Diwali was good...and unusual...this year. We got together with some friends for some good food, booze, fireworks, and snow! Even Sebastian came over from London and Melvin from Oxford. Ah, a great evening!
London apparently saw October snow for the first time in 70 years. Other parts of the country have seen October snow more recently. I for sure, have never seen snow in October - and certainly not on Diwali. And not just a sprinkling - there was probably over an inch on my car, and even more on the lawn - enough for us to bury the roman candles deep enough to stabilise them. Thankfully it stopped snowing well in time for us - and for the kids - to enjoy the fireworks. It was bitterly cold outside, though, and while I continued freezing my fingertips off in the snow with the kids, most people retired inside into the warmth long before we'd got half-way through the fireworks.
Pictures soon.
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Tuesday 4 November 2008
Diwali...and snow!
Thursday 30 October 2008
Enduring friendship...
As we move through life we meet new people - at work, in the neighbourhood, at the gym, or through friends. Some acquaintances stay exactly that, some we lose touch with; others turn into friends. And some turn into friends we just know we'll be friends with for a very, very, long time.
The best friends are usually made during student life or very early into our career, when we tend to spend a lot of time with them. As we move on in life and get busy with family and work we still make new friends, but it is more difficult to forge the kind of friendships we took for granted in the yesteryears. It can (and does) still happen, but consider yourself fortunate if it does. I guess we never really spend enough time with these new friends or go through life's challenges together with them; we don't experience the emotional highs and lows together any more, nor face the exhilaration of overcoming obstacles together. Emotional bonding most likely doesn't get a chance.
The electronic age has certainly made things easier. Cheap phone calls, email, instant messaging, and a shrinking world, all help friends stay in touch. I have old friends I have not met in over 10 years - still I feel like I know them as well as I used to, and I know that reconnecting emotionally when we do meet, even after so long, will be easy.
And now I've had this opportunity - of being a student for the first time in 14 long years, and of being a fellow student with 220 classmates, spending one full year with them - studying and working hard through many nights, and then spending some other nights partying and drinking the stress away. I have valued this a lot more because like many others I'd never thought I would have this opportunity ever again. It had been way too long since my undergraduate degree.
Of course, 220 is too large a number of people to become friends with. Indeed, I hardly know a very large proportion of them. But I have certainly made a significant number of friends, friends that I know, like, and trust. Time will tell how many of these turn out to be enduring, or with how many of them I'll still be in touch with in, say, 10 years time. An enduring friendship, after all, is a two-way street. It requires effort, patience, trust, and in today's world, the ability to transcend time and distance.
One thing is for sure, though: I am a much richer person, relationship-wise, than I was going into the MBA programme, and I consider myself lucky to have had another chance so late in life.
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A courier company with a difference
Oxford classmate and friend Dhruv Lakra has decided to fore go a high-flying post-MBA corporate career and has just set up Mirakle Couriers, a courier company with a difference. Mirakle Couriers has been set up to provide employment to the disabled - only deaf people will be hired for pick-ups, drops, and back-office operations, providing them with hard-to-get employment, and perhaps more importantly, dignity in life. Operations are initially planned for the city of Mumbai. The idea is innovative but unproven. I, however, cannot see why the deaf cannot perform these tasks as efficiently as the more 'able', or why the business model should not take off. Look closely at the company's logo below and the depiction of sign language for the letter 'I', and you'll see how effectively it conveys the message.
The idea will attract customers who wish to do their bit for society, even though it may put off those who may see this as a risky business to hand over personal or valuable documents or parcels to, at least until Mirakle Couriers establishes a reputation for efficiency. As someone who believes in the innate 'goodness' of the common man, I suspect that there are enough people in the world who fall in the former category and therefore will contribute towards making the venture a success.
I would love to see the idea take flight and extend to the creation of opportunities for people with disabilities of other kinds. I hope Dhruv and Mirakle Couriers are establishing a trend here that sees the birth of many such ventures in the future. I urge all readers to spread the word, and Mumbai residents to use the services of Mirakle Couriers.
You can follow Dhruv's journey here.
A laudable effort, Dhruv. Kudos!
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Friday 29 August 2008
The Oxford MBA Summer Options
As part of the Oxford MBA programme you have three options to spend the summer months - and to gain the two credits required for the programme. People contemplating the Oxford MBA read on. Others, pardon the detail.
The first of these is the Summer Consulting Project (SCP). This involves doing a short 6-8 week consulting project (pretty obvious!) for a company, building on and consolidating the academic learning from the course and combining it with past experience and general skills to present a solution for a real-life problem faced by the company. The SCP, which is worth two credits, involves working at the client site or remotely, presenting a practical solution for them, and writing a more academic 15,000 word piece for the formal assessment. The projects are typically sourced by the school (though you can source your own, subject to certain criteria being met), and students are often compensated for their work.
The second option is to take two 'summer elective' courses, each worth one credit. Each course consists of eight three-and-a-half-hour lectures condensed into one week, often accompanied by individual and group assignments. Some courses run concurrently (i.e., in the same week), and so depending on your choice of electives you could be attending 16 lectures in one week and working on the related assignments and practical work. Or you could choose one in the first week of the summer, and one in the last.
