume for the first time.
If your resume looks too good and you don't meet the expectations in the interview, then your good resume is actually harming you.
If you write a mediocre resume, it may be difficult to get shortlisted. Also, you may get negative marks if your recruiter figures out that you haven't done enough homework.
Do you know what your recruiter is really looking for? You might think that your experience may be important but empolyer may not care for your experience. Most of the consulting companies do not really care for your experience.

My point is, grab recruiter's attention as quickly as possible and find right balance in your resume.

Following is a realestate distribution for a profile similar to mine (>10 years of experience):

Objective –5%
Education and Academics – 10%
Experience summary: Top 5 achievements quantified and highlighted –10%
Brief description of various roles performed with periods and companies – 40%
Skill set Tech/Non-technical – 25%
Extra curricular and Interests – 10%

You need to fine tune the percentages based on the job you are applying for and based on your experience. Once you establish this high level percentages, try to drill down with specifics and achievements. If I am allowed a second page, I would add the following sections:

References (No contacts or numbers but just mention the qualitative details of the reference and your relationship with the reference. Example: General Manager of the divison, was directly reporting to him)
Relevant trainings
Detailed work experience with web links of your clients/customers
Any other quantifiable achievements employers might be interested in

MAXIMIZING LEARNING

2006-01-12T06:05:00.000-08:00

It's really amazing to see the talent in this campus. Everybody I meet here is talented in one way or the other. Some people are really good in academics but some people are good in other activities. Yet, I see people making some stupid mistakes. I am one of them. "Here is a good sample of a very obvious mistake"

Before coming to ISB, I was a very confident, go-getter kind of person. I am proud to claim that I gained lot of respect where ever I worked. But, with in the first week of coming here, my confidence hit a nose dive. I did not really know what I was really good at. Being a decent programmer, I thought I was good at “quants”. Very soon, I realized that I was at the bottom of the period in this area at ISB. I also used to think that I was very good in business lingo, presentations and business writing. Again I proved myself that I was terribly wrong.

I did not know where and what I am any good for. I worked very hard to makeup for the difference but wasn't even close to where I wanted to be. I attended almost every class, sacrificed my personal life to a very large extent just to keep running. I was doing all the right things but was getting continuously frustrated. My performance was seriously affected. After a lot of prognosis, I came to a conclusion that the real reason was I was benchmarking myself with other students where as real bench mark should have been with myself. When I looked back, I did learn a number of new things. I realized this late in the game but when I did, things were very clear to me.

Here are a few other lessons I follow which helped me a lot:

1. Bench mark with yourself. If you are not learning anything new, the bottle neck is most likely yourself. Think of ways to remove those bottlenecks.
Attend all the classes. You will learn more by listening and discussing than reading a book.
2. Read the case. I spend no more than 5 min. per page. If I cannot read the case, which is very rare, I will try to get the summary of the case from a friend so that I follow at least some discussion in the class.
3. Try to question every new idea discussed. I always look for relevance of the idea with my previous experience.
4. According to me, the best place to minimize distractions is to study at the library. It’s also the most resourceful place not only with books but also with people.
5. Learning never stops. Once you start thinking that there are no new things to learn then your downfall is guaranteed.

Following Chinese proverb kind of summarizes what I mean: In the beginner’s mind, there are many possibilities, in the experts mind, there are none.

Power of passion!

2006-01-03T13:09:00.000-08:00

Employers crib about this requirement over and over again. "We want employees who are passionate in what they do." Yet, majority of the job aspirants fail to see the requirement. I can understand this to a certain extent that it may not work for all of us at ISB. We all have sacrificed a number of things and we all have big loans waiting to be repayed. In my view, these are minor issues when compared to what you really want to do with our lives. We all have a great future and we can achieve this only if we have a long term view. If we don't follow our passion now, when will be our next chance?

In my view any employer looks for the following:

Does the aspirant have enough technical skills?
Does he have the right attitude?
Will he be committed if I give the offer?
Is he passionate about the nature of the job?

