Thursday, September 27, 2007
Wednesday, September 26, 2007
can you fly an egg or hunt an elephant?
Last week was very hectic and full of activities (read as tests, assignments and parties)....b-school is fun to start with and it gets better and better!
Firstly, the classwork is probably hitting the peak now and concepts and discussions are slowly getting tougher and more complicated but definitely more informative for me, coming from zero economics and finance background. It was interesting to discuss the Fed's interest cuts last week...few weeks ago I wouldn't have cared or understood much about it...but now I do and appreciate the knowledge...and in my 'expert' opinion he cut it 25bp too much! We also submitted our first finance assignment, after long ours of work and an almost-night-out! The NPV and the IRRs, both worked out well and I also learnt many new ways of using excel...thanks to Love(pronounced Loowe), my Swedish group mate and a banker from London.
The leading people course threw a interesting challenge at us too...each group was given a box with some instructions and tools and two eggs. The instructions however, were in a foreign language that only one member of the team could understand...and to our surprise it read that we had to build a 'vehicle' that could carry the egg safely land an egg from second floor! An hour later when we walked back to the class,proud of our invention, I saw that some of the most unusual shapes for a parachute had been developed in less than an hour....and surprisingly 13 out of the 15 worked perfectly fine as the entire class cheered each of them...needless to say that our section beat the other section 13 - 12!
The economics class has started getting more strategic and hence more fun...we have now moved from pricing discussions to markets and strategic thinking...the right amount of strategy can win you wine and champagne in class! I guess Pushan has understood our incentive systems well!
As I said it was not all class and no party at INSEAD, last week's bar of the week was at a karaoke place where most of us made fools of ourselves...I managed a decent Summer of 69 with Hugo but me and Adi,together, killed "stairway to heaven"...sorry LedZep, but I think its your fault for making the song so damn difficult!
Friday night was BBQ time at Heritage, the condo where we stay, and the turn out was huge to celebrate two b'days of our class...food and drink flowed hard and fast till we were thrown out by the security...the party however continued at Zouk, a fancy night club at Spore where we continued to dance and party into the morning....no points for guessing what time i got up on Saturday!
Thursday night was more chilled out and relaxing...we went out with some of the people from our previous promotion for what is called a 'buddy' dinner...it was great to hear the stories of their promotion, their memories and learnings...and the wine and Spanish omlette at the beautiful open air restaurant was just the perfect place to unwind.
Thanks to Adi(and Nitin), we also ended up watching India's last two victories in the twenty20...the desis at INSEAD even put the match ahead of the economics quiz and stayed together to support the young indian team...patriotism eh!
The national weeks have begun in INSEAD, this week being the Korea-Japan-Aussie week...lots of traditional stuff like food, drinks, activities, etc, from these countries are being showcased...i also bought my first INSEAD T-shirt!
And if you are still wondering how to hunt elephants, here's the answer...give the elephants enough incentives and they'll hunt themselves! Don't believe me? Ask an economist if you want!
Firstly, the classwork is probably hitting the peak now and concepts and discussions are slowly getting tougher and more complicated but definitely more informative for me, coming from zero economics and finance background. It was interesting to discuss the Fed's interest cuts last week...few weeks ago I wouldn't have cared or understood much about it...but now I do and appreciate the knowledge...and in my 'expert' opinion he cut it 25bp too much! We also submitted our first finance assignment, after long ours of work and an almost-night-out! The NPV and the IRRs, both worked out well and I also learnt many new ways of using excel...thanks to Love(pronounced Loowe), my Swedish group mate and a banker from London.
The leading people course threw a interesting challenge at us too...each group was given a box with some instructions and tools and two eggs. The instructions however, were in a foreign language that only one member of the team could understand...and to our surprise it read that we had to build a 'vehicle' that could carry the egg safely land an egg from second floor! An hour later when we walked back to the class,proud of our invention, I saw that some of the most unusual shapes for a parachute had been developed in less than an hour....and surprisingly 13 out of the 15 worked perfectly fine as the entire class cheered each of them...needless to say that our section beat the other section 13 - 12!