The third option is to write an Individual Academic Thesis on a subject of your choice. This is the most academically oriented option of the three, and therefore the least preferred option for most MBAs.
So, what did I do this summer, and what would I recommend to future students of the Oxford MBA? I elected to do the summer electives, and took both my electives in the first week of the summer. Of course this meant an extremely hectic first week - 50 hours of lectures in the week accompanied by several assignments. But it also meant that once I had ridden through that week, I was more or less done for the summer! There were still a couple of assignments left, but I could do them at relative leisure. And why would you want to do this? If you want an easy-going summer, wish to travel, spend time with family, or just utilise the time to look for a job. This option works particularly well for those opting to do internships over the summer, which are not academically assessed and therefore do not count towards the course. For such students, the practical option is to take the two electives and to then spend the rest of the summer completing the internship.
And who should do the SCP? Students who wish to build on what they have learnt in class during the year, those who wish to work for the company they are doing the project with, or those who wish to travel to different countries at the expense of that company (trips this year included those to India, China, Gambia, and Hungary). The report or presentation for the company, and the 15,000 word academic submission can make this pretty demanding in terms of time, though, and people may find they have little time left for anything else. Long term benefits depend on individual motivations, and I have found people in my class to have benefited in varying ways and to different degrees. There are some who are glad they took that option, others are more ambivalent about it and are unable to come up with concrete reasons for why they would recommend it. The process used to award the school-sourced projects is complex, however, and it involves bidding for the project(s) of your choice. The project that is right for you, therefore, is not guaranteed, but you commit to any other project you bid for, and are awarded. It is hard to come up with a process that is fair to everyone, and I'm sure the school and the projects office are working hard t improve on it all the time. Self-sourced projects, however, are not bid for and are therefore guaranteed.
The academic thesis is almost definitely for the more academically minded student - for someone who wishes to dig deep into a subject with a view to entering the world of academia or continuing academic / research work in the future. If you wish to work in the traditional avenues of industry, consulting, or finance, this may not be for you.
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Chef Alok
Tall claim, surely. Bordering on the atrocious, even.
Still, if it were a relative evaluation, I might just about qualify. For someone who has never really cooked in the 36 years of his life (my activities in the kitchen always limited to doing the dishes, cleaning up, and occasionally, very occasionally, cutting up the veggies), living away from family in Oxford has resulted in me becoming a little adventurous in the kitchen.
It started too late, perhaps in the last quarter of my year here. And it started with one disastrous attempt, followed by slightly more successful ones. Edible food, and gradually, reasonably tasty stuff. Often made with the help of ready-made sauces and gravies topped up with onions, tomatoes, and additional spices! And my repertoire depended on the type of gravy I could buy. My flatmate Varun often turned out to be the catalyst, suggesting we cook in rather than eat out. Incidentally Sebastian, my other flatmate, has never been around when I've cooked. Sheer coincidence though, each time, Seb. Honest
Antonio recently cooked an Italian meal for a bunch of friends at my place. I helped, but my help was limited to cutting the meat, peeling the potatoes, and the like. On another day I cooked some chicken together with another guy at Pranav's house - used some ready sauce to prepare some pretty decent stuff.
For all those cooks sniggering away, trust me when I tell you it is a big deal for me! So who knows, for someone who has never really understood the point of cooking for several hours only for the food to be eaten up in 15 mins, this might just be the turning point. I might just turn chef - one day!
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Wednesday 27 August 2008
Punting
One thing you've got to do when in Oxford, is go Punting. A couple of months ago I had written about my experience with punting (see here) when I'd gone with friends from Mansfield College. This time it was with friends from SBS. And thankfully, the conditions were absolutely perfect for punting, and we had a blast of a time! Here's proof.
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Capstone, and the Beginning of the End
In one of my previous posts I had promised to let you know about the final course of the Oxford MBA - the Capstone Course. Don't ask why it is called that, but it involves the development of scenarios for a client who is facing challenges presented by climate change. Working in small groups, we will identify key changes in the client's strategic environment likely to arise from developments relating to energy security and climate change, and develop a set of scenarios that will help them confront those changes. Should be pretty exciting!
It is a relatively short course, starting on the 8th of September and finishing on the 12th. Our MBA culminates in a black-tie 'farewell' dinner on the 12th and an 'end of course' ceremony on the 13th.
It has been an absolutely fantastic year for me! There's just over two weeks left, but I'm expecting the remaining days to be very eventful and memorable.
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Thursday 14 August 2008
Foila Car
Literally Foil-a-car, here's something interesting for car enthusiasts: foil from a company called Foila Car that can be applied onto a car's panels, thereby instantly adding a removable additional layer. The foil can be transparent and therefore only protective, or coloured to completely transform the appearance of the car. Apparently this is catching on in Dubai (where else?). Here's a few pictures of a car being, well, foil wrapped!! Click on play to view.
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A Picture is Worth a Thousand Words
I'm sorry, but I'll conveniently use this cliche to post another set of pictures...even though I am months late and the night in question was in late May. Some 'real' posts will follow. I promise!
The night in question was Pranav Garga's birthday, which started with dinner and a few drinks at Las Iguanas, and ended after many hours and a few (ahem!) more drinks at Anuba. The party, after we were kicked out of Anuba, moved on to Cranham Terrace where it continued until the small hours of the morning.
