The Credit Crisis and Darwin's theory..

For all those who are still wondering what went wrong in the US and the difference between CDO and CDS, here is another simpler, layman's version of the credit crisis. 

So, what are the key take aways from the credit crisis:

• Human beings are motivated by short term gains and greed. And it is very difficult to turn us into good citizens, all in one day. 
• We might try to act and do good for some times in the near future because of the impact credit crisis has created in our lives. But I think eventually greed will win over our mind (and heart) again-which means as long as money exists recession will occur again. Let us accept recession and recovery as a part of nature. 

I am surprised how Darwin's theory can be used to explain this credit crisis. He aptly called it as "survival of the fittest". And it is true everywhere - be it explaining human evolution or life or credit crisis.

Our fast paced "so called" life

A man sat at a metro station in Washington DC and started to play the violin; it was a cold January morning. He played six Bach pieces for about 45 minutes. During that time, since it was rush hour, it was calculated that thousand of people went through the station, most of them on their way to work.

Three minutes went by and a middle aged man noticed there was musician playing. He slowed his pace and stopped for a few seconds and then hurried up to meet his schedule.

A minute later, the violinist received his first dollar tip: a woman threw the money in the till and without stopping continued to walk.
A few minutes later, someone leaned against the wall to listen to him, but the man looked at his watch and started to walk again. Clearly he was late for work.

The one who paid the most attention was a 3 year old boy. His mother tagged him along, hurried but the kid stopped to look at the violinist. Finally the mother pushed hard and the child continued to walk turning his head all the time. This action was repeated by several other children. All the parents, without exception, forced them to move on.

In the 45 minutes the musician played, only 6 people stopped and stayed for a while. About 20 gave him money but continued to walk their normal pace. He collected $32. When he finished playing and silence took over, no one noticed it. No one applauded, nor was there any recognition.

No one knew this but the violinist was Joshua Bell, one of the best musicians in the world. He played one of the most intricate pieces ever written with a violin worth 3.5 million dollars.

Two days before his playing in the subway, Joshua Bell sold out at a theatre in Boston and the seats average $100.

This is a real story. Joshua Bell playing incognito in the metro station was organized by the Washington Post as part of an social experiment about perception, taste and priorities of people. The outlines were: in a commonplace environment at an inappropriate hour: Do we perceive beauty? Do we stop to appreciate it? Do we recognize the talent in an unexpected context?

One of the possible conclusions from this experience could be:

If we do not have a moment to stop and listen to one of the best musicians in the world playing the best music ever written, how many other things are we missing?

Google, Carbon and Global Warming :)

To me Google is tech God. I would be among those "firsts" to try any product with Google brand name on it. I have two versions of GTalk installed in my laptop – one normal version and another lab version (which has that invisible mode plus some other interesting features). With that disclaimer, I will now get into the crux of the issue I wanted to discuss. 

Of late Google has been in the news for all the wrong reasons. People have started nicking the company  “Google, the Evil”. And Sunday Times created a furor recently that prompted Google to issue an unofficial reply through its official blog! The paper reported a study by Harvard University Physics Prof. Alex Wissner-Gross on the environmental impact we (Yes. We Googlers!) make by using Google as our search engine. His report suggested that making a couple of “Google” searches are just as bad for the environment as making a cup of tea or coffee. He says that the energy needed to power Google’s servers and storage, combined with connecting to and running our laptops and other search devices, created about 7 grams of Carbon-dioxide emissions per search. Means the carbon emissions from two Google searches does pollute the environment the same way boiling a kettle of tea does. But considering the number of Google users worldwide and considering that we google for “everything”, Google’s impact on the environment is harsh, the study claims.

Let us guesstimate some numbers. Say, I perform about 40 searches a day; that’s 15,000 Google searches per year (sounds scary when you put it like that). My annual carbon footprint through Google would be 105kg of CO2 (0.15 tons).

I fail to understand how a great brain like Prof. Alex Gross concluded that Google’s impact on the environment is harsh,  without considering the opportunity cost of that particular search. Let us consider that we want to find a a book and we make two Google searches to find that book. As per Professor Gross, this generates 7 grams of Carbon which impacts the environment. Now let us consider Google (or any other search engine for that reason) doesn’t exist. What would have been our alternative – nothing but buy the book. In comes our environmental impact we created due to cutting down the trees to make the paper, chemicals we use to bleach the paper and the sludge we leave out polluting the environment. I am sure that the impact would be much bigger than downloading the book through a “Google search “.

