The Updates…

Well, how have you been guys? Hope all of you are doing well. There are quite a lot of updates from my side. So, I am not going to go in details but with bullet them and share with you all.

1. I got promoted mid of last month, getting the fastest promotion in the batch of guys joining the organization around June-Sept 2007. Well, I am happy but at the same bit let down as the whole process took almost 6 months, which is quite surprising and discouraging being in the private sector. But, I am very satisfied with my performance.
2. My GMAT is round the corner with around 20 days more to go. I have been much occupied with its preparations and the life has really gone bit crazy with the company’s product release also almost at the same time.
3. I talked to my manager and communicated that I will be applying this season and seek his recommendation, to which he agreed without any hesitation. It was a real good sign, considering the fact that we are distant apart and are in two completely opposite different time zones.
4. I am almost there with my final list of first round of schools and I am happy with the overall mixture. Now, I am definitely inclined to Entrepreneurship and VC/PE Courses as that is target industry after my post-MBA and there has been no doubt in any form about the “ENTREPRENEURSHIP” in the long term goal. One thing that is very important for me while selecting the B-Schools is: How well I feel connected with the culture and academics of the school. A lot of top B-Schools do not feature in my lost due to my “feeling”. So, I am applying only to those schools that I feel I can fall in love with and can picture myself spending glorious 2 years of my life.
5. I have started working on my essays also but I am planning to hold them for some time now as the GMAT D-day is approaching fast.
6. As you remember, I won a book and got “Great Application Essays for Business School” by Paul Bodine couriered to me at my desk all for free. Thanks to Accepted.com and Twitter. As I am reading it, I am finding it very useful and self-revealing. As soon as I read it, I am going to post its review very soon.
7. I also got an ebook “Complete Start to Finish Guide” . Thanks to mbaMission and Twitter (again). Twitter is a great resource in all forms, if used judiciously.
8. I am trying to reach some alumni and current students to get some more detail insights about my schools and some of the responses were quite encouraging and motivating.
9. Well, I also registered for Stanford GSB admission event to be held in Bangalore on September 17 and the MBATour to be held on September 19-20. All prospective applicants can take it up because it will be a very good platform to interact and know about your schools. So, go and book your seats now if you have done it.

So, that’s it pretty much form my side. I am getting bit nervous and excited for my GMAT. The last two mocks that I took, I scored 680 and 670. I am yet to see that magical figure of 7xx. I hope that I would be able to make it. Verbal is bit annoying me, basically testing my patience. Let’s see. I am keeping my fingers crossed.

Prioritizing Life

One of my dear friend, classmate, ex-colleague and ex-roommate forwarded me an email, which clearly depicted the truth of life. The short story was in the language of “Hindi and I used Google Translator to convert it to English. after which I had to do few changes (Of course, Software are always dumber than us!). So , here it is:

When we want to do a lot of things quickly at the same time, when we desire to get everything rapidly, and we feel that twenty four hours a day is also a very less, we recollect this, ” A glass Jar and two cups of tea”. A professor of philosophy walks into a classroom to teach an important lesson of Life today. He places the glass jar on the table along with table tennis balls. He, then, begins to put a ball on by one as long as there’s no place left in the jar. He asks the students – Is the entire Jar full? The students say – “Yes”.

The Professor then starts filling the jar with small – small gravels slowly. He moves the Jar so that he can fill all the empty space possible. The professor asks again – “Is now the jar full?”.  The students once again say – “yes”.

Now, the Professor gets his sand bag and start filling the jar with sand till the extent possible. Now the students sensed their immaturity. The professor asks again, It is now full, I guess, right? All said in one voice – “Yes, now it is completely full”. The professor then grabs two cups of tea from under the table and tries to fill into the jar. The tea slowly slips into jar slowly.

With a pause and serious voice, the professor says, “Students, you consider your life like this jar”. The most important part of your life are the table tennis balls namely God, family, children, friends, health and hobbies; the small gravel mean your job, car, house etc.; and the meaning of the sand and small – little things like useless, bad fight and quarrels. Now if we would have filled the jar with sand first, then there would not have been any place for the table tennis balls. In case we would have filled the jar with gravels, then probably sand could have find some place but there would not have been any place for table tennis balls, for sure.”