Many of us concentrate on technical skills. Technical skills required for the job are important and necassary. Unfortunately, they are not enough. Finding a job aspirant's Technical skills is the easiest part.

You may be technically really good but if you are not having a positive attitude you are not going to get your dream job. I have listed some of them:

Emotional maturity.
Accepting weaknesses and willingness to work on them.
Quest for knowledge. Learning never stops.
Assertive Communication skills.

Commitment is a little bit difficult to find out in a ninterview. If the aspirant finds out that employer is asking questions on commitment he will answer what the employer wants to hear. Employers will generally resort to creative ways of finding out if the aspirant is really committed. You may be fit technically and you may also have a positve attitude but may fail to go further because of commitment issues.

Passion is the most difficult to find out during interviews. I don't believe you can really find this during a one hour interview. The only way to find out whether somebody is passionate in what she is doing is to look at her achievements. If you are truly passionate you will find ways to improve on other areas.

If you have convinced prospective employers that you are passionate about the job, it is very likely that you got the job. In case, you have all the four elements, you've got a killer combination. Think about it.

People are not cashflows; don't discount them

2006-01-02T09:58:00.000-08:00

It is frustrating for me when I see people discounting others. It is unfortunate but true that majority of the students here don't realistically exploit the strength of other fellow class mates. In my view, the think tank we have here at ISB beats the great faculty and world class facilities we have. But the important question I have is Are we seriously leveraging the think tank? I am not claiming I am perfect in this but here are some learnings which I will value for the rest of my life.

Take responsibility: You can maximize learning through team work only if you take complete responsibility. Yes, there will be free riders and you may feel that you are doing all the work. Realize that if you want maximum learning this is the best way to go. To minimize burnout you should take complete responsibility in at least 50% of your courses. When I mean complete responsibility, I did not mean do all the work. First, you need to be confident enough that you can do a good job for your team. Second, you need to be able to motivate the team members and discuss, plan, communicate and assign the tasks. Third, you need to make sure every team member is meeting their commitments. Finally, take the responsibility of integration and putting together what is needed.
Combine synergies: We have all gone through initial group exercises where the importance of listening was rather over-emphasized. Neverthelss, we have turned out to be very poor listeners. We don't mind interrupting others when they are talking and completely ignore others suggestions and comments. I am not sure if this is a cultural thing in us but I find it very disturbing. We all understand MBTI profiling and we all know that every person has her own strengths and weaknesses. All you have to do is leverage their strengths and complement with their weaknesses. Some people have very good quantitatve skills where as some people are excellent thinkers and writers. If the both categories combine effectively, it is a deadly combination.
Be Professional: One of the key ingredients for success in the business world is to be professional. It is discouraging to see that we quickly develop a dangerous and casual student culture here. Respect for others time is very important especially in group work. Please don't get me wrong. I am not saying you should be formal but you should be disciplined. Simple things like replying promptly to the emails, volunteering for tasks, arranging for food etc., will take the stress factor out.
Be assertive : Being assertive is not being aggressive. You try to justify your argument by reasoning and data. When there is a conflict of interest, then try to understand where the other person is coming from. If there is a valid point in his argument agree and try to build on the argument.

These are only some of the learnings which helped me a lot and hope they help you too.

Secret of making good presentation

2005-09-17T06:43:00.000-07:00

Our group recently had to do a presentation on "Open source vs Microsoft". Since, I was associated with Microsoft very closely, I thought this is a very interesting topic and I will be able to do it well.

I slogged for almost a week. I might have read close to 20 articles. I barely slept during the entire week. Finally I churned out a mediocre quality presentation. I liked the ideas but hated the presentation. Here is a list of Do's and don'ts(for myself...)

Create a template -- Write down topics on what you want to tell and expand the ideas with data and conclusions. Organize your thoughts based on simple questions. Before delving into details create a basic template with the questions.
Do not miss the agenda -- Audience need to know first hand what the presenter is talking about. Agenda-Topic-Conclusion.
Do not prepare too much -- I had so much of information that I did not know where to start and how to collate. Our presentation was only fr 15 mins...so I don't think you need more than a day to prepare for such presenation.
Take help on specifc areas -- I tried to do everything and did not have energy in the end. I hate things like formating and making the presentation look cool and I don't know how to do it. Though my group mates came to the rescue in the end, I thought the help came very late.
Plan all tasks careflly-- I did have a plan in mind but I failed to put it on a paper and communicate it to the team.
Practice-- Practicing helps in expanding key ideas and to avoid mistakes during the actual presentation.