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The Oxford MBA 2008 Photo-book
For the last few weeks a group of volunteers has been working on creating a photo-book for the Oxford MBA class of 2007-08. It was hard work, but equally, a lot of fun. The photo-book is ready to be printed now, and should be available for us by Capstone week (what is that? I'll get to it - in time), that is, around the middle of September.
Here are some pictures of the team.
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Oxford in Pictures
Some pictures of Oxford, taken on a delightfully sunny day, not too long ago...
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Back...
...after a rather long, and unexpected, hiatus. My last post was just over two months ago, and though the 4-5 weeks after that were pretty much taken up in assignments and exams, there really is no reason why I shouldn't have posted anything for the last month or so.
Well, I'm back now, and hopefully will remain more consistent hereon.
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Thursday 5 June 2008
Croquet and Punting
Isn't it wonderful that the world is so full of obscure, intriguing things, many of which we have never heard about before? In my previous posts I have referred to Real Tennis, and more recently, Petanque. Well, now here are Croquet and Punting. I'd just about heard these words before I came to Oxford, but didn't quite know what they were about.
Last Saturday saw me learn about, and indulge in, both - courtesy the Mansfield College MCR. We played a bit of croquet on the college lawn. The game involves hitting balls through hoops using a big, wooden mallet, the objective being to pass your ball through a number of hoops in a particular sequence, and to end by hitting the ball onto a wooden post. It is not a game that requires a lot of skill, but tactics can play a big role in how you fare. Here are some pictures.
Why am I not in the pictures if I was playing, you ask? Well, as usual I am behind the camera!
Croquet was followed by punting on the river Cherwell. For those who are unaware of what punting is (like me, until a few months ago), it involves, well, punting a boat along a river - using a long metal pole (or a wooden one, if you are in Cambridge) to push yourself against the river bed. The pole is also used to steer the boat, along with a little paddle used at the front end of the boat.
The current on Saturday was strong, owing to a few weirs that had been opened upstream. And that meant that while we merrily punted our way downstream, turning around and making progress upstream was difficult. In fact, we went a little too far downstream, close to where the Cherwell joins the bigger (and faster) river Isis. Too close, one might say, for we found it difficult to turn around, and were being swept towards the Isis. At one point, I think, we were less than 10 ft. from the main Isis current!
So, heading back upstream proved to be a challenge. We often found ourselves at the same spot for over 10 mins, furiously trying to make progress. I was a passenger in the boat most of the time, and let more experienced punters (is that the right word?) do the job. When I did try, I realised how important it was to use the pole to steer the boat - to keep the front end of the boat pointing straight ahead. And, how difficult it is when the current is strong and skill levels are low.
Well, it turned out not to be the picnic we'd imagined it would be, and we got back to the boathouse a difficult two-and-a half hours later. What great fun, though! Would love to do it again, but after only after a quick check on the strength of the current!
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Petanque
I have mentioned Petanque, which I've never played before the Oxbridge a couple of weeks ago, in my previous post. I had never even heard of the game, and I expect most others never have, either. So, for those intrigued, here's how the game is played (taken from www.britishpetanque.org)
THE PLAY
You play with a metal ball called a “boule” and a jack made from wood. The boules have a diameter from 7.05 to 8.00 cm and a weight from 650 to 800 gram. At first sight they look identical but they differ greatly by being made from different metals with a wide range of markings or engravings
THE AIM OF THE GAME
To place your boules nearer to the jack than those of your opponents.
COMPOSITION OF TEAMS
Pétanque is a sport in which
| | 3 players play against 3 players (triples), each player uses 2 boules. | |
| 2 players against 2 players (doubles), each player uses 3 boules | ||
| 1 player against 1 player (singles), each player uses 3 boules. |
START OF THE GAME
To start a game the teams toss a coin to see which team will throw the jack (a small wooden ball of 25-35 mm in diameter). In the following example the Blue team has won the toss.
BEGINNING OF PLAY
A player of the Blue team draws a circle on the ground (35-50 cm diameters) from which the jack is thrown to a distance of 6-10 metres from the circle. When throwing the jack and boules both feet of the player must be within the circle and on the ground, until the played boule has touched the ground.
THE FIRST BALL
The Blue team now play their first ball by trying to get it as close to the jack as possible.
Then the first player of the Red team steps into the circle to play their first boule and it tries to beat the Blue team’s boule.
This can happen in one of two ways either by
POINTING
When the team pitches or rolls their boule, judging the distance so that it stops closer than the opponents boule
or by
SHOOTING
With a purposeful throw the thrown boule removes the opponent’s boule.
IF SUCCESSFUL
It is a player of the Blue team that must now play.
IF NOT SUCCESSFUL
The players of the Red team must continue to play, until either they place a boule closer to the jack than the opponent’s boule or they have no boules left to play.
If a team has no more boules, the other team now plays until they have played all their remaining boules.
THE POINTS
A team receives as many points as it has boules closest to the jack than those of their opponents (at least 1 point to a maximum of 6 points).
In our example Blue made 3 points.
The team winning the end draws the circle and throws the jack to start the next end.
