What is mictrofinance?

I have been sick last few days. I have not had chance to enjoy the free four days. Folks here are planning some new year bash. I can't be part of that either. Not the best four days i would have had liked them to be.

However, For few months, i have been reading up on Microfinance and meeting folks in mfi industry. It's something of alternate studies that i'm getting to do at IIMA. One of the things i love doing at IIMA. Ofcourse, studies at IIMA is also valuable learning experience and has been greatest of value adds to me.

So here is the snippet of mfi (from my report on risks in MFI) the way i see...

So what is microfinance?

Microfinance is a buzzword nowadays. With Mohd. Unis receiving noble prize, everyone is keen to know what is happening in the microfinance world. Everyone wants to know what is so revolutionary about microfinance that a relatively unknown person can be rewarded noble prize. Everyone wants to know if microfinance can become catalyst to poverty eradication.

Anyone can guess from the word what micro finance can be. When financial transactions are performed in small (micro) amount, the activity is called microfinance. Though microfinance is synonymous with lending activity, microfinance also covers savings and insurance.

Micro itself is a relative word to the countries and geographies. In USA, micro activity could be upto $1000 or a bit more, but in India, the activity of size more than $100 (~ Rs. 4500) can also be considered above the limit of micro. Though stress in microfinance is on smaller amount transaction spreading across larger population.

So in short, microfinance is small amount lending, savings and insurance and other such financial activities for larger masses. Also for India a point to note is that the microfinance activities are mainly active in the villages, the urban areas have not seen much of the action.

Google search

We were talking about Google search an their competitors yesterday.

It seems vivisumo and few others are expected to give Google search run for their money. Not a single large competitor was discussed in our 5-10 minutes long debate. Is it surprising? May be not. When companies become large they looose their innovation/invention focus and become revenue oriented and become a just another competitor than a challanger.

It would be great to see how yahoo's panama stacks up against google.

One quick advise to search innovators...
why can't they have search that can be sorted by date (of creation of information), no of hits .. etc etc . Has no one told them it would be a great help?

Review: Fortune at the bottom of the pyramid : CKP

I bought the book Fortune at the bottom of the pyramid on Nov ’03. I went to Crossword at inorbit to buy “crossing the chasm” by Jeffery Moore. The helper could not find the book CC, so I bought the book BOP with the intention of reading it in longer flight to Vancouver and coming back flight from SFO to Mumbai.

I did not even finish half of the book in the journey, but finally I’m done reading main book. I’m yet to read the case studies though and watch videos accompanied in the CD.

Fortune at the bottom of the pyramid by CKP is a fantastic collection of success stories of companies working with masses in developing and under developed countries. The companies are few MNEs, Large national companies, family owned business and small regional players.

The book explores the commonalities of their success through case studies conducted by CKP’s students. These commonalities are not something path breaking, they are common sense often ignored by companies wanting to do business with masses (largely poor) in the under developed countries.

CKP rightfully argues that any company wanting to do business in India and Brazil will have to change the approaches it has been taking to reach out to mass customers who are at the bottom of the pyramid.

CKP sights examples of Reliance, ITC, Arvind eye hospital, HLL, ICICI, Casa Bahia, CEMEX to show the diversities of the companies, target masses and yet commonalities that has allowed them to be successful, innovators, leaders and growth seekers not to forget the path-breakers with first mover advantage.

Some of the important readings from Fortune at BOP

1. there is money to be made at BOP
2. Access to BOP is tough
3. BOP consumers accept advanced technology readily
4. Creating capacity ( or I would call it seeing capacity) – the onus is on the seller, the capacity is unrealized
5. The services and goods needed are not the same as traditional markets
6. dignity and choice along with trust needs to be built and offered by the seller

CKP also speaks about 12 principles of reaching out to market; most of these principles are truly relevant at least to Indian market. I cannot speak about Brazil, Mexico and other part of world, as I have not been there.

1. price performance is very important – BOP customers demand more
2. innovations (may) requires hybrid solutions – advance technologies + rapidly evolving infrastructure
3. the markets are large they need to be scalable to masses
4. resource conservation is a way of life in developing countries
5. deep understanding of functionality is must not just form
6. process innovations are just as critical as product innovations
7. self deskilling by seller is also must to design for unskilled markets
8. educating the customer on product usage may be required, be prepared for it
9. products must work in hostile environments (eg: changing voltages)
10. deep knowledge of diversity (language, skills, experiential level etc) is must to design a robust product
11. innovation of distribution method may also be required if one does not exist
12. Extensible feature and function would give a competitive advantage

I can go on and write about each case and learning from each of those cases. The book contains detailed case studies of each and some more companies I mentioned that I am yet to read.

Reading the short book my impression: it is a must read for anyone who wants to cater to the masses market. Each of the rules I mentioned is key to designing good and services for masses. It is not a strategy book but the knowledge and experience adds to strategy.

It helps tobe in india who you know

Few days ago, My car was involved in an accident. Driver ran into the accident. I was not in the car and had no knowledge of it for sometime. As soon as i got to know about the accident, I went to the scene with Saurabh. The pic is from his camera.

I was to go to Bhavnagar and Rajkot the same week. The whole of my vacation week was wasted in getting car fixed. Except i got to go see the innovators.

I spent few days getting the quotes. The quote varied widely in price. Guess what?, the range of quotes were Rs.5K, Rs. 8K, Rs. 13K, Rs.25 K and Rs.35K.

The first three quotes were from folks whom I knew. It really helps in India who you know. The information asymmetry here is a big problem. However, if you know some one who knows the way around, life becomes easy.

