The Road to Success

One Milestone Achieved

2008-11-11T22:37:00.007Z

Hurray!! I did it. Our results were out last Friday and I am pleased that all the hard work of last one year paid off. I have achieved an MBA with distinction from one of the best MBA programs in Europe. I must admit that I put more efforts in my first and last term and the results truly reflect it.

When I look back at my time at Warwick, from day one it has been a truly amazing experience. I am glad that I decided to go for it. You would agree that this is not the best time to be in the job market and nobody predicted this crisis, did you? The job market is probably not as bad as it looks like, at least in some sectors, and I am positive and hopeful that with a little bit of luck and hard work I can still get that offer letter. But I need to be patient as success will not come easy especially during the recession period as it is very difficult to convince employers that you are really value for their money. Anyways for now, heartiest congratulations to my cohort and thank you guys, I learnt a lot from you. I wish you all the luck in wherever and whatever you choose to do.

Summer Term Roundup!

2008-05-23T01:40:00.003+01:00

This is the pre-final term of a year long intense program; already feel like I have learnt a lot of new things and much more to explore out there. This is in a way an unusual term, unlike previous two terms; a module runs from Monday morning to Friday evening. Not only that a class is a mix of full time, modular, and distance learning (DL) MBAs who travel from virtually every corner of the world to be here. Their approach to a module is slightly different than full timers as they look for more practical aspects in the module and also contribute with up to date first hand industry knowledge. In all three modules I did so far i.e. Entrepreneurial Finance (by far the best module of my MBA), Strategy & Practice, and Managerial Economics, the contribution of DL and Modular participant has been very useful. I am sure like me whole full time cohort would have learnt something from the experience of these director level individuals.

I have one more module, International Business, to go next week then my academic or perhaps taught part of MBA is over. Final term require us to do a consultancy project with a firm of your choice and then writing 25,000 words dissertation around it. A mere thought of writing 25,000 words scares me. My full time cohorts are finalising their projects with firms such as Motorola, Pepsico, Intel, Volkswagen, HBOS etc. I will start my project in the second week of June with one of the leading suppliers in telecommunications industry.

Weather permits, we will have our first barbeque party soon and this would also be an opportunity to meet all my classmates at a time which is a rare occasion considering the kind of term we had.

New to the Library?

2008-03-10T23:21:00.007Z

Certainly I was new to the library until last couple of days. I rarely had been to library except for one or two very short visits to get some books. But university main library is much more than that especially after renovation.

We finished our term 2 classes as well group work (most importantly POM!!) last week. It was also one of the busiest weeks in my MBA so far; four group presentations in three days and if you add the written report, language classes and what not...I came out of it with some sort of satisfaction.

We have our term2 exams from next week; good news is I have only two and a couple of individual assignments (I chose my electives carefully did I?). I feel for the guys who have four exams, good luck to you!! The biggest distraction for my studies at the moment is technology, yes Internet!! So I decided to go to library, ohh boy!! To my pleasant surprise, it’s so much better place to study than at your home (at least for me). I am not a person who could study in library but these guys at Warwick care for you; the library is so purposely built that you will get a corner/area of your choice. It has a quiet postgraduate reading room, a big open study area on each of the five floor (again quiet), a colorful area near entrance (not so quiet though), a small cafe serving a decent coffee until 8 and so on. check library opening blog for more info.

So far, my study time at library seems to be effective...However, it's too early to claim anything...

Careers Week

2008-02-07T19:36:00.000Z

This week is dedicated to personal and career development (PCD) related activities. It is designed to help us to prepare well for the coming recruitment activities whether it is an interview for a consultancy project/internship or a full time employment.

The week started with a very useful case study workshop on Monday followed by a one to one mock case interview with experienced recruitment consultants. Wednesday and Thursday were dedicated for mock competency based interviews. The good thing about these events is that since they are mock, you can try new things and see whether they work, moreover, unlike real interviews you get immediate feedback on your performance. In all these events, one thing is apparent that preparation is the key to success; this is especially true in case interviews – scariest of all. I have learnt a lot by participating in these events and looking forward to tomorrow mornings assessment centre workshop.