THE END OF A PLAY
The team, which first reaches 13 points, is the winner.
SO VERY SIMPLE – SO WHY SHOULD IT BE SO FASCINATING?
The simple principle of this game leaves plenty of room for tactics and the imagination, with the result that every round looks different.
A tactical mistake is usually more serious than a badly played boule.
With every boule that is to be played, there are so many different ways of playing the game:
- shoot away your opponent’s boule
- obstruct the path to the jack
- change the position of the jack with the boule etc.
PLAYING TECHNIQUE AND TACTICS
In principle, there are two ways of playing a boule - in that you either point or shoot.
When pointing and when shooting, you should keep an eye on the correct hand position: you throw with the palm of the hand turned downwards.
This imparts a certain backspin to the boule, and when you get the hang of the idea, you can manipulate the boule as the nature of the ground and the situation of the game demands.
The tactics however are equally as important as mastering the technique, which is what makes the game so intriguing.
When playing with experienced players you will quickly learn the tactics, you have to make your mind up quickly to choose if a solution is too dangerous or maybe too late nd the only choice is to try and save the game by playing a defensive boule.Top
Oxbridge 2008
The Oxbridge games, the annual sporting event between Oxford's Said Business School and Cambridge's Judge Business School, are hosted by the b-schools alternatively each year; this year they were held on 24 May, and were hosted by Judge. So that meant some 150 of packing into three buses and heading off, quite early in the morning, for Cambridge. Luckily, this was one of the better days of May, and we were set for a fantastic day of sporting events.
Cambridge did a great job of hosting us, and of organising the games. We won 8 of the 15 events, and the Oxbridge games for the fifth consecutive year. So I guess it did not matter that we had forgotten to take the Oxbridge cup with us from Oxford. It would have been rather embarrassing if Cambridge had won the games! I played ultimate frisbee and Petanque(a game I'd never even heard of until a few weeks ago - but more about that later). We won the frisbee, but I lost my game of Petanque (though we still won the team event).
The evening involved heading back to Judge for drinks, and then to St. John's College for dinner. Our hosts again did well by showing us around Cambridge and by generally taking good care of us. Well done, guys! Cambridge is very pretty. The colleges have great architecture, but unlike Oxford, they are visible and not hidden behind great big walls. The Judge Business School itself is very quirky - you'd love it or hate it.
Most of us were pretty worn out by the time we got back on the bus for Oxford - some of us after one drink too many (but hey what the heck, this is a once-in-a-year event for the schools, and a once-only event for us).
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Wednesday 28 May 2008
Defining Poverty
So how does one define poverty? Is poverty absolute or relative? Is someone who does not have access to basic health care and education poor? Or is someone who is financially well off but is not allowed to become a part of society poor? What about someone living below the breadline? Or someone who does not have access to basic shelter and clothing?
I guess this is a debate that can go on for a long, long time. However one thing is clear, though I'm no expert, that the definition of poverty is a matter of perspective. In the developing world, where billions of people struggle to make ends meet, where the next meal is in question, where disease and malnutrition are the scourge of society, poverty is defined as not having access to the very basic of human needs - food, clothing, and shelter. The developed world, on the other hand, largely believes in relative poverty. So anyone in the US who cannot afford a car is considered poor. One in five children in the UK think not owning a mobile phone is a sign of poverty.
The Oxford dictionary rather unhelpfully defines poverty as "the state of being poor", though it defines the word poor as "having very little money; not having enough money for basic needs". Merriam Webster defines it as "a: the state of one who lacks a usual or socially acceptable amount of money or material possessions b: renunciation as a member of a religious order of the right as an individual to own property". The World Bank currently uses a figure of $US 1 per day (in 1985 purchasing power dollars) for absolute poverty. Under this measure, roughly half the world's population lives in abject poverty.
The alternative has been to define poverty as relative deprivation, for example as half mean income (or as 60% of the median income, as in the UK), or as exclusion from participation in society. Thus the European Union has decided that ‘the poor shall be taken to mean persons, families and groups of persons whose resources (material, cultural, social) are so limited as to exclude them from the minimum acceptable way of life in the member state in which they live’.
Growing up in India I have always seen people struggling to scratch together the next meal. In such circumstances, someone living in their own house - however decrepit it may be, someone with assured basic resources, someone not literally starving, is not considered to be living in abject poverty. In some senses this is unfortunate, for just being surrounded by people who are simply struggling to survive denies these 'also poor' the attention they need.
So, is there a right definition of poverty? The answer, almost certainly, is 'no'. Poverty means different things to different people, and to different societies and nations. The true definition of poverty for any individual, however, and the only definition relevant to him or her, is how it is defined in the society he or she lives in. Any other definition is academic, and any other understanding is meaningless.
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Sunday 25 May 2008
Crazy dance
I came across this video and couldn't resist posting it here. Weird? Whacky? Jaw dropping? You choose the adjective.
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Monday 19 May 2008
Lost in Paris
On our way to the MBAT at HEC School of Management in Paris a few days ago, we got lost in Paris. I wasn't surprised. First, we were driving on the wrong side of the road. Second, we were driving on the right in a right-hand-drive car. Third, the signs were for inexplicably long French place names - and very difficult to read while driving along even at normal speed. And finally, I was completely foxed by the complex road numbering system in France (and a very bad map).