The Professor continues, “The same logic applies to life also. If we spend all our time and energy in small and unimportant things, it would destroy the important ones and we would not have any time for the most important people in our life. For the happiness of mind, it is important that you decide what to do. Play with your children play, water the garden, go for morning walk with your wife, throw useless stuff from home, do regular medical check – ups. Arrange your table tennis balls first, worry about them, they are the most important. First decide what is important, The rest is sand.”

The students listened carefully the professor. Suddenly one of them asks, “Professor, but ” What are those two cups of tea? The professor replies smilingly, “I was thinking why anyone did not ask this question?” and answered, ” No matter how much we feel that our life is full and satisfied, but here should be always be time to sit and drink two cups of tea with your special friends.”

You guys, might wonder why such a story here. The reason is: we are all MBA aspirants and some of us are MBAs, coming from various parts of the world. Some of us consider such an esteemed graduate degree to a high earning job, become a CEO and so on. Perfectly fine. But unless we try to prioritize our life properly, we can’t expect to put the course of a company or an organization on a responsible and caring road, where the community and the company grows hand in hand. Spread Love and try to create lives and not destroy. I, also, take this opportunity to pray for the troubled Indian students in Australia, who are reported to racist attacks recently and request everyone to maintain peace and love.

Business Ethics Oath-A Marketing Gimmick?

Well, I thought I am not going to write anything today anymore after submitting my first application, even though it was for the fellowship. But I bumped into this article at New York Times. The article talks about corporate ethics and how B-schools like Harvard, Columbia and Wharton are stressing on the needs of the ethics and social responsibility in the corporate world. Now, I am bit confused about the whole fuss. Ethics, Integrity, Values are the individual heritage of an individual that defines its characters. I understand that a lot of current financial mesh is a result of irresponsible executives but do taking oath is the guarantee of no more irresponsible behavior. How many times have we sang our national anthem and national pledges in our life till date ad how many times at least we have tried to be honest with it? The answer lies within an individual and his/her character. No matter how many courses each school teach, no matter how many oaths do graduates take, finally it comes to the work that would decide the outcome. I have an example here to give. B-Schools look at various parameters while deciding admits from the pool of applicants. If one has ever browsed through various consulting websites and applicant/current/past blogs, everyone talks about community service as a strong criterion. Now, honestly, if one has to answer himself, how many of them do community service for the sake of their interest and how many of them do it just to get an admit into a elite school after getting a big GMAT score on their application. I am not going to comment on it but each one of us knows the truth. This is the first sign of the integrity, values and responsibility.

I am not here to criticize the application process but what I want to say is probably B-schools should concentrate on some time with spending with the incoming admits so that they can know them more as a human being. Such events should not get buried in the form of marketing gimmicks. Every individual graduate should feel the essence of his MBA degree an how far one can stretch this valuable degree to serve the people and the country better.

PS: This is a complete personal opinion and has nothing to do with any other individual’s opinion. I respect the integrity of every human being as an individual and respect his/her opinion.

Reliance Fellowship Essay Done…

Okay Guys, What’s up? How is life going? I guess each one of us is anxiously looking forward to the upcoming admission session. Last week, Stanford GSB and HBS released their application essays for the 2012 batch. With hem, I guess all of us must be gearing up to put our best to our dream schools.

I have lots of update from my side.

