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Today Jyotiraditya Scindia came for a guest lecture at IIM Indore. The gues lecture was at 10 am but the name of who was coming was announced at only 7:30 am on the same day. Previously we had got the communication that some one was coming for a guest lectue on postal sector reforms. I had thought that some IAS officer will come who will give guest talk on postal sector reforms. But its amazing how different it was. Jyotiraditya Scindia has done his schooling from Doon School , undergrad from Harvard College and MBA from Stanford Business School. He came up dressed like a CEO instead like a politician. Being from a MBA graduate himself he asked us questions about composition of our batch, the teaching pedagogy that we use here and some other things. He had fantastic communication skills. In fact his communication skill was better than all other CEO's of big companies who have come up here. And on top of that he spoke with such infectious passion about Project Aero that he impleme...

I recenly read an article on cricinfo, on how performance of Harbhajan Singh has detoriated over last years. They said that even Greame Swann has passed him as spinner. So i checked these facts with statsguru of cricinfo. And guess what i found about Harbhajan Singh performance as spinner in last 24 months -Harbhajan Singh took most wicket in first 12 months of last 24 months period. In fact he played the same number of tests as Dale Steyn but took 2 more wickets. -In the last 24 month period Harbhajan Sigh is 3rd on wicket takers list on basis of number of wickets. But the number one Mitchelle Johnson has played 6 more tests than him and taken only 20 more wickets -In the same period Dale Steyn has played same number of tests as Harbhajan i.e 19 and has taken only one more wicket, i.e 99 vs 98 -In this period India has won 10 tests. In these 10 tests Harbhajan has taken 61 wickets at 22 run per wickets. While on other tests his average balloons over 38 -Greame Swann has...

This is one of the most dreaded questions asked in an interview. I myself have fallen to it at several times. At my IIM C interview and my internship job interview are some which I remember profoundly. In IIM C GD-PI process there was a question on their application form that asked about this and they had also asked to tell your career goals. I still remember very clearly what I had written and what career goal I had written. My career goal was to become the best that I can become. After reading my answer all the interviewers burst into laughter. But this question should be simple for anyone. At this stage of my career I obviously have some idea of what I want to become. So what I want to do and why I was not able to tell it when it mattered the most. Because the thing that I have in my mind is like unfeasible and unrealistic.. But I have been working towards it. And after 7-8 months on campus of IIM Indore I am convinced that I will attain what I have want to. The most useful thing...

India's fate was very much sealed by Steyn's spell in post tea session yesterday. Steyn yesterday in final spell took 5 wickets for 3 runs and then came back in India's second innings to take wicket of Sehwag who made century in the first innings. But still there was faintest of hopes since Sachin Tendulkar was at crease. Sachin had been in very good form recently. Today he tried his best and played one of his better knocks to postpone India's defeat. But still it was South Africa day. The freakish manner in which Sachin got out leaves no doubt in my mind who had the rub of the green on that day. So, India lost. It was first test defeat of India under Dhoni Captaincy. In the past Dhoni has converted several draws into wins and staved off defeats by his astuste captaincy. But this time Steyn was an unstoppable force. India lost and i am sad for it. But Sachin century made up for most of it. I some times feel more unhappy when India wins and Sachin misses his century ...

Strategy is one of the most used, misused repeated words of MBA. It is the word without which an MBA cannot do without a week. Our every course in the 3rd term of our programme started with the definition of the word. Some define strategy as the long term planning, some define it as steps to obtain sustainable competitive advantage. Its really very confusing and muddled up. But today i was playing table tennis. I experienced some thing very close to it. I was playing doubles. Our team won the first two games quite handsomely. But then we were spanked in the next 4 games. One player of their team was very good in spinning the ball. And i am not good in handling spinning return. So what was happening i was just lobbing the ball back. And the other player was smashing it back. I was becoming conscious of this thing and started overhitting the balls or thumping them into net. I started playing erratically. Then I become sick of losing. I analyzed what the other players were doing. I c...

South Africa showed today who is the boss. India resumed their inning from 25/0. But they were soon reduced to 56/3. From there on Sehwag and debutant Subramainiam Badrinath stiched a handy parternship of 136 for India. Sehwag posted his 18th test century of the career. And he was lot more watchful than what his strike rate 78.13 says. But he threw it just after his century. South Africa decided to bowl full and wide to Sehwag with a packed offside field. In an over where there were 2 wides and one 5 wides Sehwag scooped a full and wide ball to the fielder at silly point. Thereafter Dhoni and Badrinath joined hands. Dhoni seemed intent on not getting out by scoring 1 of 24 balls while on other side Badrinath completed his half century. The pair carried their side safely to tea at 221/4. But then afte tea disaster struck. In first over after tea Dhoni got out to a freak dismissal. Paul harris's bowl pitched outside the leg stump , bounced off his pads, hit his bat then went to sli...