How do you read these signs? Or this map?
In fact we got lost almost immediately on driving into France. We were to take the A16 to Paris from Calais, and followed signs diligently. Yet how we landed onto the A26 and then on to the A1 I have no idea. What we did right was follow signs to Paris and that meant that though we took a rather circuitous route we eventually did get to Paris. However that also meant deviating from the planned route through Paris. And that's where it all went wrong.
In France motorways bear the prefix 'A' and National roads 'N' (what's the difference?). Local roads are 'D'. But then, there are also 'E' roads (what are they?). And if the map we had was to be trusted, some roads were both 'A' and 'E' on the same stretch. Or 'A' roads become 'E' roads. Or 'N' roads. Confused? Not as confused as I was while we were driving through Paris and I was trying to navigate in vain. I still am (confused - not trying to navigate in vain!). And for someone who believes in his sense of direction, it was a cruel, belittling, blow. Strangely, signs often prompted us to take the innermost lane - until we suddenly found we had to exit the busy motorway - changing 3 or 4 lanes in about a hundred metres or so. Bad enough for Seb, who was driving my car, but even worse for the driver of the second car, Joby, who had no idea where we were going and was blindly following us.
Are we on the A26? Or on the E15?
We drove around Paris, trying to decipher what road we were on, what direction we were moving in, and what road we were supposed to be taking next. The map didn't help either. Certain roads disappeared suddenly...and certain others had no numbers associated with them (well, they did, but not on our map). We found ourselves going round in circles, and rediscovering roads and landmarks we had seen only a few minutes before. I think we finally found our way through Seb's sense of direction (I console myself by thinking, 'I wasn't driving...I'd be more in control of my sense of direction if I was') and Vinita's map reading and backseat navigation skills.
Is our car likely to explode on this road? No, as it it turns out, it is the suggested route for vehicles carrying flammable materials.
On the way back from HEC three days later, we rather easily managed to get on to the main Paris ring road, the A86 - but did not realise for about 30 minutes and about 25-odd kilometres that we were in fact driving in the wrong direction! Then to compound matters all signs for the A86 suddenly disappeared and signs for the N86 (or was it E86?) appeared, and we thought we were lost again - until signs for the A86 magically appeared again (and signs for the N86 / E86 stopped!). Thankfully the nature of a ring road dictates that as long as you stay on it you cannot get lost - and though it probably meant about an extra 20-25 kilometres and about half an hour of lost time, we could find our way out of Paris and onto the A16 to Calais with relative ease.
Yet in some ways I found French roads absolutely fantastic. Contradiction? You bet. I suppose once you understand the city layout, the way roads are numbered, and what the major signs say, driving in Paris is a pleasure. On one of our nights there, we took a taxi from HEC, which I guess - judging from how long it took us - is about 30 kms from Paris centre, to Concorde Plaza in the heart of the city. I was surprised that right from leaving the HEC campus to Concorde Plaza we only had to stop twice - there were practically no traffic lights or roundabouts on the way. Almost every single junction was negotiated through a tunnel or over a bridge. A similar journey in London, and you can expect numerous sets of traffic lights slowing down traffic and increasing travel times substantially.
I guess I need to spend some time deciphering the French road system. It can't be that complicated. Or is it?
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Thursday 15 May 2008
MBAT and Road Trip
May 8-11 saw the 18th MBA Tournament in Paris with 1500 participants from 15 European business schools participating. The tournament, hosted by HEC, includes sports from rugby, football and cricket to sailing, poker and salsa.
Oxford came in overall fourth in the tournament, with notable wins in rugby, sailing, squash, Petanque (how many of you have heard of this? I hadn't, before the MBAT), and poker. We also came in second in ultimate frisbee (which I played), badminton, duathlon relay, and rowing.
All in all it was a fabulous experience. HEC hosted a party each night after the sporting events, so there was a lot of drinking involved (a deliberate ploy?). I drove to Paris with a bunch of friends, and that meant we could avoid the painful 14 hour bus journey endured by all the others. It also meant we could get to the hotel early and check in ahead of the 130 others who descended in one go...the last person to check in had to wait for over an hour to do so.
The highlights of the trip? A great road trip; getting lost in Paris and spending over an hour trying to find our way back (more on Paris roads later); staying up until 6 in the morning before heading off to HEC at 8 for further sporting events; spending the night drinking at a pavement restaurant on Champs Elysees - and by 'spending the night' I mean until 6.30 in the morning; cheering our teams until our throats gave way; playing 3 near-consecutive frisbee games; a fabulous game of cricket where we fielded first-timer Chinese Jenny who turned out to be the star of the game.
I guess I could go on and on...but I'll try and cover individual areas in separate, future posts. For now, here are a few pictures that give some idea of what the trip was like.
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Sunday 4 May 2008
Parteeee!!
Ah, finally! Seb, Varun and I were able to host the party we had been planning for months now, on Friday. It was good fun. To all those who came over - a big thank you. I hope you enjoyed yourselves. To those who could not make it, the party would've been better with you around. To the neighbours who couldn't sleep until 5 in the morning - a big sorry. Surprisingly, I was able to not only attend next morning's class and the subsequent two study group meetings, I was also able to function normally.
