Exams Over..It's Party time

Finally, a week of long days & nights is over. I survived the pressure of term1. Today was the last exam “Operations Management” and the moment I finished writing I said to myself “that’s it” for another 3 months...no longer essay writing using various sizes of pens. Tonite is the celebration nite… the party starts at 7 pm in Bar Fusion, rootes building...all of us will be together for a last time then our guest Mannheimers will be off to their next destination, so is a few students shifting to distance learning mode.

I must write something about exams. Actually this week reminded me of my time during Engineering, similar pressure, the only difference is then I was single and lived in hostel so lots of group studies, night outs etc. This time though I didn't do any night-outs but pressure wasn't any less, we (Heronbankers) did do some group study to discuss on accounting problems (Sanjeeva the expert helped us understand the concept of “allocated” cost), Rizal the Organisational Behaviour "guru" helped us understand various theories; while Operations and Marketing were not too bad except a little too much "Value" in every topic in marketing. So here we go....just an economic assignment to submit next Thursday and then Term 1 is over. I haven't made my plans for three weeks of term break until 7th Jan next year...I guess I will think over it tomorrow after the party is over...

Term 1 Final Lecture

So..it’s the end of term1..not quite we have exams next week...yeah but the lectures are over and today we had our last lecture and it was on the mother of all discipline, "The Economics". It is true I started believing this...every other module is tied up with this one and it is the most powerful one...because there are lots of factors which are out of control of managers such as effect of oil price rise, exchange rate, inflation, interest rate, market confidence etc.... on your business. The job of managers is also to protect the business from these macro factors. The lecture today was a roundup of all that we learned in past 10 weeks from this module and some guidance on our assignments.

Attendance in the lecture was very high, not surprising considering the lecturer was Ben Knight, the most popular and my favourite lecturer in this course.....good luck for the exams to all fellow classmates!!!

Mannheimers...It was great to sit with you in the class...I will miss you all. Good luck to you for your next stop of MBA journey.

Presentation Skills Club (PSC) @WBS

I started this club to provide a platform for practicing the presentation skills, we all know how a good presentation should be, but when it comes to us presenting everything that we know goes for a toss…so why does it happen? Because, like every other skill, doing good presentation comes from practice, practice and more practice!!!

We had our first meeting last Friday, an icebreaker session, only 10 people made to the meeting but those who were there appreciated it. Our next meeting is on first Friday of next term i.e. 11th Jan 08.

EQ vs IQ

I am back after a short break, got back the inspiration guess from where? Yes Nicolas Bates' session on Emotional Intelligence....probably the best session I have attended so far in my MBA. Remember the most important thing, EQ= 2 * IQ by Daniel Goleman. You will get a job for your IQ but you will be promoted for your EQ. So, work on your EQ.

WBS gets the flavour of Diwali

Cohorts celebrated the diwali in style, with a flavour of diwali decoration, lighting, bolly music & dance, and indian food with gulab jamun yummmmmmy. Deepak made some of the best samosas you would get in UK. Great response from the class imagine 50+ people from all over the world celebrating the festival of lights...true diversity. Here are few pics from night ...

Diwali Decoration in the coffee area

Traditional Indians gearing up for the evening, notice Jake's lungi :)

Emerald doing difficult Yoga position

Chris enacting for a movie

One of the winning teams of Dumb-Charades competition

Cadbury World

Today I visited the cadbury world attraction, Bournville just outside Birmingham. It is the third most visited attraction in the midlands area. I am no fan of chocolates but this was actually part of our operations management project. Our syndicate groups aim is to study cadbury world operations, produce a report, and may be suggest some improvements.....

Cadbury world is a gr8 day out and we too enjoyed it...I am glad we choose cadburys world. Not only we developed very good understanding of this service operation, but also had fun doing so. My job for most of the day was to shoot video which I did for the first time and after looking at the video I am happy with my performance :). So here I am learned to become a cameraman....a very handy skills to have :). Soon I will upload some clips from my video and some pictures too!

Manager vs Leader, who do you want?

At some stage of your MBA, you need to know about the real difference between these two roles. Today it was our chance to answer the question: what difference does leaders and managers make in an organisation? and who is more important a manager or a leader?

