Master of *Busy*ness Administration

The typical keywords in any of the life@B-school posts:
1. We are busy
2. We are damn busy
3. Assignements are killing us
4. We sleep for x hours/day ( x varies between 2 to 6)
5. I have not slept for last y hours ( y varies between 30 to infiniti)
6. I gotta run for project
7. life is hectic

Kepp'em coming!

Group Dynamics

Having successfully completed one year of MBA and being a part of different groups for different projects in various subjects, here are my 2 cents on group dynamics and related issues:

1. NEVER in caps, never choose different people for different groups. You will end up doing a lot of running. My sincere advice will be to try out all the people in your class in term1. After working with different people, you will get an idea about the working styles of every group member you had. You will get to know who is a free rider, who is a hard worker, who is a smart worker, who is a JIT believer and so on...But most importantly it will help you to understand whose working style matches with yours the most. From second term, choose the people with whom you can get along very well, or your working styles match, and continue with this core group for all the subjects. This will help you to delegate the work in far better manner for all the subjects.

2. If a group consists of 5 people, don't choose all 5 stud people. If all stars are a part of same group, it is most likely that there will be ego problems about nature and scope of the work. A few might revert to social loafing. (Remember Real Madrid!)
Always choose a combo like 2/3 studs + 3/2 excellent supporters. This way there are no ego problems in the team and the team works excellently (Remember Pakistan's bowling attack in World Cup 1999: Wasim Akram and Shoaib Akthar were ably supported by Abdur Razzaq and Azhar Mahmood)

3. And last but not the least; prefer team players who are not your friends over your friends who are not so good team players.
The reason for the same is that of context. You view your friends through the mirror of friendship/common hobby. So your perceptions about the friend might change when you work in a team in which he is not so good contributor. This may result in heat in the friendship. It is better to choose a person who is a team player, as we don’t happen to view him/her through any specific mirror. And he/she may become your friend if both of your attitudes click.

2/3 cents per bullet point. Over and out!

Winds of Change

Millions of lines will be written and trillions of emails will be forwarded about facts, figures about 60th birthday of India. *The only permanent thing in the world is the change*, so said the saints. Amidst changes in GDP,FOREX reserves, IIP and so on...The most important thing that has changed in my opinion is the attitude of youth junta. If 7-8 years ago,some elderly person told me that I am the future of India, I would have find it sarcastic. It's not the same case any more!

Many years ago, an engineer/MBA (especially an IIT/IIMian) who didn't go to USA was a reason for laughing stock. These days, the young grads are more than happy to take up jobs in India.

And last but not the least, happy independence day!

A Friend in Need...

A Friend in need is a friend indeed: The well-known saying wears an altogether different meaning when people tell their classmates to proxy for them for attendance. SMSes, phonecalls, gtalk messages, word of mouth: Every type of communication is tried out when in trouble.
Some people are even more benevolent than that, they proxy for friends without even been told to do so:

The other day, one of the benevolent friends (say P) gave proxy for his friend A when roll call was taken. The best part is now friend A entered the class after 5 minutes, and the professor asked him his roll number. Now this friend A innocently told his roll no. And the professor told that you are already present in the class.
And the whole class burst into laughter.

IIM Lucknow is an IIM, agreed. But still people are human only!

Say NO to Racism!

Mike Atherton wants S. Sreesanth to be banned for bowling a beamer to Kevin Pietersen. His point is that it was a deliberate move and not a mistake.

Didn't the same Atherton tried to defend himself when he had kept soil in his pocket and was caught in tampering the ball. Was that an innocent mistake?

Whoever said that racism in Cricket DOES NOT exit should take a hike now!

Nostalgia from Term 2 (Contd.)

Continuing with term 2 let me get back to course by course description.

We had a legendary marketing management course in term 2. Most of the lectures used to be at 830 am. And but natural, 80% students used to miss breakfast. So approx 60% students were almost empty stomached in that class.

This professor had an uncanny knack of sending back empty-stomached people to have their breakfast. So he used to call in the class * How many of you didn’t have breakfast?* A few hands used to get raised. With the philosophical bent like *an empty stomach is an empty brain*, he used to say, you have exactly 6 minutes to eat your breakfast, and return to the class. Any more seconds to reach the class, and you will lose your attendance. Your time starts now.
As soon as he said these words, a group of 30-35 students used to run towards mess from PGP block classroom(Approx 50-60 m distance), used to grab whatever came to their hands and we used to run back to classes eating and gulping on the way.
It was fun running as other people watched us; it was also fun to go out even though you had breakfast ;)