Check out Seb's dress!
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Wednesday 30 April 2008
Distinguished Speakers
One great thing about studying in Oxford is the very large number of illustrious speakers who visit the business school. A short list of the speakers who have visited the business school so far this year include: Sir John Rose, Chief Executive, Rolls Royce; Tony Tyler, COO, Cathay Pacific; Sir Lyndsay Owen-Jones, Chairman, L'Oreal; ex-US president Jimmy Carter, ex-US Vice President Al Gore; Neville Isdell, CEO, Coca Cola Group; Tim Harford, author of The Undercover Economist and member of the Financial Times editorial board; and George David, CEO, United Technologies Corporation, to name just a few.
It would be pointless to try and extol the virtues of listening to the experiences of men who have achieved so much. The opportunity to hear such a large number of distinguished speakers and the chance to actually have a one-on-one conversation with them during the post-talk drinks reception makes it one more reason to choose Oxford.
A few days ago the school had its annual public lecture, delivered by Oxford Graduate Nicky Oppenheimer, the billionaire chairman of the De Beers group. The lecture delivered was an informative discourse on the company's business and perspectives in the extremely complex mix of diamonds, development, and democracy.
Indeed there have been (and I suspect there will continue to be) questions about the ethics of the diamond business in Africa: issues relating to conflict diamonds, development of communities and countries in some of the poorest parts of the world, and to De Beers' role in influencing matters (including politics) in these areas. Regardless of the merits (or indeed lack of) of such arguments, it was refreshing to hear the company's perspective, and to Mr. Oppenheimer's candid submission that a lot more could be done, and needed to be done, in these areas. It was also amusing to hear, when he was introduced as an Oxford graduate who started as the chairman's assistant, that Mr. Oppenheimer was quick to explain that the only reason he could do that was because the chairman whose assistant he started out as was his father.
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Saturday 19 April 2008
Thursday 17 April 2008
The Blues Book: SBS Unplugged
Many students coming to the Said Business School and to Oxford, especially those coming from very different parts of the world with very different systems and cultures, need all the help they can get to fit in and to make the transition as smooth and as hassle-free as possible. Those researching the school with a view to applying often do not get to know enough - after all, official sources, like the fabulous SBS and Oxford University websites, can only give you so much information. Some students search the internet for any information, anywhere, while others trawl the various internet MBA groups and forums hoping to find someone with the knowledge they seek. But most prospective students often miss out on the most valuable perspective - that of current and past students, and on little nuggets of information too mundane to be included in official websites .
Therefore, some enterprising students in the current class have set up this Wiki site to help all Said Business School prospective students, applicants, and aspirants to gain a better understanding of what life is like in Oxford, what the business school and studying here is like, what to expect, and what to prepare for. The site is still in its infancy and contains limited information at the moment, but as current and past students share their experiences and opinions it should evolve into something really useful.
It is important, however, to note that the Wiki site contains the opinions of the writers - the school's students, and has no official standing whatsoever. Also, as a Wiki site it can be edited by absolutely anyone, and therefore prospective students should use their own judgment in evaluating all information, opinions, and experiences detailed on the site.
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Trinity begins
Trinity term started for me today with my first class of the term - Business in China. It was a fascinating class to begin the term with. International business in this rapidly evolving and shrinking world is dynamic and challenging as it is; business with a country like China, even more so. The country's politics, culture, markets, and legal systems are perhaps as different as they can get from the capitalistic west. Yet, more or less every company in the western world wants to do business there. So much so that it has become a cliche to say that one really cannot afford not to be in China. This paradox of evident attraction versus apparent risks makes the study of business in China even more interesting.
Incidentally, many classes, including this one, have started this term in what is still Week zero. This is partly because of complex scheduling and the availability of the lecturers, and partly because of the MBA tournament (more on that later) in the second week of May. The term promises to be the most difficult one yet. Like Hilary, we have electives and different study groups for different modules. However, unlike Hilary six different electives mean more assignments and six different study groups. Though the exact number of assignments during the term depends on the exact electives opted for, I suspect most people would have close to 15 different assignments during the term. I have 14.
I have some very interesting electives lined up for the term, in addition to 'Business in China': 'Branding and Communication', 'Marketing Innovation', 'CSR and Ethical Marketing', 'Retailing', and, 'Strategic Decision Making in Dynamic Environments'. If nothing else, this great mix of subjects should result in fantastic learning opportunities.
We are technically half-way through the year and into our last academic term (the final, summer, term is for projects, internships, theses, etc.), and the rest of the year should really fly by from here.
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Tuesday 8 April 2008
Trinity - the start of a new term
Well, here we are - half way through the one-year MBA programme, and what a six-month period it has been! After the first term - Michaelmas, and the second - Hilary, the third term - Trinity, starts on Monday.
Michaelmas was characterised by getting used to being a student, to attending classes, to learning new stuff, and to making new friends. Hilary, with us now settled in, was about capitalising on the learning opportunities in terms of academics, social networking, career planning, and life in general. This was capped by the first real sense that we've learned an awful lot in six short months - by way of the Entrepreneurship Project. A lot happened during the term, however, and it whizzed past in a blur. Looking back it is hard to identify landmark events that help bring a sense of scale to time - maybe it is just me, but I have a feeling a lot of my friends will agree.