Some of my colleagues could not experience some of these events due to limited number of spaces but I hope PCD will and should provide them another opportunity.

Good luck to you for your real interviews. I am sure we all will do well in real situation as well.

We are in Top 30, So?

2008-02-04T00:09:00.000Z

Warwick MBA climbs to no 29 in prestigious and arguably the most influential rankings for MBA education i.e. FT Global MBA rankings. You could talk about Business Week, which is mostly US focussed and Which MBA, which is relatively new and yet to make any real impact.

Firstly, many congratulations to all associated people with Warwick MBA. So, how does it matter to us if we are in top 30? Well a lot, if you are a prospective MBA student, where do you look first to decide on a B-school of your choice? If you are an employer, how do you decide which school to visit to beat the competition in "war of talent"? If you are a professor, apart from salary, what attracts you to take a teaching position at a B-school? These are the kind of questions for which you would look at FT rankings, wouldn’t you? Make no mistake this is just a starting point for your “long” research, but it's a good starting point because FT rankings arguably covers the areas that matters most or rather should matter most for a good MBA program (with some exceptions of course).

I am here not to defend or criticise FT rankings but can't avoid it, as right now, it is probably the most talked about thing at B-schools after global financial crisis and a fall in US sub-prime market.
Two most talked about B-school in this year’s rankings are Indian School of Business(ISB), which participated in the rankings for the first time and entered directly at no 20 with a bang, and second one is Judge Business School at Cambridge University, UK, which has moved into top 10 in just 10 yrs of inception. So, what is so special about these schools? It seems no one has the right answer for this question. May be the guys at FT can help us?

You can proceed to term 2

2008-02-01T00:38:00.000Z

Today, we received our results for the term-1 and I can now officially proceed to term-2, four weeks of which I have already finished. Overall, I am satisfied with my result, scored two distinctions and scores very close to distinction in rest of the three modules; however, there is a scope for improvement.
Generally, the whole MBA class did very well in the exams, reports, and presentations. Economics preofessor is particularly very impressed by the quality of analysis and level of information presented in various individual reports. So, well done guys and good luck for term2.

Spring Term

2008-01-18T01:00:00.000Z

Firstly a very happy new year 2008 to all of you and wish you all the luck this year. I have been missing from the blogging scene for just over a month. But I hope to change that and post here more frequently.

This term we have 2 core and 2 assessed electives with an option to choose an extra sit-in module without being assessed. I would call this term as “real” MBA term as most of my modules are focussed around strategy. My modules for this term are strategic advantage (core), modelling & analysis (core), operations strategy (elective), management of change (elective), and corporate finance (sit-in). I have taken the maximum as I don’t want to miss out on any of these key modules but this also means this term will be very hectic for me.

Apart from these five modules I am doing French level1, part of SSLC, POM project, running presentations club, looking for internship & jobs etc. I have already started to feel the heat as I am missing out on lots of pre-reading for lectures. Also, I have started to believe that this term is even more hectic than term1. My time management skills are under serious test here…

Cool Mannhmeirs

2008-01-18T00:58:00.000Z

The term2 or spring term started on 7th Jan with some new faces from Mannheim Business School, Germany and a couple of other exchange students (one from HEC, Paris and another from Schulich School of Business, York University, Canada).

This terms mannheimers are a bit different than last term, the major difference I see is their number (only 6 this time) and their average height…oh boy! these guys are tall…their average height (including the two ladies) would be somewhere about 6 ft? Probably one common thing between all mannheimers is their attitude; these guys are very friendly and we had a good welcome party last Friday at student union for them. Obviously, we missed our term1 mannheimers.

Exams Over..It's Party time

2007-12-14T17:54:00.000Z

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

2007-12-06T19:18:00.000Z

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

2007-12-02T13:59:00.000Z

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

2007-12-01T14:08:00.000Z

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

2007-11-13T01:24:00.000Z

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

2007-11-07T00:55:00.000Z

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?

2007-11-06T01:03:00.000Z

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...

2007-11-04T22:35:00.000Z

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....

2007-11-03T23:07:00.000Z

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!!

2007-10-29T23:23:00.000Z

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

2007-10-28T14:21:00.000Z

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"

2007-10-26T12:55:00.000+01:00

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...