Innovators Dilemma : To continue innovate or to innovate and build a business around it

I met two innovators yesterday. Their innovations are not in the high tech area. In India these innovators are called grass root innovators. They attack the problem that the big businesses have not solved. Either out of ignorance or not considering it sustainable the big businesses have not reached out to them. Out of these two, one is an innovator turned entrepreneur and another is an innovator who continues (and wants) to be an innovator.

Mr. Mansukhbhai is an innovator who has spent about 10+ year working on innovating a machine that allows better/faster/cheaper cotton striping and he has made a business out of making this machine. He has turnover of good healthy 1+ crores a year.

The other gentleman, Mr. A patel is in an innovator who loves to be an innovator He is not as rich in Rs. term as Mr. Mansukhbhai, but Mr A has innovated to solve common problems of life such as natural water cooler that cools the air and allows to drink cooler water. Mr. A has a lot of other innovations under his belt and continues to innovate.

There were some commonalities between both these gentlemen. Both began by saying the did not go to school (traditional) to learn innovation, both were not that grateful to the system who may have helped them in creating their ideas to real life products, both had fear of mistrust working with others, both seemed to be good at understanding problems of people they worked with but when it came to the their potential markets they did not know the world around, both attributed their success to their hardship and their learning from school of life and not traditional system.

While there were commonalities among both there were also individualities of each of these innovators, they had their own way of developing idea(s) and enjoying success. They had their own attitude and aspirations. They had their own way of looking at a problem and solving the problem. They also had their own way of picking and choosing innovations.

More on mansukhbhai and Mr A Patel to follow…

Is recession in offing, the debate continues?

Few days ago, I wrote about is the recession coming? The same topic has been debated all over the world; at the business news shows, business forums and the WSJs of the world.

Some of the key indicators that shows recession is in offing are ..

• US is still the largest economy of the world with a ¼ of the world consumption across the board - any sneeze to US may affect globally
• US dependency on china is ever increasing and is highest at $2.2 Billion trade gap
• Depreciating dollar v/s Chinese yuan and the Euro
• Fed is increasing interest rate but the mortgage rates and the long term rates for the 30y bond remains the same (low)
• Inflation is still a concern
• Consumer confidence is taking swings up and down
• Us automakers are not doing so well
• The biggest of all, the housing market is certainly sluggish if not called on death bed
• Oil is also a large concern, US may be largest of the ethanol consumers but it’s oil dependency has not been reduced. With India and china competing for the same reserve, the situation has not bettered if not worsen.
• Possible WTO case against china – a backlash from china could be bad for world economy.

Is US Fed treating the symptom (Inflation)?

A month ago, FOMC said they are worried about inflation and it is a matter of concern. This week, at FOMC meet fed said that they are worried about housing market slowdown. It sounds like feds worried about too many things yet they are symptoms. Underlying cause could be something else. Could the cause be something else?

Could it be Liquidity in the market. Is it that global markets, a stronger force than ever before would have changed the rules of game? Private equity is at peak, hedge funds are going long in the market. Is it that Feds can't easily control Liquidity anymore by just tightening the interest rates? Do they have to do something else to curb the liquidity in the market?

Or is it just fears and markets are taking it’s course and recession is no where in the sight?

We(indian) are resilient people (Are we?)

I read few days ago in times of India that most mumbaikar feel proud about leaving past tragedies such as bomb blast and two floods in two years. They cherish their so called resiliency. I question it.

My colleague, Col Ajay Sharma shared an article (attached) and the though got triggered again, are we resiiant or ignorant about pain of family of people who died in bomb blast, of families who lost lives and everything in floods.

Is it not an irony? Our country celebrates forgetting all that happened in floods and the bomb blast and cherishes the feeling of forgetting. We pride on moving on. But by not remembering such things and learning lessons, not honoring heros are we becoming ignorant individualistic community.

We all like to talk about Katrina and compare that to Mumbai floods. But in USA some one is still working on finding why it happened. Another Katrina has not happened since than in US, partly cause of mother nature blessings and partly because of their preparedness. But in Mumbai the story was different we had it once again this yeat. And if we just stay ignorant it'll be one more and many more.

You decide, are we resilient in this aspect or are we not?

--- Col Ajay Sharma’s forward …

Star versus 'Star'

The body of Major Manish Pitambare, who was shot dead at Anantnag , was cremated with full military honours at Thane on Wednesday

On Tuesday a news swept across all the news channels 'Sanjay Datt relieved by the court'. 'Sirf Munna Not a bhai' '13 saal ka vanvaas khatam' 'alhough found guilty for possession of armory, Sanjay can breath sigh of relief as all the TADA charges against him are withdrawn'

And then many experts like Salman khan saying 'He is a good person. In other news, Parliament was mad at Indian team for performing bad; Greg chapel said something .....; Bomb scare in gorakhpoor express; and Shah Rukh Khan replaces Big B in KBC and Sonia asked PM to consider reducing petroleum prices. But most of the emphasis was given on Sanjay Datt's "phoenix like" comeback from the ashes of terrorist charges.

Surfing through the channels, one news on BBC startled me, it read, Hisbul Mujahidin's Most wanted terrorist 'Sohel Faisal' killed in anantnag, India. Indian Major leading the operation lost his life in the process. Four others are injured.

It was past midnight, I started visiting the Indian channels, the ones who are 'Sabse TEZ', but Sanjubaba was still ruling. They were telling How Sanjubaba pleaded to the court saying 'I am the sole bread earner for my family' 'I have a daughter who is studying in US who will look after her'. And then they showed how sanjubaba was not wearing his lucky blue shirt while he was hearing the verdict. Also how he went to every temple and prayed for last some months. A suspect in Mumbai bomb blasts, convicted under armory act.....was being made into a hero.

