A Open Letter to PG10 batch @ IWSB

This was a letter I wrote yesterday to my batch on the issue of selecting a placement cell from the list of volunteers for placement cell . The result is like always nothing can happen at IWSB. So I thought just put my writing ability to share with few more in this world. I dont know my intention of doing it. But its a part of frustration on myself. The inability to do things, implement my thoughts which is concerned with me. I am ashamed of myself being here.

To the people of my batch with Great Respect and Honour ,

Guys, this is totally fine going with Voting pattern of selecting people and giving them stake in the duties and responsibilities.

But our past experience and my observation says that this has not worked at IWSB. I strongly make this point.

We have formed committees in this way previously almost more than 3 times last year, for welfare of community, which failed due to many reasons. But I see problem is following democracy model of Voting.

This time too we are focusing on welfare of the community as a whole.

Here you need to think the way I am seeing it. Please try to…

What I see from the list of people who gave their names for the placement cell and the one who didn’t gave yet but name is there …they have good background…(except one)..They have good track record…and good reputation in the batch and not so good reputation too.

So who ever gave name will definitely have an idea how they can contribute to the cell, to the welfare of batch and how they can serve college. So why don’t we have each of them defending themselves what they can do , how they will do, what they think they have in them to be in the cell… what they views as duties of the cell, what they foresee things to be done quickly ,Do they have problem with any of the member why? Can they assure us the results?? Will they comfortable in forming group with others who volunteered? Will they leave their egos, selfish nature to work collectively?? What they imagine being a cell member and many more.

So that we don’t lose out of ideas which the others who will be missing a part of cell have.

Got my idea???

What are you thinking?? This is waste?? This is impossible in this batch..Where we have different set of mind sets…different clusters formed…different power centric approaches defined…right??
But try to think before all this, is it possible??

Yes, I really plead you to think in this way. As I feel this is the way with which we will give equal platform to each one of them who have given or volunteered for the ultimate goal of our lives at IWSB, Placements.

Now think of the ways to implement this. How will we decide after all this that who will be in the cell. Again Voting?? Or new method?? That is still not clear in my mind. I don’t want to propose anything more above this as this is already too much to think in first place. If we cross and reach this stage of reading these lines. Let’s do it

I am also forwarding this mail to Sunil sir, not with any other intention but just to keep him also in the conversation or communication I am trying to bring forward.

With genuine concern,

Your

Harish Lunani

Time Management at Management

Life at Business school (Management education) is shit yaar (May be) …I don’t understand how they came to design this system…Where they have these hefty subjects with so less time to study and understand them. (Assumption). Let’s try analyzing.

Each tri-semester is less than 90 days which have 5 subjects at least and with 30 sessions each. Each session is 90 mins. That comes to 2700 mins. That is 45 hrs per subject. That means a total of 225 hrs of course study.

This 225 hrs of course includes lectures, case discussions, assignment writing, presentations, end term exam. If the professor is concerned about the exposure then may be a guest lecture in between by some industry expert.

90 days have 2160 hrs. Now I am going to break it down.

Each day we spend attending at least 3 lectures. At max we have 4 lectures on some days. And there is 15 mins break in between each session. That means at least 45 mins break. And the lunch hour is of 45 mins. That means we’re spending at least 360 mins or close to 6 hrs at college of the 24 hrs we have in a day. 30 mins travelling to college through bus. And the first thing to subtract from the remaining time left is sleeping time. Least time to take for sleeping is 6 hrs. Now we are left with 11hr 30 mins with us. Out of which for breakfast and evening snacks take out 30 mins (15 min each). 30 mins for dinner. 1 hr for nature’s call and having bath in a day (I don’t bath twice a day, but most of us do). Now we’re left with 9 hr 30 min in a day. OMG lot of time huh!!

Checking mails, replying to them, social networking, reading online news, listening to music, having some physical activity and having some chat with friends takes away 3 hrs time.

Left with 6.30 mins (still lot of time, right friends?)