Firstly, I am done with the essay of the Reliance Stanford Fellowship. It was a fun writing the essay and changing it again and again. It becomes really challenging when reviewers try to give their comments and suggestions. I don’t know how many reviewers try to put themselves in our shoes to look from our perspective. But I fell that should be the ideal and honest approach for helping the applicants. What I found challenging while writing the essay was the topic “How do you aspire to shape India’s future?” and that too in 250 words or fewer. You gotto be kidding me. That was the first reaction when I tried to analyze the topic. I wanted to tell a lot of things but there wasn’t enough space for me to do so. What I did was I thought I should first try to understand what it really tries to mean and most importantly, what message I want to convey here. Trust me this approach helps as one knows very well where and how thought process is is shaping up. Next, I straight away sat down for almost 7 hrs to write down whatever came to my mind following those guidelines. I did not look back to re-read it at that time. Not surprisingly, I wrote almost 9 pages. It was well above 1500 words. But then, every alternate day I used to sit for 2 hrs re-reading the essay and fine-tuning it, using each word economically and appropriately. The last 2 weeks, I took advice from couple of friends and took their opinion on the essay. A lot of them appreciated the starting and the end paragraph though there was one who did not like my concluding statement but when I inquired about it more from others, they agreed with my statement. Basically, I would say the concluding sentence is the statement that came right from my heart and the only sentence in the whole essay, which I just changed in due course but never was in a mood to take it off at any cost. As for personal opinion, I feel each one of us should have his/her own USP of the essay and it should never be compromised because if we do we lose ourselves in it. Here are few guidelines when one approaches the Reliance Dhirubhai fellowship essay:

• The focus should be on giving a shape to India’s future. Remember there is a big difference in “shaping” and “changing”. A good way of tackling this is to think of a current scenario which can be harnessed further to have a strong effect. It would be really nice if someone tries to link his current professional experience coupled with Stanford MBA to address it.
• Discuss human and socio- economic issues in India and how they form part of your plan of shaping India’s future. Show your love and commitment to India’s growth and future genuinely.
• Try to link your professional aspirations to the theme of the essay. Try to dram a roadmap from your past life to Stanford MBA life and post MBA India life. Always remember, the fellowship requires fellows to come back to India within to 2 years of their graduation for at least 2 years to work in public/private organization.
• How MBA from Stanford fits into the overall scheme of things. Do your school research and try to show “HOW”.
• keep in mind the word limit (only 250 words). It is definitely too less and everyone is bound to struggle as I did. Probably, 100 words could do more justice to it.

So, well I am ready with my essay and I will be probably submitting it today or tomorrow. Overall, I am satisfied with the final shape of the essay.

Secondly, on GMAT preparation front, I am spending a lot of my time with the OG. I am bit terrified but I am confident. I feel I have got a good grasp on SC and CR now and have to work a bit more on the RC front. Quant section is never a problem for me as I generally score on the range of 47-51 on it. So, all the focus is on the verbal front. I will be taking the tests from tomorrow regularly to judge my course. I am yet to take a date and probably, I will wait for the Reliance Fellowship results because if I happen to be in the 5 finalists, then I can get a GMAT voucher for them. So, as of now, anytime July mid will be the GMAT date.

Finally, I have developed a strategy for choosing the schools. It is very similar to the recruitment process that is generally followed in all the institutes in India. I am going to have two Dream B-Schools and in terms of priority it is going to be Stanford GSB and Hass Berkeley. I am passionate about both of these B-Schools. In fact, they are the only two universities that I have visited on my USA trip last year. Honestly, Stanford GSB has been always been my only unchanged and permanent love because somehow I feel deeply connected to it and I feel no matter what, Stanford can understand me and my aspirations. I am going to go full guns loaded to it. In fact, I got in touch with an alumnus, who has assured me of helping to develop my profile for the GSB. While interacting with him for last couple of months, I found that we have a lot of similarities and when I approached him with the idea of helping me out, he instantly said yes.

So, apart from the dream schools, there will be 4-5 schools where I feel have a good competition to get an offer, which would depend a lot on my GMAT. I have got a tentative list of almost 12 schools in this category but have to dig around a lot more before finalizing the FOUR. Other than this, I am going to apply for ISB and NUS in Asia.

I guess starting early on all fronts will help me getting things proper at the right time and not rush. I am planning got decide on my recommenders also soon. I wrote my first essay with the Reliance Fellowship essay and I feel to get a good essay, one has to bring himself inside out. Though I always knew, what and how I think about my India, but this exercise showed me my shadow in the mirror in true sense. I am really excited about the application season and I hope it is going to be an amazing ride to hidden revelations about myself. One thing for sure is “The mantra for writing essays should be bringing one’s INSIDE OUT”. The more one knows and reveals him in the essays, the more comfortable and confident he would be with the essays.