Major Manish H Pitambare got the information from his sources about the terrorists' whereabouts. Wasting no time he attacked the camp killed the Hisbul mujahidin's suprimo and in the process lost his life..... To the bullets fired from an AK47......

He has a wife and a daughter (just like sanjubaba), age .....18 months.

Major Manish never said 'I have a daughter' ...before he took the decision to attack the terrorist hide out in the darkest of nights?

He never thought about having a family and he being the bread earner

No news channel covered this since they were too busy hyping a former drug addict, an actor in real and reel life, a suspect who's linked to bomb blasts which killed hundreds. Their aim was to show how he defied the TADA charges and they were so successful that his conviction in possession of armory had no meaning. They also concluded that his parents in heaven must be happy and proud of him......

Parents of Major Pitambare are still on this earth and they have to live rest of their lives without their beloved son. His daughter won't ever see her papa again.

Definition of a Star has changed Major... it really has. So sanjubaba always has a gun in every one of his movies then in real life if he has an AK47 then what's the big deal we are used to see him with some ammunition without it he's just a 49yr old hero so he did it for us.....so that we feel normal;

Even if one of the bullets from one of such AK47's took a Real Star's life ........

but sir bole toh ..... tension nahi leneka. Aapun ko thoda bura laga. Apun pure din aapke baarein mein socha. Sach bataun kya aapun dukhi matlab ki senty ho gaya isliye ye likha.

Abhi aaj paper mein aaya ki woh parliament mein 'lagey raho munnabhai' dikhane wale ....us din dekhna bhai...... pure parliament mein sab saarein sansad honge. koi walk out nahi karega par bhai uska koi gurantee nahi hai kya pata .....agar hamare sansad indian cricket team ke selection pe lad padein?..... . Kya bhaai point hain naa ? AAre haan apun ko yaad aaya ....woh sansad pe hamla karnewala koi afzal tha ....use abhi fasi hui ...ya nahi hui .....jaane do apun ko kya...... kuch log marein ..... sansad ko bachatein hue ...but bhai unki daughters toh india mein hich sikhti hain naa aapke jaise amerika mein nahi toh tension nahi leneka.........

--- end of forward…

Karma capitalism

Recently, I came across a businessweek article called Karma capitalism. The article reminded me of a book I read when I would be about10 or 15. The book was called "Theory of Karma".

Theory of Karma was written in Gujarati titled "Karma no siddhant". The book was an easy interpretation of Geeta, the text Hindu's consider holy. It's other thing only few hindus follow the book.

Some of the key learning from the "theory of karma" that i still cherish and try to use are

1. Every action has equal reaction (but the reaction may not come right away) so if you do bad thing and get away now, it does not mean you may not have to pay later.
2. Actions matter but your thoughts also matter, it's equally important to think good as to do good.
3. be selfless and don't get impulses cloud your judgment.

It looks like the new thing in US business is following bhagvvad geeta. The BW article says "Art of War" is thing of the past and karma is what business leaders are listening to. One of the reason the BW author thinks this is happening is, the % of the education community in US schools. About 10% of professors at places such as wharton, kellogs are of Indian decent.

It'll be fun to see how far does the karma theory goes. And does it become next art of war.

Oil from sands ..

If some one were to tell you that people are generating oil (the petrol/gasoline) from the sand. Yes sand! I may not have believed it if I had not watched video on CNN. Yes, in Canada they are generating oil from the sands.

In Alberta Canada, there is this belt of soil that has oil in it. As if some one spilled oil on a bed of soil. Yes there is a refinery there that separates oil of out the sand and sells it.

When the oil reached $40 a barrel the oilsands became viable and now it’s a profitable option at $60 a barrel. The current capacity is 250K barrel per day and expected to go up to 3 million barrel per day in 2012.

Ofcourse, it’s drop in a bucket to world requirement but one more innovative (or may be not so innovative) source of energy(oil)

see the full story

Is recession coming ??

In finance and economics, we learn that when long market shows depressive rates than short ones it's a sign of recession...

But if recession is coming, why is wall street having 10 out 11 monthly increases of indices?

Oh yes one more thing, the US$ to Euro rate is not doing good either. which mean some one does not like US treasury and that some one is dumping it in the market or US is printing more and more money :-)

A paradox ....

mind mapping

About four five month's ago, I got introduced to mind mapping technique. A technique that allows to structure the thoughts that we carry in our mind. I also use it for things like analyzing cases that we do the problems that i face or things i plan to do.

One googling i found a tool called freemind. Freemind is an opensource tool. Since than putting thoughts in a mindmap has been fun. The tool is though a primitive tool compared to commercially available tools in the marekt, but does the trick.

Review "Accidental investment banker"

Accidental investment banker, a good book to know about how investment banking industry has operated in last decade, especially on wall street. For an outsider like me, the book gives a birds eye view on what’s the industry like? What’s the job role like.

The book explores history of Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanely the two venerable firms on the street. For an MBA student with interest in finance, The feeling was like speaking to an I banker and having candid conversation on what’s good in the job what’s bad in the job, what’s working and what’s not working these days.

According to author, Sidney Weinberg (on whom I plan to read soon) and his relationship banking may be gone form the industry. But I believe it’s still one of the important aspects of any business. I know at least dozens of folks who would vouch for this.

The events such as Merry Meekar's, Curry's and Phill purcel's gives another insight on how the wall street is not different than our world (exception ofcourse money). The incidents of NJ senator Corazon and the sec and Henry Paulson are also interesting and knowing the looser side of today’s winners.