But then, there may be a case for the next day. And a chapter reading for the second session. And the third professor wants you to write something for his course as a part of assignment. (All of them assumptions , most assumptions are true to my knowledge, and I know most of you reading will agree too) Then how you divide your 6hr 30 mins huh?? A case takes 1 hr to read at least if its 14 page case ( according to my reading speed) If it also has exhibits then how much time will it take huh?? ( I don’t know as I skip all the exhibits, I never go through them) . And for the sake of learning the design of the case study methodology is tilted towards peer learning. You have to sit with your study group and discuss the case. [Harvard waalon ne American philosophy ke according banaya hain bhai. Indians are not comfortable working in groups (assumption again) .Like Japanese style of working can’t be adopted in America. Waise hi American style of learning can’t be implemented and executed in India. (I totally support this point) ][I also know that at Harvard people from different cultures and countries co- exist, same as India][contradicting to my above statement , but I need to give both views ,right?] But the case discussion if taken seriously will consume like more than 1 hr. so now you are left with ample time yaar…wow this writing is slowly progressing towards time management concepts. That you have time. Now manage it. Sahi hain sadu !! (patting my back)

So back to counting hours. How much are we left with? Hmm…4.30 mins. But we shall take 4 hrs. as 15 mins break banta hain har ghate main jab tum itna mehnat kar rahe hain. Mehnat kar rahe ho naa??

Now yaar, 4 hrs, 2 tasks left. One reading the chapter for the second session and writing assignment for the third session. Which are totally individual tasks. So let’s assume you can do it. As you all are now well acquainted with time management skills and well aware of the fact that where to search on net for the assignment answer I don’t suggest you anything here.

So this is how the day is spent for most of us. But hey you forgot one thing. There are weekends . Saturday and Sunday which are holidays. So at weekends you can spend more time . right? But this doesn’t stop here.

We have term end projects. Which are group projects. According to professor we must spend at least a 1 hr a day on that. Lets assume that we spend 4 hrs each week on a project. And we have 6 weeks to complete it. I am taking 6 weeks as we start late and also it takes time to formulate groups, think of the company to study in the project, discuss with prof etc. so 6 weeks, each week 4 hrs. i.e. 24 hrs on a project. We have 4 projects. (Assumption that we don’t have project for 1 subject, but we have end term presentation with more weightage so, go on reading, don’t think much) .96 hrs of work on projects for a term. Oh, its lot! Are you so much productive? If you are then hats off guys!!

Now what’s the point am I making? I am confused at the end. Let me try to calculate again. Calculate only study hours we can put in a tri-semester. (Just for fun I am doing this, take it light, otherwise you will suffer with chronic heart, liver and lung problems).

Now total 6hr 30 mins daily study for 90 days comes to 585 hrs + 96 hrs for projects = 681 hrs of total out of class working hours. Let’s add 225 hrs of class work too. This comes to 906 hrs of total working hours including classes at college and your hard work at hostel!! Therefore 906 hrs for 12 weeks ,average we working 76 hrs a week.OMG 76 hrs a week?? Corporate world main aisa hi hota hain kya??

2160 hrs (90 days) – 906 hrs =1200 hrs

1200 hrs – 540 hrs (your 6 hrs sleeping daily) =660 hrs

660 hrs – 270 hrs (3hrs daily for chatting, mails, social networking etc which I mentioned above)= 390hrs

390 hrs – 180 hrs =210 hrs ( breakfast, dinner , bath etc )

210 hrs left. Is it really? When I have divided 24 hrs properly and multiplied with 90 days at each step, how can we left with 210 surplus. That means we have time. But we don’t manage it. So friends now its time for you to crack this case. Find the faulty calculations above and please comment below and let’s have discussion on this here.

Swaraj Abhiyan

April 6^th 2009-04-11

Swaraj Abhiyan

Arvind Kejrival from Parivartan has started a new and very important campaign called Swaraj Abhiyan…its also called Lok Raj Andolan….its for self rule…self rule by the people.

We (eight students of IWSB) volunteered for the 2 day event to get auto rickshaw walas familiar the Swaraj concept and make them stick campaign posters on the back of their autos for a month so that the message gets to public and to the to Netas who are involved in this elections. The message is clear and simple - we want a leader or party who takes this concept forward and gives an assurance that they will give the public power rather than the old concept of power in the hands of rulers.

We started from our hostel and reached Swaraj Abhiyan office at Kaushambi and met Arvind Kejriwal  and Swati Malival. They briefed us on the campaign and on activities to be followed that day. We had some doubts on the campaign itself ranging from its feasibility to how people will receive it? Will they care for these things in these days of busy life? How the idea of Swaraj came now and why etc  etc…all our doubts were clarified with great passion by Arvind. We were clear enough on how the day will go now. We were excited too as it was our first experience regarding the coming elections which are very crucial. As this time all the youth, political parties and the media are aware that this time the old mistakes will not be beared by any body neither the public nor by the parties which are serious about Indian politics scenario. This is the time to demand these parties our old system of Swaraj which British took away by inserting Collector giri in India.

We practised the lines, the lines which were well experimented, which delivered the results in the first move of this campaign by Arvind sir and Swati . We left for Nizamuddin station and we divided into two teams of 4 each and started our journey of making people and mainly auto walas aware in this regard.