With Almight blessings and blessings of my parents, I am going to submit the Reliance Fellowship Application today or tomorrow. Ia m keeping my finger crossed.

Update on Reliance Scholarship

Wondering where I have been all these days.

Well, it was a real hectic 2 weeks. I was off to Delhi for a friend’s marriage and then went to the hometown for a minor surgical operation. I have been traveling a lot in train for all these days. The train to Delhi took almost 34hrs from here. I had to rush to catch the train from the bus stop and guess what, got a bad asthma attack, which I had to carry all through this 34  hrs. The worse thing was I forgot to carry my inhaler and medicines as I was not using it here for quite a long time as I was taking all sort of precautions. Anyways, normalcy came slowly once I reached Delhi and got fresh natural air. After 2 days of stay and marriage, I started for my hometown, again a journey of 25 hrs. After a week’s stay at home and partially recovering from the surgery, I returned today back to Bangalore after 27 hrs of train journey. I may not travel again in train as I am lose a lot of time just in traveling and sleeping.

Anyways, the good point is about the train journey was: I almost nearing to the completion of the essay for the Reliance Stanford scholarship. No  matter of what the outcome, Stanford is my first choice and I am not going to give it up so easily but this fellowship is an opportunity to do something good for my country at the same time fulfilling my ambition of doing MBA.

Initially, the draft for the essay came to around 1000 words. I felt I want to to tell my reader quite a lot of things and 250 words is a very samll amount for this. After so many edits, the draft has come down to 450 words. I know I have still a lot to do as the next cut of 200 words will eliminate some of the detailed picture I have in my mind for the essay.

I am planning to send the essay for review by the mid of this week to 3 people for their honest comments before submitting it before the deadline. Probably, once I complete this essay, I feel I can give my honest views on this essay as the 250 word limit is a very strict constraint which can change the analysis completely, at least in this essay.

On the GMAT front, the preparations got completely halted in this period as I did not do anything. I will kickstarting it from today and I am planning for sometime around June mid to July first week. I will be finalizing my date in next 2 weeks.

AWA 30

When someone achieves greatness in any field – such as the arts, science, politics, or business – that person’s achievements are more important than any of his or her personal faults.

Discuss the extent to which you agree or disagree with the opinion stated above. Support your point of view with reasons and/or examples from your own experience, observations, or reading.

I completely agree that one’s achievements are more important than his or her personal faults especially when he or she achieves greatness in some field. A lot of people are born and then they die after spending a span of time on earth. But there are very few people who leave their everlasting marks on the sands of time, which pushes the life of the other people on this earth forward. It is this capability of those few people’s achievements that gives us the courage to face the realities of life every day. I believe that such people’s achievements are definitely more important than their failures due to the following reasons.

Firstly, there is no doubt that when someone achieves something great in any field, it shows a new path to the whole world. Sometimes, these paths are so strong that they change the course of the current world. For example, let us consider Abraham Lincoln. He changed the course of American history with the abolition of the slavery. It is his greatness that people in America are better people than anyone in this world today. Similarly, Mahatma Gandhi changed the course of Indian history with his beliefs on truth and non-violence. It is due to his sheer will that made the whole country run for the struggle of Independence unanimously. People like Dhirubhai Ambani led the Indian business to a new level by bringing Economic Liberalization in the country in early 1990’s. Narayan Murthy has led the country into a new blend of truth and ethics while creating one of the most successful IT services companies of thew world – Infosys. People like Thomas Elva Edison gave a new direction to the lives of people and science with his invention of Electric bulb.