On the missing part I felt like it was one person’s point of view who had villains identified strongly and who also had his heros. Though full credit to author on identifying weaknesses of his heros right upfront.

The book also felt a bit drag on morgen Stanley chapters. May be because there were more misses than hits there. Impact of 9/11 was not much talked. Though,


Overall a book to read …

Rudy Giuliani on leadership .. Video from CSPAN

video link
text speech

Walmart ready to enter india?

It looks like they are... WSJ is reporting that they will partner with Bharti a cellphone giant who own BPL, idea and airtel...

About three months ago, I had a debate with a friend at IIMA that walmart will enter India with a partnership model. At that time i had considered Bharti as a contender for the partner i guess i was right. The other option i thought walmart could enter India with a franchisee model.

The mode of entry was also the way i had thought they would do ...
do all the back end stuff and let the partner do the front end ...

The reason is India's FDI policy, it allows only FDI in retail that sells it's own brand such as Nokia, Motorola, Samsung, Sony. But policy does not allow FDI in retail where it's a multi brand store.

official reason for such as policy
it'll jeopardize the interest of small vendors...

But rumors are that it's lobbying by Biyani and the retail group who wants to get as "tagda" as possible before the inevitable happens.

So inevitable is about to happen ...

Reliance v/s Bharti-Walmart v/s Biyani v/s Star bazaar (Tata)

I'm surprised that Tata is not doing anything in this area .. who know what's cooking there ?

link to article on WSJ

A consultant ..

please click on it ..

Entrepreneurship lessons from Sanjeev Bhikhchandani

I see a note in today’s media "Info edge listed at Stock exchange". Info edge aka naukri.com is a company founded by IIMA alumni Sanjeev B. I thought it may be a good time to recollect his knowledge sharing on entrepreneurship with us. The market os cheering his success and some would envy him to be in a billion Rs. club, but not everyone knows the story behind the success.

About 3 months ago when we had a case from Naukri.com I had requested prof. Sahay to ask if we could invite Sanjeev to our class. And to my/our luck he did come on short notice. Since he was coming, I requested him if he could also share lessons of his way of looking entrepreneurship.

Some of the key takeaway were

1. keep trying, success never comes easy and it’s never ever quick
2. use your experience to your advantage
3. Perseverance pays
4. Nothing wrong in being opportunist at times
5. Do the math … V IMP…
6. you can not sail in two boats …

The Freemium Business Model

“Give your service away for free, possibly ad supported but maybe not, acquire a lot of customers very efficiently through word of mouth, referral networks, organic search marketing, etc, then offer premium priced value added services or an enhanced version of your service to your customer base.”

- Jarid Lukin

The billionaire next door?

The billionaire next door? How?Can a billionaire be living next door? But Warren buffet is one! He lives in Omaha Nebraska for bout 45 years. He had bought the house that he lives in for 31.5K and he is happy. Upon asked by CNBC reporter why not move to mansion. His answer was “I’m happy with all I have got”. This is the answer he mentioned about 20 times in last one hours “a day with WB” a CNBC show.

Yes I came home early for the show. Luckily, traffic has not been bad and I was here in 15 minutes. So the time well spent. An hour of time watching who is WB? What’s WB’s philosophy and what’s his success secret.

University of Missouri actually teaches “WB way of investing”. They recommend book called essays for WB Larry Cunningham. Ashwath Damodaran in NYU – a professor in valuation – say his success is in his staying back in Omaha and not having wall street influence. Upon asking do you not hire Wall street host shots for due diligence? He answered “are they hot shosts?” and he added “he bought a company in Israel with out being there just on meeting that man.

Rule # 1 don’t loose the money, #2 don’t forget the rule #1., #3 do what you know? And don’t do you what you don’t. That’s what he describes his success.

link to his interview snippet

At a Tie event in Bay area

Yesterday night I went to an event organized by Tie. Tie, the Indus entrepreneur, network is a volunteer organization with 44 chapters across the globe. The focus was on security industry and how an entry to exit. “Software Security Entry to Exit - Decode the entrepreneurial code”.

The event was structured in three parts 1. networking 2. panel discussions and 3. Q&A. It was fun meeting folks at the networking, ofcourse some of the folks were really snobbish and some were just too good. I met few people one British embassy associate wanting to invite companies to setup offices in UK, A Chinese lady wanting to find clients, An American executive wanting to grow his company, an India sales manager hanging out, few entrepreneurs wanting to find opportunity and of course few vellas like me who just came to find whats happening.

Dinner was aweful, after eating food in India for six or so months, I don’t think I can eat India food anywhere in North America. It just does not compare in quality forget the cost. I’m side tracking …

So the panel started the discussion. Rob Owens, Vice President and Senior Research Analyst, Pacific Crest, was the moderator. He was the first one on the street to make the security as a group, an industry and cover it differently in 1997. Since than, he has covered the industry and considered an authority. The panel was Don canning, a sr. fellow from Microsoft’s emerging business team, Ashsih Chandna from greylock partners, Stephnie Fohn, CEO whitehat securities – a managed outsourcing company and Praveen jain EVP Mcafee.

Some of the key points from discussions were
 The industry is not saturated in terms of $$ the expected size is $120 billion and current industry size is $20 billion
 The industry does not have many big players
 The industry has seen few segments mature that are firewall and anti-virus.
 The industry does not have common standards and in the game theatric situation of not having one specially every one having MS and CISCO big brother in bed together
 The industry has not seen an ipo in last five years but trend may change with ipo for 3 to 5 players
 Mr. Praveen’s opinion was that the smaller company should not stay small, they should merge (hostile nature of big boys).