We divided the work smartly. Two people will stop and talk to autowalas on this concept. Then the other two will stick the posters on the back of autos if the autowala accept for it. Our team had Vibaha, Meera the two girls and Gaurav and me the two boys. We thought girls are effective in this matter when it comes to convincing others. So we decided that they will speak and we will stick posters. The strike rate per hour was around 20. We were happy with this rate. It was actually pushing us further more rather than pulling us back due to the scorching sun. Soon after 2 hours of our start we were joined by few more volunteers they were students from the near slum but were active enough to help us in this campaign. Then we divided our self in to individual teams leading two students each to help us. Now I was talking individually to autowalas and the other two were sticking the posters.  But the strike rate decreased to 4 per hour with increasing odd dot balls. After a 4 hour work we were tired and left to eat. This was the end of campaign from our part.

 

Our target together with the other team who were on the other side was 210 but we did only 120.

We were at large happy as we thought this work is stupid to do…but we did… and that too with lot of fun and enthu. This will be our life time experience. And hey for my readers I have not told you the concept of Swaraj right? I want you to go on to the website www.lokrajandolan.org so that you have a brief out line of the Abhiyan which means moment.  Come back and then post your comments below. I will love to answer your queries to the best of my knowledge on how this Swaraj can bring the difference which we Indians are looking from 60 years. I will love if you too join hands with us and take this forward for  it means a difference and the difference is in the way we are ruled.

Harish Lunani

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Concrete Jungle through my Eyes

Ugadi went off with no sign of festival. But I am happy as I am back to my old routine. That is sleeping at night and getting up in morning. From last two odd weeks I was not at all sleeping at nights. I was sleeping around 6 or 7am and sleeping the whole day. That made me an American living in India following all the odd timings of an American. I was missing my classes, I was missing food, and I was missing socializing too (oops not on orkut and facebook as I cover that part whole night)

Ugadi is never a not much to offer but still festival is festival. With all kinds of happenings around you, new movies on television, going to friends place and planning for movies and eating out etc. but this time there was no such hungama around but the day was quite a good one for me when compared to last 3 weeks or so. As usual there was college for me and there was a guest lecture on real estate in India and transformation from a Andhra gentleman called Mr Nagaraju from Untiech India, who was luckily also friend and batch mate of our beloved director from the time of their IIM-L days.  

His insights were interesting but were not able to create any impact on the audience. I am guessing this by the very few questions from my batch mates. Though I had lot to ask him I didn’t and I too adjusted with few or to say couple of questions. But lot to think in the real estate sector as career and also as an investor perspective to become rich to get more ROI.

The day was still waiting for you to deliver in the name of strategy’s end term presentation. But it was also carried away in time as it passed so fast that I wan not able to realise when it finished.

The climate was lovely and sexy from morning it self and in the evening I was tempted to go out and click some pics to improve my idea on photography and to my surprise I did. Though I took lot of time to get out my room and then out of hostel to do so. But I did it. And u can see them here above and remaining on flickr here. I gave the collection a name . " Concrete jungle through my eyes".Greater Noida is a concreter jungle with very few human animals and with lot of tree buildings.

But as usual I didn’t have my dinner. It’s not high time that we are adjusting a lot at this hostel. The stay here started with great pleasure and then went in to becoming our worst stay ever. Soon we are going to change the hostel. Soon means next year i.e. from June. Then at least I hope my first ever hostel stay will be nice and pleasant experience for me. And to add my MBA experience too!!

Do anybody know how to get rich?

The thing is get I want to get rich. To get rich I thought doing an MBA will help me initially in getting a good package and then gradually I will save money or invest here or there and will become rich. But then, I am reading a book called “Increase your Financial IQ” by Robert T. Kiyosaki .The decision I made to do MBA doesn’t seem relevant to me to get rich. He says in this book that people think that money is evil and so hence they don’t concentrate on making money and concentrate on doing things which they love i.e. their job and they believe that the money will follow. But this doesn’t happen with everybody as most of us don’t get a job which we love or we don’t do a job which we love. So what is the point here? I am coming to it. Lack of money is the root cause of every problem in our lives. And to make money we find different ways like educating ourselves in management and different courses which can bring us a good paying job and in the way that can satisfy all our materialistic needs in this world. But we fail at the end of life. We keep on concentrating on improving skills in the professional aspect and forget the ultimate aim of getting rich one day. And the day arrives when u have to retire and when you check your bank that day you are no near left to your dream of becoming rich. If I do MBA and think in the same way then may be this will be the same case with me after some 40 years from now. As people don’t have sufficient knowledge on how to make money multiply or they don’t understand the simple financials they don’t get richer. People don’t spend sufficient time on learning and understanding financials but they want to get rich. Which is no where possible. So I suggest to each and every body to learn financial concepts and improve your IQ of finance ,if you are serious on getting rich. I will be sharing more insights on this subject once I complete the book “Increase your Financial IQ”. 