The battle for number 1 test spot has begun. South Africa world's nor 2 test side has arrived in India for test and one day series. Even before the series started India suffered blows in form of injuries to Yuvraaj, Dravid and Laxman. Even Rohit Sharma who was stand by for VVS Laxman suffered a freak injury just before the game giving test debut to Wridhiman Saha whose first class average stands around 35. Inspite of all this India started the match on a positive note when Zaheer Khan removed both the openers of South Africa for just 6 runs. But since then Hashim Amala and Jack Kallis have turned the tables around. Both scored big centuries to lead South Africa to a big score.

This year a new initiative has been launched at IIM Indore. Our Batch was divided in groups. Some of the groups went to MP district and some of the groups went to BSF headquarters at Amritsar, Kolkata and Siliguri for a week.The purpose of our visit was to learn the functioning of the government, and apply our management education to find some ways of improving it. And we had to identify opportunities and problem area area in our respective place of visit. I was selected to go to BSF quarters at Amritsar. We were a group of 20 people who were selected to go to BSF at Amritsar. Before the visit i thought i will be only be exposed to inept functionaries of the government. I expected lot of logistics issues concerning our travel, lodging and food. I thought we will be put up in Barracks. But i was amazed at the reception we got and the kind of facilities that we were given. But the most important of all, how stupendously BSF guards our borders. The kind of resources that BSF utilizes ...

Yesterday I ditched my Windows Vista Business Operating system in favour of Ubuntu 9.04.  Vista Business comes at cost of  Rs 5000 to Rs 6000 bucks, while Ubuntu 9.04 is free. Hence there is lot of differences between use of these 2 operating system. If you are a general user who had normal requirements only major difference between 2 these operating systems is the price, performance wise these 2 systems are pretty similar. In fact there are situations in academics and programme development where use of linux will give you much better performance than windows. Linux power lies in being opensource. This implies that its structure is transparent. You can understand nitty-gritty of the system. If you have inquisitive mind and willing to learn in computers and programming area, linux is the operating system for you. But the major challenge in world wide adoption of linux despite its low cost is network externalities effect. Almost all of the world computers are on Windows and...

Life at a B school is strikingly different from an engineering college. At an engineering college you spend your days carelessly, little caring about your placements. But at a B school it is competitive. Everyone here is aspiring to be manager. Everyone is trying to sell himself, trying to go one up another. Inspired by my Microeconomics course I am beginning to realize that behavior of every individual in a B school can be generalized by Microeconomics model. First in B school every individual can be modeled as a firm. Then a clear distinction must be made between males and females. We will call male participants as Type A firms and female participants as Type B firms. The Professor are economic regulators. B school is the market. The unique thing about the market is that buyers are sellers themselves. People do brand building and sell themselves to each other. So we have now until now defined Market IIM Regulatory body Professors Sellers: Students Types of firm : Male , Femal...

  Roger Federer won his 16th Grandslam today beating Andy Murray in finals of Australian Open.  He again his bettered his record of maximum number of grandslams won. It capped a remarkable turnaround by Roger Federer in last one year. Last year at the same time Roger was beaten Rafal Nadal in Australian Open final. Roger is used to weeping at award ceremonies after winning his grandslams. He even wept today after winning Australian Open. But the last year was very different he was weeping for he could not bring his A game to the finals. He had been already beaten by Rafal Nadal in French and Wimbeldon finals. Rafal Nadal was the number one. He had seized number 1 ranking from Roger Federer. And Federer was on the downhill. was downhill. Most of the critics said Roger would not win a slam again.         But since then Roger Federer and Rafal Nadal destinies had changed. Rafal Nadal became injured after loosing in quarter finals of French Open...

Everywhere in the country where you go there is rampant corruption. It has become so pervasive that it is considered a norm rather an aberration. Any why should not this be the case government officials hold a lot of power and responsibility compared to their peers in the private sector but they get paid peanut. But we are a democracy where we choose our political leaders by vote. Then why do these leaders when they come to power follow a lackadaisical approach. Their term is of 5 years then why they do not perform. I believe the most important reason for it is conflict of interest. Any political leader who forces his way to the top. He/She has to toil hard for 15-20 years atleast. Exception is made for only children of Political leaders and celebrities. Now if they become popular and lucky enough they get selected for 5 years term. There is no certainty whether they would get ticket for the next term. But the elected leader holds a lot of power and influence. He also knows peop...