Secondly, it is the achievements of the successful people that gives inspiration and motivation to the younger generation for more new innovations. One cannot ignore the fact that it is the failures that make the ordinary lives of great people extraordinary. But it is their achievements that draw people to look into their lives do closely to draw inspirations from. For example, even though Edison was thrown out of his class citing poor intellectuals, he went on to become a great scientist. Similarly, Abaraham Linclon failed miserably in his business and other ventures before going on to become one of the greatest leaders of the world and most influential President in American history. The point here is that we know the past of these successful persons only because they rose to become successful person and leaders in this world at some point of their lives. It is their achievements that took us to go into their past.

Due to the above said reason, I agree with the opinion stated earlier that a person’s achievements are more important than his or her personal faults.

AWA 29

The following appeared in the editorial section of a local newspaper.

“In the first four years that Montoya has served as mayor of the city of San Perdito, the population has decreased and the unemployment rate has increased. Two businesses have closed for each new business that has opened. Under Varro, who served as mayor for four years before Montoya, the unemployment rate decreased and the population increased. Clearly, the residents of San Perdito would be best served if they voted Montoya out of office and reelected Varro.”

The argument in the editorial section of the local newspaper is unconvincing because its conclusion depends on unsubstantiated assumption of residents of San Perdito not well served under Montoya as compared to Varro. Each of the following areas merit further explanation before it can be given any degree of credibility of its conclusion of voting Montoya out of office and reelecting Varro.

Firstly, one cannot ignore the possibility that the dubious policies and laws of Varro might have shown its consequences after his tenure as mayor. It might be the possibility that the policies adapted by Varro during his office time, were so unpopular and unfavorable that the true colors are seen in the tenure of Montoya. Assuming that Montoya is a very capable person but still he might not have been able to counter the policies adopted by Varro, consequently, showing disastrous results in the form of decreased population and increased unemployment. Additionally, one can definitely question the election of Montoya if Varro would have done a great job in his first tenure.

Secondly, the possibility of a bleak and weak economy during the tenure of Montoya would have been responsible for the dubious results of performance. Economy might have been very weak and fragile throughout the country or world, which would have touched the residents of San Perdito too. A possibility of such a global phenomenon can hardly be ignored unless further information of the economic scenario is given for comparison.

Last but not the least, the editorial section lacks concrete data and figures to compare the population and unemployment rate during the tenures of Montoya and Varro. One needs further solid figures to come to any conclusion of good tenure of Varro compared to Montoya.

Due to the many holes in the reasoning in the arguments of the report, it is difficult to take the arguments seriously. Unless further evidence surface in each of the areas discussed above, the given premises are insufficient proof that the conclusion drawn is viable.

AWA 28

In an enterprise, the process of making or doing something is ultimately more important than the final product.

Discuss the extent to which you agree or disagree with the opinion expressed above. Support your point of view with reasons and/or examples from your own experience, observations, or reading.

There is a well-said saying in the film industry that movies of couple hours in theatres is what makes it a success or failure but it is the talent and hard work of the artists involved in the project that make them a mega-star in future. I would like to bring the same analogy here too. Though, the final product of an enterprise becomes the face of the enterprise in the world market but the process of making or doing something within the enterprise is what makes it a truly great enterprise to survive the ups and downs of the market.

On one hand, one can never ignore the importance of a product for an enterprise. A product is generally like an infant baby for the enterprise that carries its name and fame forward. It becomes a true family member of that enterprise. Its importance lies not only in its capability of boosting the revenues of the company but also in bringing fame and name to the company in case the product is a success or else shows the problems that makes it a failure so as to put the enterprise in the right direction. For example, how can one ignore the importance of product “COKE” to Coca Cola Company?

On the other hand, we cannot ignore the importance of the process of making or doing something in the enterprise. The liberty of making or doing something unique and interesting is what makes its employees satisfied. No one in this world can make an enterprise successful with only one individual. An enterprise needs a lot of talented and innovative people to carry their tasks with no ties and boundaries. If employees and people attached to the company are happy, then the enterprise can make good and competitive quality products with lot of love and innovation. For example, one cannot ignore the satisfaction level of the employees of IBM that makes the company attract the best of the talents so as to keep on with its brand image as top most patent file owner year after years.