Question answers were boaring for me hence I came back.. Overall time well spent than watching TV/documentary 

Gandhiism, Gandhigiri is big in India

You turn on th TV today and it's all about Gandhiji today. It's a shame that i have not been able to visit Sabarmati ashram yet (know here in Gujarat as Gandhi Ashram).

Anyway every one is talking about Gandhiji today. A one movie (munnabhai) has created a "Vamal", circles in steady water. It'll be great to see how long does this last. I hope for ever.

There is a website gandhigiri.org that's come up and spreading words about Gandhiji.

Is it relevent to today's india? Is the question being asked everywhere? But i think before one asks that, get an answer to What is Gandhgiri/Gandhism?

Indian culture not suitable to westernes

One more day and one more reveling information..

We had a guest today, a Dutch lady who did study for three years with westerners managers having well educated Indian workers.

The study is an eye opener...
Westerners (in India for 3 years) think
Indian's do not value time, do not take initiatives. They also think Indians though can speak like westerners but the cultural divide is large (is it new ?).

On the other side;
Indians thinking about themselves
don't see any of these problem.

There is certainly a mismatch somewhere in terms of thinking, and if India wants o become global sourcing destination, she will have to change some of the practices while also demanding westerners to change...

One last thought .. are a lot of Indians not coming back because of this cultural divide or is it the standard corruption, pollution issue.. a worth to study..

Meeting Dave Martin

This is one of the best thing that could happen to my life.

A CEO of a company who gives pharma companies run for their money. Every minute, I was getting to know him listening to his business model and small thoughts were melting down. I was learning about a man's pursuit to divde the bridge between so called money maker and controllers and the poors.

He has developed a software that finds fingerprints of how a human mind writes when thinking flawlessley and when trying to cheat - he calls it lingustic genomics. On that basis he has been able to identify patents that were purjuries be it pharma, telecome and others.

Once identified, he does the due dilligence and works invaldate the patent. Wow what an innovation ...

Ofcourse in doing so, he has created a rightfull $27B cmpany too. I'm happy i went to dinner after exhaustion fo the whole day...

And special thanks to prof. Gupta...

NID Garba

This year I hope to make most out of A'bad with garba. What better to start the season with NID?

NID (National institute of design) organizes garba all of the nine nights. I guess they only allow students for first three nights. We went there yesterday, our first garba of the season.

Not knowing what to expect if they did not let spouse and kids in we went there. Nevertheless, they did allow every one in. So start our garba adventure.

Wow!! The pathway about 150 ft. long was decorated with diyas (like candles). All I can say is that’s why they are best in design.

Next thing was garba ground. It was less than 1/5th full. The music guys were awesome, one of the best traditional music folks. (I have not seen it all though, my opinion may change).

Anyway, so we had 1.5 rounds and than our daughter wanted to go home so we came back. However, memories still remain and will stay forever...

Lalu came and left

Sorry, I forgot to write about the visit....

OH yeah one caveat: I did not attend the session, as it was not madatory for folks not taking SCLM (supply chain and logistics management) course.

However, I heard a lot from my colleagues and other folks...

I guess it was a visit we will remember for good time... why? It was a different type of visit...

We had some expectations/apprehensions. Some were overran by his team, by prof. we (at least I) also saw another side of Indian media...

How?

Laluji was prepared so was his team, he answered the apprehensions the folks had about IR turn over... (One -ve his team had more data than we did).
He set in as another student and let prof. Raghu take control (not true what media reported -- he taught).
However, with out teaching there were learning our team draw from him on being prepared, leading by empowerment and using charisma to subdue apprehensions.

He also went to LKP (the famous Louis Kahn plaza) for speech after class with PGPX and (few pgp and ABMS).

Anyway, life is back to same. He is gone and next thing is confluence 2006 (PGPX will be missing It. we will be away for a month internship)



So what did he do good/bad?

He was very prepared for questions

Shree Laluprasad at IIMA

We will have Mr. Laluprasad at IIMA today...

It's a big hype created by media. I guess it is the same in west when Mr. Clinton goes to a univ. for lecture...

It is no different for us than having a CEO of a company as a casing point, except 1. He is giving us gyan for multi directions
a. Govt
b. leadership in a chaos (after all railways was a chaos)
c. Knowing Indian railway's story for success from the person who was/has been there on turn around

Oh yes there are few intangibles
We have every media at our door step a
we have all things chamkaofied


So anyway, the session is happening... I’ll write the experience later...

the grades are coming

Oh yes.. had two so far ... have not been butchered yet... managed to stay afloat...

I have actually changed my dbab name to "I’ll be at hospital soon"... The best part about grades is even though I do not claim to care I do want to look at them and find how professor has evaluated me...

With Strategy and Macro Economics out seven more to go.

Is Gandhigiri next big thing?

We saw lage raho munnabhai other day. I could feel, it is much needed for today’s India. Why? Simple answer is Gandhigiri in my opinion is allowing all those who are helpless/faceless/voiceless to have a say of their own. But, the say does not have to be irresponsible, it does not have to hurt any of your enemy and most importantly Gandhigiri and satyagrha goes hand to hand.

In my opinion, Gandhigiri gives folks who have no courage and have left hope a hope of fighting that suits their style. I still remember the scene about that old uncle in the movie undressing and embarrassing the govt. servent asking for bribe.

Anyway so is it next big thing? I’m not sure if I can predict that but it is possibly a big thing. With RTA (right to action) and media Gandhigiri as they call can become big thing…

It has really been long time

Yes, about two months and 4 days...