Trinity, I have been reliably told, will be even more of a blur. It's like being on a roller coaster - we're moving along at incredible speed; yet we have no idea when we're going to reach the top (or even if we have already passed it).
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Tata Motors and Blu-ray
No, they're not connected in any way. Except that I wrote about both shortly before conclusion of affairs in each case. Therefore, an update is called for.
First, almost immediately after the last post on Blu-ray, Toshiba conceded defeat and that proclaimed Blu-ray as the undisputable technology leader. So, we can now go out and buy Blu-ray players and recorders, certain that we are not buying obsolete technology - though with the cheapest Blu-ray players currently selling for £200 in the UK it may be a while before they become ubiquitous.
Second, shortly after Easter the finalisation of the $2.3bn Jaguar-Land Rover deal between Tata and Ford was announced. Ford will also contribute up to $600m to the pension plans of the two brands. The sale is expected to close by mid-year.
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Monday 18 February 2008
Death Knell for HD-DVD?
WalMart's decision to stop selling Toshiba's HD-DVD format may well be the sounding of the death knell for the technology.
This just goes on to show that there is so much more to making a business success of a technology than the technology itself. When one buys a product, one buys more than just that - one buys the whole constellation of capabilities and services that surround the product. One buys intangibles like service support, available accessories, and reliability. One buys expansion capabilities and potential for future development. And often one buys a product that is recognizable by all.
Network effects (the phenomenon whereby a product or a service becomes more valuable the more people use it - think of mobile phone services and same-network call rates, which encourages friends and associates to stay on the same network) are also often vastly more important than the product itself. Just look at one of the most hotly contested battles in recent times - that of Microsoft Vs Apple. It isn't that Microsoft's products are superior to Apple's. If anything, it is the other way round. Yet Apple has never succeeded in threatening Microsoft to any significant extent.
Sony had learned this the hard way when its Betamax video players lost out to VHS in the late Seventies and early Eighties. Sony missed a trick by sharing some details of the format with Matsushita (Panasonic) and JVC, expecting all other players to accept Betamax as the industry standard 'for the good of all'. However Matsushita and JVC had plans of their own and developed the VHS format (some say with some help from their newly gained knowledge of the Betamax format). This started the format wars.
Though Betamax was arguably the better format (from a purely technological viewpoint), there were other reasons for its demise. The recording duration on Betamax was only 60 minutes, while VHS could record up to 3 hrs on one tape. This meant that initially Betamax could not be used to record movies. Two, Betamax lost out on the rental market - even after recording duration was enhanced, a much larger number of movies were available on VHS than on Betamax. By the time Betamax became aggressive on this front, it was too late to recover. So, VHS offered a greater and cheaper range of hardware, the tapes were cheaper and more easily available, and there were a much larger number of movies to rent. How much of this true and how much urban legend is actually irrelevant.What matters is that what probably killed Betamax were network and external effects.
Now, the situation with Blu-Ray and HD-DVD is not very dissimilar. Blu-Ray has recently gone on to become the preferred format of most major Hollywood studios. And with the largest DVD seller in the world - WalMart - also opting out of HD-DVD, it won't be long before Toshiba and the HD-DVD format concede defeat.
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Tuesday 12 February 2008
Tata closer to closing the deal?
The FT reported recently that there are signs that the talks for the sale of the Jaguar and Land Rover marques is nearing completion.
Land Rover and Jaguar are believed to have made a joint profit of $1.2bn in 2007, though Jaguar is believed to have made a loss. Incidentally, Ford does not release individual financial results for these brands.
Jaguar's new XF has been well received in the market, prompting thoughts of a change in the company's fortunes (it has been a perennial loss-maker for Ford). The XF is a great-looking car. What Car and Auto Express magazines both give it 5 stars. Check out these pics.
Photos from www.jaguar.co.uk
Surely does float my boat, it does!
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GM announces third consecutive year of losses
General Motors today announced its third consecutive year of losses in 2007. Compared to 2006 losses of $2bn, 2007 losses amount to $38.7bn! In the year 2007 there were only 161 companies worldwide with revenues higher than that figure. The entire Tata Group had revenues to the tune of $29bn in 2006-07. Kind of puts things into perspective, doesn't it?
The figure, however, is inflated by a special charge related to the valuation of deferred tax assets and therefore cannot be taken at face value.
The company only expects a real push for earnings in around 2010-2011. Earlier, GM just about pipped Toyota to the post in terms of total number of vehicles sold in the year, maintaining its position as the largest vehicle manufacturer in the world by volumes sold. GM claims to have sold 9.367m cars in 2007. While Toyota first announced sales of 9.37m cars, the figure was later revised to 9.366m. Too close to call, really!
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Things you must never do when drunk
Now here's an addition to the list of things you must never do when drunk: never lock your bike to the main door of a bank in such a way that it prevents the door from opening. And if, by any chance you do, be absolutely certain that you don't break or lose your key!