Get rich soon. GO!

Case Method @ HBS: My Reflection

I have just seen the Harvard Business School video on Case methodology they adapted. It shows the different aspects of case method from students perspective how they prepare, what they think about the case, how they prepare in team meeting, how they spend the previous day of case studying case etc., And also the video features the professors and facilitators point of view how they think the case benefits learning, how they prepare the case discussion even though they have thought the case ‘n’ number of times. And then the video takes us to the real discussion happened in the HBS class room. The case was on Coke and Pepsi. Cola Wars I think. We too had the same case recently in our Strategy class for which I was sent out of the class for not preparing the case and coming to the class.

 It’s awesome! The passion with which they study the case, discuss with peers and then respond in the case discussion in the class is really worth taking into account. When I finished the video the one thing which stuck me was passion… The lack of passion in me is the important factor which is hindering my growth in this business school (IWSB). I lack passion. I lack interest. Now after seeing this video I think when ever I am finding a case boring or something then I will watch this video. This will give me the enough boosts to make it happen. It is so much of fun in case method. I discovered it today. Thanx Dev.P for the wonderful link of this YouTube video.

They had Hunger to make an impact. Desire to make a difference in world

Archimedes said: Give me a lever a place to stand and I would move the world.

That’s the belief we need to have in us. Here is the video with YouTube’s courtesy.

No Title for this feeling ?

I don’t know on whom I am angry. On whom I am taking revenge by wasting time.

Am I angry on my parents? No.

Am I angry on my college? It can be.

Am I angry on my friends at college? It is.

Am I angry on myself? This is perfect.

But I don’t want them to read this. I am not studying and always blaming the system. The system is perfect. The deficiency of synchronizing is with you (Me). So you (I) always creep. Gunjan Mam said right. I am creeping. I was creeping at that point of time. People are creeping here. I am effected (May be). No perfect answers with me. For anything, for any single thing.

At least do I know what all I want?

At least do I know what all makes me happy?

At least do I know what all is bothering me?

No, No and No.

So what do you know bloody?

 

PGPM ≠ MBA ?

I think I am really getting good thoughts.

MBA is completely different from PGPM

MBA-Master of Business Administration

PGPM-Post Graduate Programme in Management

Both are equivalent according to some but for me now I am trying to differentiate.

Business is different from Management.

Many students make the mistake of taking these both equivalents. I should blame the institutions who teach these things. Or I mean to say that ignorance is not the excuse for students. For the outer world I am doing MBA i.e., when I have to say to my relatives or my friends who don’t understand what is PGPM I tend to explain them by saying that I am doing MBA. For me and my institute I am doing PGPM. See, it’s not MBA. MBA and PGPM both have similar fashion of teaching and also similar subjects and similar objectives. But still I want to differentiate both in terms of thinking and approach. What was MBA? What is PGPM? Can somebody answer this?

Students come to MBA to learn business and PGPM to know management. Can I assume this?

I can assume this till nobody objects me. I thought I would learn some aspects of business from MBA. But I am learning management here from PGPM. In which, business has been divided and being taught into different subjects.

I am not writing this thing with some expertise knowledge. The people who are going to read this have to apply their expertise knowledge in this matter. And help me in understanding it better or take it to new discussion level. Please leave your comments below. I am sorry to stop the discussion in middle with out completing my point. At present I got the idea till here only. I think I am clear enough in initiating my Idea or thought. 

How to avoid sleeping in class!

How to avoid sleeping in Class ?

I am facing a lot of problem by falling asleep in class. This is leading to lot of unproductiveness of time spent in class by me. I believe that many of us ( IWSB’ians) are also facing the same problem. So, the reasons can be the following according to me

1.   I haven’t had adequate sleep last night. (Nobody can define what is adequate).

2.   The class is boring.

3.   The subject is tough to understand and I am not able to relate to it.

4.   May be the Prof is just going on and on without pause.

5.   I haven’t attended the previous class or I haven’t read the necessary reading for the class.

So I got some solutions to avoid sleep in class:

1.   Type the notes on laptop, which can help you not sleep.

2.   Play SMS game with friends in class. This will keep you awake and also have fun in class.

3.   Write down the notes. This is the boring part to do. But still if works if you are not totally into sleep.

4.   Have a continuous chat with friend beside you, without disturbing the class tough.

 

 

©Harish Lunani