The economics class has started getting more strategic and hence more fun...we have now moved from pricing discussions to markets and strategic thinking...the right amount of strategy can win you wine and champagne in class! I guess Pushan has understood our incentive systems well!
As I said it was not all class and no party at INSEAD, last week's bar of the week was at a karaoke place where most of us made fools of ourselves...I managed a decent Summer of 69 with Hugo but me and Adi,together, killed "stairway to heaven"...sorry LedZep, but I think its your fault for making the song so damn difficult!
Friday night was BBQ time at Heritage, the condo where we stay, and the turn out was huge to celebrate two b'days of our class...food and drink flowed hard and fast till we were thrown out by the security...the party however continued at Zouk, a fancy night club at Spore where we continued to dance and party into the morning....no points for guessing what time i got up on Saturday!
Thursday night was more chilled out and relaxing...we went out with some of the people from our previous promotion for what is called a 'buddy' dinner...it was great to hear the stories of their promotion, their memories and learnings...and the wine and Spanish omlette at the beautiful open air restaurant was just the perfect place to unwind.
Thanks to Adi(and Nitin), we also ended up watching India's last two victories in the twenty20...the desis at INSEAD even put the match ahead of the economics quiz and stayed together to support the young indian team...patriotism eh!
The national weeks have begun in INSEAD, this week being the Korea-Japan-Aussie week...lots of traditional stuff like food, drinks, activities, etc, from these countries are being showcased...i also bought my first INSEAD T-shirt!
And if you are still wondering how to hunt elephants, here's the answer...give the elephants enough incentives and they'll hunt themselves! Don't believe me? Ask an economist if you want!
Sunday, September 16, 2007
Friday, September 14, 2007
A platter of learning experiences!
I just got back from the INSEAD foody dinner at a cantonese restaurant, as part of which we go to a new restaurant serving a unique cuisine on every friday...I'm tired and another week is gone by! Its been 2 full weeks of hectic work at school and I'm still breathing! Yeah...getting back to student life is harder than it seemed, definitely a lot of fun, but hard...i'm back to studying text books and doing homework! To add to that, in b-school, you are supposed to prepare before the class, be active and participate in the class and do more work after the class...so our motto is, "go-go-go-go"...no stops during the week!
Luckily the learning experience at INSEAD is great and you'll begin to enjoy the courses and the way it is taught...especially if you can forget the "grading ghost" for a moment!
There are many ways to learn at INSEAD, first and the most important is through the course work...the course material is very well organized and i'm enjoying the case-discussion kind of learning in class...i'm especially loving the basics of finance and the micro-economics part, makes you look at eggs and potatoes in very different light :)
Then comes learning from the class with diverse people...the arguments and discussions in class are very interesting and dynamic and the views and perceptions of people from so many cultures, countries and backgrounds makes u sit up and think! One of the courses i'm really enjoying is called "leading people and groups"...we all have been put in groups of 5 with great diversity for the next 2 periods and this is our mini laboratory to develop our leadership, team work and managerial skills...the course is giving way to a lot of open ended debate in class which i hope will help me build my leadership or managerial "style" and make me sensitive (tolerant?) to other styles!
Then there are clubs, I felt like a kid in a candy store in the first meeting of the entrepreneurship clubs...with so many options in front me...and the professors are very warm and welcoming of your ideas and ready to help you figure out what you can do at INSEAD. These clubs also provide you with an opportunity to meet a variety of businessmen and leaders from across the globe...last monday i met with a banker cum entrepreneur cum VC for half hour, dedicated, and will be meeting one more this monday...we also had a very insightful session with the CEO of DHL Express...which showed us that doing business can be very tough!
The most interesting and informal learning tool at INSEAD is your interactions with your fellow class mates outside the class, at the bar, in the cafeteria, playing soccer, by the pool, in the gym...its a continuous cycle of getting to know people, learning new things, discussing ideas and questioning theories and philosophies.
Last but not the least, there is much to learn from Singapore...not necessarily everything good or great, but learning nevertheless...i'll never forget our conversation we had with this cab driver on our way to Mustafa (a huge Mall in little india)...it was inspring and insightful..in his words, "society is a university, learn from it lah"
I'm enjoying the mixed platter of learning experiences available at INSEAD...and ofcourse the variety of cuisines too!