A few days ago as we were walking out of a certain college after an exchange dinner, we stopped at the porter's lodge to ask to be let out (it is secure, so no one but students can get in late in the evening, but it appears that non-students can't leave the college either, unless someone lets them out. But more on that some other time). So, as we found out, we had to wait for more than a few minutes as the porter was busy talking to a young lady, trying to resolve her problem. Her problem? She stood there with a broken key in her hand - the key to her bicycle lock - the lock that she had used to lock her bike with - to the main door of the nearby Barclays branch!
Apparently the girl had wrapped her cable lock along both bar handles of the main door at Barclays and left her bike there. Finally, when she went back to retrieve the bike, the key snapped in the lock. She was now worried that she would not be able to remove her bike that night, and as a consequence the bank would not be able to open shop the next morning - until they went round and got a cable cutter or a locksmith to do the job for them. Just imagine the chaos that would ensue the next morning, with all employees and tens of early morning customers waiting outside for the bank to be able to open its doors for business, because there was a bicycle in the way! (The bank does have a shuttered door, but the shutter only opens from inside, which cannot be got at until the main door is opened).
The porter was trying to do his best to offer possible solutions, which variably were an old wire cutter ("...but the cable lock is this thick...", said with the thumb and forefinger about half an inch apart), and a hammer ("...I don't think the lock is going to break with that!...", notwithstanding the fact that the police would take a dim view of someone trying to break into Barclays with a hammer at midnight). Finally, the solution that was arrived at was a note scrawled on a small piece of paper that began, "Dear Barclays..."
It was time to leave.
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Sunday 10 February 2008
Real tennis, anyone?
Okay. So how many people have heard of Real Tennis? I certainly hadn't, until about three months ago. It turns out my mate Seb plays it - and I had the rare opportunity to watch a match played between the Universities of Oxford and Cambridge today. Seb, naturally, was playing.
But what is real tennis?
Well, Real Tennis is the original 'Regal' tennis (Real, as in Real Madrid) from which the modern game of lawn tennis originated. It is also called Court Tennis in the US and Royal Tennis in Australia (for those that may be familiar with these terms).There is some debate about when the sport was first played - different opinions range from the 16th century to the 19th century. It may have evolved from a ball game that was played using a gloved hand from as early as the 12th century. There apparently are only about 35 Real Tennis courts left worldwide!
The sport is played in an asymmetrical court, with sloping roofs, various openings and a buttress, and has a rather intricate point scoring system. Racquets are asymmetrical too, and balls are hand-sewn - often by the players themselves. While in principle it is similar to lawn tennis there are several nuances that are difficult to follow without some understanding of the game. You can read about the sport here and here. The University of Oxford Real Tennis Club is here. I recommend a look - when so few people are even aware of the existence of the sport, having a greater knowledge of it is fantastic.
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Tuesday 8 January 2008
Great expectations
The Hilary term started today (well not quite, we're still in week 0) with a session on this term's Entrepreneurship Project (the EP). It was great meeting all the new friends we've made after a gap of about 3 weeks, catching up, discussing Christmas break activities, etc.
Activity has already started, needless to say on the EP, but also on the term's timetable, course packs, electives, and study groups. This term promises to be even more exciting than the last one: on the one hand the strange classmates we had are now friends; on the other hand the EP, the electives (with different study groups for each), and the intensifying career preparations will make sure we have an extremely dynamic 10 weeks of Hilary.
Our experiences from Michaelmas term should help us handle the pressures of Hilary better; yet the unknown - the EP - will make it more interesting and challenging. For sure, though, the EP will give us more satisfaction than the rest of the academic learning put together, as we consolidate all that we've learnt in these two terms and see it come to fruition as a coherent whole. And that is incentive enough for all the hard hours of work I know we'll need to put in.
Now, the question is, will I be writing a similar post at the beginning of Trinity term as I am writing here? I guess time will tell. I'll be keeping my fingers tightly crossed!
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Sunday 6 January 2008
Oxford in pictures
Here are some images of Oxford (taken not in the best weather conditions, I am afraid), which highlight just how beautiful it is.
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Hilary - the beginning
Here we are, at the start of the 2nd term - Hilary (the first was called Michaelmas, the third, Trinity). Week 0 starts tomorrow. Actually week 0 is just designed to ease us into the academic term, which, because it is all of 10 weeks long, picks up and maintains momentum from day 1. Another 10 weeks, then, of new subjects and courses: Marketing and Operations Management, which are mandatory modules, and Financial Management, Global Strategy and Technology & Innovation Strategy, which are my electives.
Week 0, then, starts with a free Monday, followed by 'Entrepreneurship Project' presentations on Tuesday, and Elective presentations for Trinity term on Wednesday and Thursday. On Friday we have a careers fair in the business school, with about 12-15 companies attending.
Week 1 then begins with a bang on the following Monday, and I'm sure will leave us with no breathing space for the next ten weeks.
New class sections this term, which along with the electives means four different study groups, too. It should be fun mingling with a new set of people, many of whom will now share similar interests (true for the electives). And then we have the EP - the Entrepreneurship Project which is in a fifth group. Group work, therefore, will take on a completely new meaning this term, with our having to adjust, and readjust, to different group dynamics for different modules.
Exciting stuff!
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