Additionally, it is the process and working style of an enterprise that makes an enterprise to attract right talent that could make its brand name more popular with his new and unique ideas, And this is what that can make the enterprise ride through the tough times of the industry.

Hence, even though the importance of the final product cannot be ignored, the real image of an enterprise is to attract the right and innovative talents while keeping the current talent intact to run long in the race of this competitive global market.

AWA 27

The following appeared in the editorial section of a local newspaper.

“This past winter, 200 students from Waymarsh State College traveled to the state capitol building to protest against proposed cuts in funding for various state college programs. The other 1,200 Waymarsh students evidently weren’t so concerned about their education: they either stayed on campus or left for winter break. Since the group who did not protest is far more numerous, it is more representative of the state’s college students than are the protesters. Therefore the state legislature need not heed the appeals of the protesting students.”

The argument in the editorial section of the local newspaper is unconvincing because its conclusion depends on unsubstantiated assumption of comparing 200 protesting students with the 1,200 students either staying in the campus or going for a winter break. Each of the following areas merit further explanation before it can be given any degree of credibility of its conclusion of state legislature not heeding to the appeals of the protesting students on the proposed cuts in funding for various state college programs.

Firstly, it might be the possibility that 200 protesting students of Waymarsh State College are the representatives of the whole 1,200 Waymarsh students. They might have taken the responsibility of traveling to the capitol building to protest on behalf of the whole community of the students and showcase their concern in front of the state legislature.

Secondly, one cannot ignore the feasibility of the travel of 1,200 students at a single time. There might be various issues attached to it like there might be lack of funds for the college to afford for the travel of all the students.

Thirdly, staying on the campus or taking a winter break does not ensure that the students, who stayed on the campus or went for the winter break, are not concerned of the proposed tax cuts in funding for various state college programs. There might be a possibility that the 1,200 students might be showing their support to their fellow students protesting at the capitol building by some unique activity like wearing a black bad on the hand or so. Thus, further information might be required to put anything strongly in this regard.

Due to the many holes in the reasoning in the arguments of the report, it is difficult to take the arguments seriously. Unless further evidence surface in each of the areas discussed above, the given premises are insufficient proof that the conclusion drawn is viable.

AWA 26

Employees should keep their private lives and personal activities as separate as possible from the workplace.

Discuss the extent to which you agree or disagree with the opinion stated above. Support your views with reasons and/or examples from your own experience, observations, or reading.

Keeping private lives and personal activities separate from the workplace is one of the critical question that is posed by recent work scenarios. Good work-life balance is one of the top priorities of every employee to become successful in every organization. To analyze the whole scenario, the following points should be taken into consideration.

At the very outset, one cannot ignore that both personal life and work life have to find its place in 24-hour time frame. There is bound to have some intersection and avoiding it is not only tough but also almost impossible for any individual to ignore. How many times have we noticed a school teacher putting his anger on our school kids for no reason? Additionally, studies have shown repeatedly that human minds cannot adapt to fast changes so quickly that a person’s frame of mind and emotion can change in few hours. There are instances when after feeling depressed with personal issues; one hardly gets the motivation to work on a particular day. Imagine somebody’s father dies and he comes to the office to work. It is impossible to imagine for such a guy to give his full capability and talent to his work. I guess, for such reasons, corporations have recreation, leave and various fun activities to ease the pressure of work and just relax to boost the productivity, thereby, doing tons of good to the employee, company and its products.

On the other hand, remember “Work is Workship”. When we take up a job, it is our moral responsibility to look that we do our job irrespective of what is happening in our personal lives. We, human beings, are emotional creatures. It is very tough to control our emotions but that is what is expected of adults, when they grow up. We, as adults, need to be mature enough to handle such things. Else there will not be any difference between adults and kids. No one in this world can get rid of their daily problems and issues forever. A lot of people can be found to be dissatisfied with their nature of work and their life but still they go on. And people who deal with such catastrophic situations of life, act matured enough to overcome them, hold onto their dreams, can only succeed in this world.

Based on above discussions, even though it is very tough to separate the personal life from the workplace, we are responsible to act mature enough so as to affect the working professional life completely.