While a manager copes well with the complexity, a leader copes well with the change. A leader is a visionary while a manager is more concerned about short term planning and getting things done. A successful organisation need both. A leader will show you the direction and a manager will help you to get there in a planned and effective way.

In today’s lecture I particularly like watching Jack Welch's interview...when he said, GE does reverse mentoring i.e. a subordinate (young blood) mentors his boss (the senior manager). I can't think of any other organisation doing this.....so that is how JW did things differently and helped GE remain successful for a long time and it still is successful?

This is where I live...

Warwick campus is probably the most beautiful one among all other univ. campuses throughout the UK. I think so...have a look

A walk to the central campus, it's safe isn't it?

Lake view enjoyed by heronbank residents too...

Heronbank Apartments at night

Heronbank Apartments in rare sunshine

Moving on....

The midterm exams are over, in fact the last exam was on Thursday and they served their purpose. We are more informed about the content of various modules, we can now calculate RONA & ROE, so do we know what is value proposition and blue ocean strategy, we now know the effect of frosts in Brazil and large harvest of tea in Assam on coffee bean prices, also we appreciate the "strategic hell" situation for a manager.

Clearly, we now understand a lot of things and can also appreciate the importance and complexity in managing the operations capacity. All sound very technical, so it did to me few weeks ago. But if you want to learn them in an interesting manner come to WBS!

I am not doing any marketing here, just that I am impressed with the level of experience, knowledge and the teaching methodology here. With one or two exceptions attending classes is fun. So is it likely in next two terms. Our Friday was dedicated in knowing about the electives available in next two terms i.e. spring and summer term.

The faculty were given 15 mins slot to pitch in themselves & about their modules. We have choose 2 electives out of 5 in spring term and 4 out of don't know the exact numbers but definitely more than 20 odd electives, with an opportunity to study in Mannheim Germany.

So it is a difficult choice for me as I am interested in more than 6 electives; however, I can't take more than 6. So it's kind of 'Strategic Hell' for me & I am sure for other cohorts too.

I would like to forget that for a day or two and enjoy the rest of the weekend. This has been a great day of football in premiership and the two top sides displayed the highest quality on the pitch. Good night and hope I see sunshine when I open the curtains tomorrow morning.....

Accounting for Accountants!!

So, one down four more to go! Yes, I am talking about midterm exams. Today it was accounting and to be honest the paper was not for us, the non-accountant guys! It wasn't very difficult though, we were just short of time!

I haven't met a single person who could say Yeah! It was OK! exam. I have yet to speak to any of accountant, but I wonder if they would have completed it?

For me the paper was doable not because I did any accounting before but I am sort of comfortable with numbers & formulas. So this was supposed to be a relatively easier exam for me. Relative if I compare it with likes of Organisational Behaviour or Market Analysis, which are lined up for tomorrow? So really, tomorrow is an acid test for me! I wonder how I am going to perform tomorrow when I am already clean bowled in a familiar territory.

OBE vs Gunners

I have got two options today (actually there is no option - I have created one myself) either study Organisational Behaviour (OBE) for mid-term exams or watch Gunners first "real" test this season at Anfield. Like any gunners fan I have decided to go second options - an easier and more entertaining one too.

I read some of the fans and BBC "pundits" written that the result of this & next game against the ManU will tell the whole world whether Gunners this year are a serious title contender or race is just between the other top three the Reds, the Blues & the ManU. Time will be the real judge of that and not me, u or BBC pundits. However, gunners have already done enough good things this season...they have restored the faith of their fans after departure of talisman and one of my fav. "Henry". Arsène has proved that this team is not dependent on a single player and its team spirit and a mix of talent that takes you to the top! If you leave than there is someone/somewhere good enough or better than you to wear your shoes.

Hats off to Mr. Wenger and his young guns! Keep the Gunners flag flying high!

Mid-term exams "Too much too soon"

We, a group 82 cohorts, started our journey on 24 Sep and guess what It's time for exams!!

It's been very quite here this morning! When I went to take a coffee in normally crowded coffee area, only two people were sitting, those who had just attended their session with career services team about their career plans. So where were rest of the cohorts, in their room I suppose, studying for mid-term exams!

Personally, I feel mid-term exams are no big deal but it's a one week period for revision, which I am sure is preparing us for end of the term exams.

Since I started this blog last week only, I will have to write about my experience of past one month soon...so keep watching this space...