I have been a lazy blogger. Ofcourse I was not that lazy elsewhere. Working in so many comities was one part but working with innovators, learning new subjects, meeting new people and last but not the least exploring myself as new me has been what I have been doing.

In last two months four day some of the memorable events that I would not want to forget are
1. Learnt finance from corporate and market side
Now I now how to value options and how to value stocks and a company. Now I know what is the difference between stocks trading based on fundamentals and technical analysis.
2. Went to Singapore for a week long vacation
Wow...... Singapore is a great city/country. If some one claims there were a better city than Singapore, I would want to debate with him/her. We did a lot of site seeing and had a lot of fun/massages and more massages.
3. working with NIF (national innovation foundation)
This topic needs it's own thread...
4. few business ideas
5. Munnabhai
How can I figer lage raho munnabhai, ofcourse main hero was Mahtma Gandhiji and we had Sanjay dutt too.

India in the news

I'm watching Maria barteromo on cnbc and India is being featured on cnbc, but the reason is not that I would ever want to see. My home city Mumbai was bombed 7 times. 160 + ppl dead. This is just not right we had a small riot in Mumbai few days ago and now these blasts and few more in Jammu and Kashmir. Something is wrong..

It's about 5 + minutes and the show "closing bell" is still covering India report. i have not seen CNBC USA or any other US press doing this before. i guess, how much does capitalism and growth gives a weight to India in world economy.

anyway, I wish India had gained news in better way...

Another thing to note.. the resilience of Mumbai Junta i saw on tv was commendable. No police on the accident spot for 45 minutes and folks were taking care of the situation.. One thing i can commend the Indians for, how ever careless they are in good time, in bad times they come together.

Closing remarks . infy stock plunged 4 % and recovered during the day and in +
Nandan nilekani will be on the CNBC show tomorrow with is company's earnings report ..

Doosri barish

yes it's been 20 odd days and we had no rain. The temperature had topped up to 44 plus degree. For those in US it was Celsius about 115 F.

Anyway it's been 20+ days I have not written, a lot has happened that I would like to summarize...

I had gotten sick during my exams with loose motions, fever, infection and allergies.. Yes I'm talking about one person having all of these at same time... But managed well and I'm back in action..

We finished exams in 2nd week of June. two a day for three days .. Oh boy it's fun .. I have not seen something challenging like this for a long time .. Last time GSMLS project..

After we finished we cancelled our plans for a 2.5 days vacation..As I was sick and than D. Anyway no regret, 2.5 days let me rejuvenate..

One thing I forgot to mention in my earlier blogs, I have been actively participating in a lot of activities besides school. One of that is industry interaction event, we had a CEO of a private Equity firm visit us. Another memorable session of life about how deals are done behind the scene.

It's been about three weeks in term II and I'm loving it, finance is fun, macro economics is just too good.. ofcourse all other subjects are great too.. Now I can listen to mark haynes (CNBC) and understand when he speaks CPI, PPI, GDP and Valuations ... I mean just understand not do anything with that info.. :-)

This is my story so far for last three weeks.

Hope to get back in writing mode.. stay tuned.

Pehali Barish (First rain in Monsoon)

I mean to write this blog a few days ago, had been caught up some much in work and other tasks.

The monsoon has arrived and we missed the first rain. Yes we were studying in the class when it was raining. A kid inside me wanted to leave the class and just go run and get wet.

The song was running through my mind "Yeh daulat bhi le lo, yeh shauhrat bhi le lo, bhale chin lo mujh se meri jawani, magar mujhu ko lauta do bachpan ka sawaan, woh kagaz ki kashti woh barish ka pani." ( Take away all the fame and wealth, take away my youth, all I want is the monsoon rain the game of paper ships".

I was this close to achieving it ... it was not meant to be :-)

Everything else is good otherwise. I'll be 32 in few days. I am 32 times knowledgeable in last two months. The school is fantastic so is studying here. Looking forward to final nine months. A new me to born .

It's been two months

Yes it has been two months. We are nearing our first term. The finals (6 left) are just around the corener. Two a day , it'll be an experince for me to give two exams a day, each of which is 3 hours long. :-)

Not many things to write. On acadmics front please see pattus log on JIT. I wanted to write about it, but could not have written any better than that.

The other learning that i'm inventing india in terms of busiess and management. When i had left about 9 years ago, i was a programmer and my perspective was narrow in terms of position and industry (software).

The cases from india like Adanis, M&M etc and the folks from indisutry as my batch mate are breaking my sterotypes on how legit business is being done besides the red-tape (my sterotype).

One of the friend mentioned about FMCG that how the company has saftey standards for employees(almost same as world), how ethics are followed and persued (specially for a FMCG -- who has to deal with govt on day to day basis). Just by the sheer weight the company carries. For me this is whole new world, shattering my sterotypes.

Anyway we have an emimenet quiz tomorrow on FRA so get back to studying on ratios, lease, tearing apart balance sheets and P&LS (i have a long way to go though).

Very very interesting case

We had Microsoft case for our group discussion today (FRA). Our focus was on accounting policy details of MS during 1999-2000. The time they were being investigated for it's revenue recognition policy as well as expense/cost recognition policy.

Some of the interstice points that were raised
1. Is google doing something similar
2. Microsoft was caught by SEC in 1999-2000 while Enron was cooking/starting to cook the book --- no one caught them. A mice was trapped but the cat got out
3. How to see thro' the earnings, P&L and Cashflows (using accounting practices) to find a lemon (My FAM class)

A class to remember for a long long time :-)

It's getting better

The stock market is down, providing me a fresh opportunity to invest.
the FAM exam was good, the temperature has been better (though a bit muggy).