Eyes wide open....

2005-07-07T09:34:00.000-07:00

For un-clear reasons, I have a tough time staying awake in any class. I have this problem, irrespective of whether I sleep well the day before or not. After noon sessions are more difficult. (Fortuanately, this term, I am on the first row which I think is motivating me not to sleep in the class :-)

Very strange thing happened to me in today's marketing class. I did not even remember how the class went through in prof. Jagmohan Raju's class. His style of teaching is very different from the other professors at ISB. He really provokes student's thinking. The single most difference between a manager and an employee is the ability to think before making decisions. Prof. Raju is doing an amazing job here. Clearly I think he is the most popular person(guy or girl) in the campus. In fact, in the recent survey I voted him as the most popular guy in the campus.

When I analyzed why my eyes were wide open in his class, there are two important reasons. First one is from my side, which is curiosity. I was really curious what professor's views were about the case. The second reason is from the professor's side which is the ability to make the students think. I can always get the knowledge by reading books or taking help from others but I believe the learning experience some professors created will probably change the way I think about the world.

Every professor has a different style of teaching. But whatever the style is, the professor's primary aim is to motivate the student to think differently. It is not an easy job. This term, I think the majority of the ISB professors are creating the environment to do this.

After completeing a fast pace course like this, I am not sure how much I will remember when I go out. The more I study, the less I remember. But I am absolutely postively sure that I will not be forgetting what was taught in today's marketing class. If I can have similar experience through out my stint here I think I will be a much smarter person when I graduate.

Conundrum of Exams

2005-06-03T13:09:00.000-07:00

Writing an exam has always been a pain for me(just like millions of others...). I have hated exams through out my life. I have some how managed to come this far but I still cannot escape the pain. However, if exams are not there, people like me would never learn. The fear of failing in the exam, I am sure is making me learn a lot.

Now I know that I cannot escape exams, the next thing left is how can I do best in my exams.

What happened so far? I was very clear before the course started. I had to study every day and make sure that I am following everything. Plain and simple. Now two days before the exams, I realize that what ever I did, didn't work.

It pains but it is true. I have worked really hard all these days but in a very in-efficient manner. Sacrificed a lot of things to efficiently use the time. I think I succeeded in the time part but failed in the rest.

The Plan: (Strategizing exam preperation as suggested by my Marketing professor Scott Ward)

The goal of what I am doin is to learn and to be more knowledgeble than I was before I came here. Strategy is to do this MBA. One objective is to pass the exam. The tactics are

Ask Questions with professors, TAs(Paying loads of money for this course, why not maximze the benefit)
Network with friends
Use Library
Make sure there is no backlog at least weekly if not daily
Rate myself, how I have done every week and make adjustments for the next week.

Hopefully, I have learnt a few lessons in the term1 already.....

Why Should I Blog?

2005-05-29T12:47:00.000-07:00

Blogging was one of the grey areas to me until I joined ISB. I really did not understand the concept. I initially thought of blogging as revealing my dairy to the public. I was confused and I definitely don't want to write my dairy on the net...(imagine that).

After some experience in seeing blogs of my friends, I essentially see two major benefits from Blogging. Firstly, Blogging is an excellent mechanism to record what I am learning in my every day life. Secondly, it will give me an opportunity to share my point of view about what goes on around me. In other words, blogging will help me to channelize my thinking and coming with a concept or idea which I strongly believe based on my experience. Of course, there are many more secondary benefits like improving my writing skills etc., My focus though will be on the primary benefits. I will be open and continue doing this as long as blogging gives me satisfaction.

About Me

2005-04-29T04:47:00.000-07:00

Sridhar Katta
Redmond, USA