Luckily the learning experience at INSEAD is great and you'll begin to enjoy the courses and the way it is taught...especially if you can forget the "grading ghost" for a moment!
There are many ways to learn at INSEAD, first and the most important is through the course work...the course material is very well organized and i'm enjoying the case-discussion kind of learning in class...i'm especially loving the basics of finance and the micro-economics part, makes you look at eggs and potatoes in very different light :)
Then comes learning from the class with diverse people...the arguments and discussions in class are very interesting and dynamic and the views and perceptions of people from so many cultures, countries and backgrounds makes u sit up and think! One of the courses i'm really enjoying is called "leading people and groups"...we all have been put in groups of 5 with great diversity for the next 2 periods and this is our mini laboratory to develop our leadership, team work and managerial skills...the course is giving way to a lot of open ended debate in class which i hope will help me build my leadership or managerial "style" and make me sensitive (tolerant?) to other styles!
Then there are clubs, I felt like a kid in a candy store in the first meeting of the entrepreneurship clubs...with so many options in front me...and the professors are very warm and welcoming of your ideas and ready to help you figure out what you can do at INSEAD. These clubs also provide you with an opportunity to meet a variety of businessmen and leaders from across the globe...last monday i met with a banker cum entrepreneur cum VC for half hour, dedicated, and will be meeting one more this monday...we also had a very insightful session with the CEO of DHL Express...which showed us that doing business can be very tough!
The most interesting and informal learning tool at INSEAD is your interactions with your fellow class mates outside the class, at the bar, in the cafeteria, playing soccer, by the pool, in the gym...its a continuous cycle of getting to know people, learning new things, discussing ideas and questioning theories and philosophies.
Last but not the least, there is much to learn from Singapore...not necessarily everything good or great, but learning nevertheless...i'll never forget our conversation we had with this cab driver on our way to Mustafa (a huge Mall in little india)...it was inspring and insightful..in his words, "society is a university, learn from it lah"
I'm enjoying the mixed platter of learning experiences available at INSEAD...and ofcourse the variety of cuisines too!
Tuesday, September 4, 2007
inseadus is funduous!
Last week was the orientation week at INSEAD, or what is traditionally called the Welcome week. The week had a variety of activities, from cocktail parties to whole day lectures, from mapping tunnels to barbeque dinners...giving us a glimpse of the range of activities at INSEAD and showing us that time is the most essential commodity around here. Until the first day of registration this whole talk about diversity was just something I had read and heard people talk about...but on that day I was completely amazed by the people in my class and each one of us spent the whole day talking to one another and trying to understand their backgrounds, interests etc. etc. etc. We were all so hung up on getting to know each other that even after a long day of registration procedures and speeches most of the class managed to find energy to get to one of the highest bars (71st floor) in Singapore to party till midnight! The first challenge was not to remember all the people you were meeting but to pronounce their names correctly....diversity, I tell you! :)
The week continued with our language tests and also an outward bound program to get to know our study groups...the typical team games and leadership talk happened on one of the most beautiful islands around Singapore...though we would have preferred to relax there with some beer than try to find trees blindfolded! The last couple of days of the week we were introduced some interesting topics on general management, cultures, values, ethics in the most entertaining ways possible...the professors here can easily passed off as good actors with a great timing for humor! After a full day's class on saturday we ended the Welcome week in grand style...in the Sentosa Island at a beach resort with a pool AND drinks on the house!!
Welcome to INSEAD, the business school for the world! :)
The week continued with our language tests and also an outward bound program to get to know our study groups...the typical team games and leadership talk happened on one of the most beautiful islands around Singapore...though we would have preferred to relax there with some beer than try to find trees blindfolded! The last couple of days of the week we were introduced some interesting topics on general management, cultures, values, ethics in the most entertaining ways possible...the professors here can easily passed off as good actors with a great timing for humor! After a full day's class on saturday we ended the Welcome week in grand style...in the Sentosa Island at a beach resort with a pool AND drinks on the house!!
Welcome to INSEAD, the business school for the world! :)
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