What more ? .. I have been to few more restaurants and some of them were so good I should revise my ratings system to get them better ranking.

went to a place called Zodiac on Wednesday (in midst of finals fever). Food was good, service was good, we were too early about 7 p.m. that we were only customers. This mad me think about the hotels no of waiters per table. Anyway I would recommend this returned for a casual dinner.

The other one we went to was -- Vishala - yesterday eve we went to Vishala and I was just spell bound .. The restaurant is a small village in itself. No doubt a bit on expensive side for only food (225/pp for a thali), the experience was worth. All star for certain special occasion trips.

Next stop was Mocha for a cup of coffee, another surprise, it was deceiving from out side. But this is a hukka bar/coffee shop. A fun place to be, except I thought it was too much of smoke around.

Enough of restaurants hoping (last time I used this word was 4/5 years ago.. When we were bar hoping in Village (NYC)).

I have another finals this Saturday . This time it's marketing. The prof got almost a standing ovation when the course completed last week, so one can imagine how the quality learning was.

On the lighter side

I have written a lot about my busy schedules, 18 hours studies, quizzes (tornados), lets write something about some fun stuff in A'bad.

Drinks are banned here in the state (Gandhiji's State) officially. Thus it's a hazard to beat the heat but A'badis (Natives of A'bad ) are fun loving people. They have found various ways to have fun.

The Disco scene is big here. I just hear about it. One of the major attractions here is Hukka's (The old big cigarette of Kings). I'm not sure if these hukka's are toxic (not yet tried) but every where I hear it's hukka's in the restaurants.

Speaking of restaurants, we have been exploring restaurants avg a week (All I get is sunday/Friday -- no more cribbing). So we have explored about a restaurant a week.

The places we have tried are

Pakwaan - Gujarati thali restaurant -- good food - okay ambiance - on the cheaper side 80 rs a thali ( an unlimited meal ) -- *** out of *****
Gowardhan - another Gujarati Thali restaurant -- good food again -- very nice ambiance - a bit expensive than pakwaan (100+ rs a day) -- **** out of *****
Sankalp - a south indian restaurant - very good south indian food -- alright ambiance -- expensive --- **** out of *****
Dhuaan (some kind of fog) -- a bit expensive roof top vergiterian restaurant -- middle Eastern influenced mughali/punjabi food -- a bit expensive -- ****.5 out of *****

I'm collecting more names to go this week after FAM-Economics Finals.

Alright get back to counout, NASH and prisoner's dilemma-- theories of economics:-)

The heat continues

The mercury has reached 46 degree cent. I believe about 115 F. A friend told me today it's few more weeks and the temperature will go down. I hope so.

I wish the case was same at Studies front. We had our first final. The next one is this Saturday and than next and so on .. 10 courses in 9 weeks .. It's beeen a one heated ride.

As I mentioned earlier, have leant a lot and unlearnt a lot ..

Oh yeas some of the notable news today

Mumbai market down 400+ points
Gold down about $30
Crude below 70
Us markets below 11500
US $ down
Indian rupee down


What is going on? Is it that the whole world is feeling the heat?

the heat is on ..

The heat is on.. The comparison for today's temprature

Iselin , San Diego and A'bad. Need i say anything more :-)

Three days with out Quiz.

Is that not a good feeling? It seems we may not have quiz this week. Finals for few subjects have been announced.

Gosh… when will I get time to breathe?
I guess August, may be or may be not. Let’s not be too optimist.

Writing with tablet is fun. It’s got high character recognition capability. Though, I’m still evolving in to a tablet pc user.

I see US market behaving nicely into a slow and steady upstream and Indian market like a kid who wants to fly. Just a few days ago I was thinking that markets have same number (around 11K) and today BSE sensex is at 12K+. How do I interpret this? I’m not familiar with Indian markets that much but one thing I know the one that goes up should come down. Question Is when?

# 13

No thirteen is not my luck no. or something. Though I used to believe that. Growing up during my school times, I used to get Roll call 13. I got so used to it; I started saying my lucky # was 13.

Anyway 13 is the blog no I’m writing today. So what brings me here...
Gold at 660, oil at 75... May be. More importantly Bhairavi and Drishti have gone to Bombay; I feel a part of me is missing. I had mentally prepared myself that I will not miss them, I guess some place preparation hurts.

Oh yeas finally I broke the jinx. I got good grades in DOMD. I would like to think I’m natural at the subject, but I guess the case was easy and SM has been good. One thing is for sure; here I’m not learning major formulae or anything. This was more of something I like to do analyze and put things into perspective.

I still remember the day I gave the quiz, it was kind a fun writing after all those quizzes.

Enough of being happy, it does not last for ever. I’m sure there will be few more tornados coming our way soon. Looking at historical data, probability is high. It could be tomorrow or day after tomorrow. Let’s prepare well...

three days ...three more tornedos

I guess I’m getting used to these touchdowns.

Just like the folks in Midwest. Twisters are not new for them and Quiz is not for me (US). I heard some one saying if we don't have quiz tomorrow I’ll feel weird. I fully concur.

Anyway three quizzes (all surprise) were fun; I think I did well in two. Especially with the level of my preparedness.

Also I got results for the ones I gave a week ago. One result I'm handicap. Handicapped by the tools (Excel). I did not do the calculations right. Results are not worth sharing.

For some, time is not going too fast and for me it's just racing and I’m running out of fuel here and there. I guess working out may be a good idea. When and where? Is another question.

Oh yeas Pres. Bush announced he is opening up the reserves. I guess I can predict events too. I can't though predict which quiz is lined up for tomorrow.

Oil is at highest ever price and so is gold

Where is the economy going?

Oil prices have hit 75 mark, is it going to prove the Goldman report that came out last year true. The report that said the prices will reach 100+. Everyone threw it out of the window last year, when the report came out.

Mr. Bush controlled the prices by releasing some oil inventory and the prices had gone down last time. What’s happening this time? No one is correcting the prices by any counter action? Why? Is it psychologically less leap than last time (40 to 70) and now (60 to 75)? I would love to know what going on? No time to do data mining :-(

How can I forget gold! It’s 635 almost highest ever in 20+ years. Once again why? Is it demand driving the price or is it less supply? But wow the market is seeing some phenomenon that unexplainable for me. Gold from 260 to 650 in 4 to 5 years and oil from 21+ to 75 in 5 years . Is it not counted as inflation?

Anyway whets going on? Not writing about my b-school experience and I’m writing about economy. I guess I’m just a lil surprised that market is changing and I’m not keeping up with the news.

So finally 3 weeks at iima.
One thing learnt (not to be forgotten) is time is expensive here :-)

Looking forward to 4 th week - the starting day has
1. DOMD presentation - group
2. JLP - TLP in OB
3. Possible tornado touch down in AOD (Probabilities)

Looking forward to jam packed week 4 ahead... God give me strength, speed and courage, I'll be victorious.

I'm getting tobe a serious blogger

Yes, this is I guess my 5/6 th blog in last two weeks.

As I would say another tornado touch down. It was an understatement. We had to be in college till 5. That included a test (no money for guessing the subject). Yes costing was the subject. I guess 3rd one in three weeks.

I think more than for other folks, I’m writing my blog for myself. To conserve my memories into a document form that I would not mind sharing with others. It's been three weeks at iima and I have not gotten the fast speed that I would have liked. Anyway there is always tomorrow to look forward to.

Oh yes, we went to a very nice Lebanese/north Indian cuisine serving veggie. restaurant. The experience and food was good. Though the waiter was a bit pushy. Over all it was fun being out of the cage for about 4/5 hours that included shopping, and a candle light terrace dinner with Bhairavi and Dri. :-)

Now I'm off to taking some pictures...

another tornedo touch down

You guessed it. the quiz .. not a surptize one was held today. The sibject was economics a.k.a FAM. I guess who ever had prepared for it were happy.

Some were though not happy either not prepared or over prepared. I guess i was in not prepared list. And some i know were in overly prepared list. But most of them were happy about their performances.

Also some of other notable events were
1. RPL IPO
2. chinese premier in Washington getting 21 cannon salute
3. Relaince buying yet another land in A'bad this time for retail
4. Temprature in A'bad reaching 107 F

it's sunday but just another day

Time is luxury here, intellect is commodity. That’s the thought that pops up in mind on completion of two weeks.

Why is it that every time I think of my experience both almost opposite words comes into mind? Fantastic but very very demanding is one of them. I guess I need to talk to a psych. to evaluate my mind.

Anyway I made it to double digits in the quiz, I don't know how. I feel lucky to be there. We also had quiz for same class (another surprise) this Friday and I did pretty well (that’s what I like to think till I get the result). I guess some of the lessons I had learnt and followed through.

The major one is still not implemented is to practice. I guess next week... a new beginning... a new hope :-)

Everyday I’m here I’m reinventing myself, my endurance.

My postmortem, it's going to get tougher tomorrow and day after... get in the fast lane now.

a 2nd day in row

Writing the blog was reliving experience.. i got out of my first shock .. the quiz.

The prof (Mr. Patel) did not give out the results today. Reading between the lines --- were the results too bad? i guess anything is possible.

Anyway today was another day.. another day gone. Did pretty okay. I was attentive in the class. For the most part.

In ACCV, We had a group presentation. L was to do the presentation. The presentation was on min-project work we did last week. We did study on buyer behavior in retail industry services. The objective was to study marketing implications.

My postmortem
I guess we did pretty good job in 1st half -- doing ground work, but could not capitalize on the work to make a strong presentation. This was the feedback from folks at the class. I think it was not L's fault for the presentation. The issue was the slides did not flow seamlessly.

Lessen learnt don't do important work on 11 th hour. Literally at 11 P.M :-)

I seem to have gotten hang of SCM variances. But again i have not practiced it on many examples yet.

Wow doing MBA is opening up my horizons by n fold. My view of the world was 20 degree – IT, Project management, Retail, Finance, Pharam. The whole new world of accounting, decision making, operations is exciting, challenging, demanding but above all eye opening.

Keep it coming. God give me the power ( remember HE-MAN) :-)

Finally At IIMA

It has been few months I wrote my last blog. I always promised my self that I’ll do it regularly and I guess I don't do it. I'm not going to do it this time (the promise) :-)

Anyway I'm at IIMA, it's been a week. I don't know the speed with which time is moving here. I guess IIMA has a different gravitational force than rest of the world.

Today is one of the sadest days. We had our first surprise quiz and I know I did very very very badly(this could be an understatement). Anyway, hope this is the end of me doing bad.

Doing postmortem
1. I knew fundas
2. I was calm
3. But I just did not read the question or quiz correctly. Got carried away by the words the instructor said (CROSSWORD). It was in no angle a crossword. It was more of a spreadsheet.
4. But anyway my fault I had one of those brain freeze.
5. Lesson learnt - be more prepared on every subject. Do more exercises and be ready for surprises any time of day :-)

Another thing I want to share is IIMA culture is a bit different, open though closed, fast and just fast, fun but serious. I'm loving it and hating it. 9 subjects in 2 months, I better be doing my home work. It ain't kid's play.

Gotta go back and do final touch to our marketing class report (ACCV).