Let us not blame Google for everything. I strongly feel that Google is now in the same position Microsoft was 15 years ago – being envied by everyone who are jealous of its stunning growth and are able to stop the Google juggernaut. While I agree that Information Technology sector would account for 2-3% of the total carbon emissions, we also need to consider the positive impact the sector has created to our lives. It has improved our lives faster than we would have thought of. So, instead of playing the blame game we should join forces to create equipments and devices that stores energy efficiently there by reducing the impact on the environment.

Be strategic about your time

(Source: Rita McGrath, Harvard Business School http://discussionleader.hbsp.com/mcgrath/2008/05/be-strategic-about-your-time.html)

In the frantic buzz of most managerial lives, I see people running from meeting to meeting, consulting their BlackBerrys as though in prayer, desperately working into the night to cope with a deluge of emails and otherwise being busy, busy, busy. The dilemma of all this activity, however, is that it is for the most part what academics long ago termed "non value-added time."

Years ago, former Harvard Business School professors Steven Wheelwright and Kim Clark (who also served as Dean) documented a catastrophic decline in the amount of value-added time people bring to work once they are assigned to more than two projects. By the time the respondents in their study reported that they were working on 7 projects, their productive time at work dropped to about 15% (See attached chart). Ironically, the more "stuff" one takes on, the less one seems to accomplish.

So what can you do to get more value-added productivity into your days? A few suggestions:

Develop a set of screens or scorecards that can help you systematically winnow the attractive opportunities from the less attractive.  Follow eight simple rules:

• Ask what needs to be done.

• Ask what’s right for the enterprise.

• Develop action plans.

• Take responsibility for decisions.

• Take responsibility for communicating.

• Focus on opportunities, not problems.

• Run productive meetings.

• Think and say “We,” not “I.”

 

I've got one that I use for considering new clients, and it helps to set priorities clearly.

• Try to bring old projects to some kind of closure before new ones get on the list.
• Make sure to book some time with yourself for those strategic, but non-urgent tasks (like thinking, or writing) that tend to get crowded out by urgent demands. I have one client who has a mythical person named "Joe" - meetings with Joe are for thinking, and it's understood that they are not to be interrupted.
• Check email only twice a day (promise- it won't kill you!)
• Try to make the consequences of your tradeoffs clear to those (like a boss or colleague) who may be creating excess work for you.
• Match your strategic priorities with how you spend your time - and question activities that don't drive those priorities.

• And finally, do question the value of every activity - if it simply didn't get done, what would happen?

Recession, Jobs and Chindia!

People say that there are rays of hope in China and India-the developing nations. What people fail to understand is that speed at which clouds of economic gloom and despair have gathered over China and India has been startling. Until quite recently these two countries were thought to be insulated from the contagion afflicting the developed nations. On the contrary these nations are already beginning to see the pain. China whose GDP was growing at 9.5% over the last decade mainly due to the growth exports to US, suddenly finds no takers in its major end market. While the Chinese government is trying to increase the local spending, it could no where compensate for the US loss. 

Even if  China grows at the rate of 7.5% this year, the impact 2.5% reduction in Chinese GDP would create is huge – millions of job losses. This inturn would slowdown the Chinese GDP further. IMF predicts that if GDP of China slows down to 7%, then the world would take longer time to recover. Couple this with the second major market India. The impact is likely to get worse. Thus, in the best interests of everyone, it is essential to bring back China and India to normal rates soon.

Most of my friends in B-Schools would agree with me on this – this is the worst year to pass out of school, especially with a MBA. The world’s largest economy, US and the immediate next, Europe have already gone into recession. Jobs are hard to come by. Infact there are no jobs. Students who came with the big American and European dreams are finding their dreams shattering like a card house. Looks like the Obama promise of 3million green jobs could nowhere instill the required faith and confidence. The only advice would be to keep the fingers crossed and hope for a change in the mind of the US consumers. Let them consume more. After all  only if US consumes, the rest of the world will survive. :)

God..GOOGLE and Satan!

“Everyone loves Google.” So began a 2001 Wired profile of the company and its “resolutely un-commercial” path to success.

Everyone loves Google. Sounds like so much hyperbole now, but at the time it was essentially a truism.

Eight years later, that’s no longer really the case. Today, Google seems a distorted reflection of the ideals that made it so beloved. Google’s enormous success and relentless pursuit of new markets have inspired some to take an evil-empire view of the company. And Google (GOOG), by virtue of its protean business model and the arrogant righteousness with which it executes on it, perpetuates that view–although the company likely considers those who hold it to be Luddites.

Sure, everyone loved Google in 2001. But in 2008 they fear it. The Google of 2001 was a fascinating corporate anomaly, a company known for its colorful campus, lunar exploration grants and a cafeteria so good it was profiled in Food & Wine. The Google of 2008 is a different beast entirely. It’s a company accused of privacy violations in the states and abroad. It’s a company whose fast-broadening reach has given it unchecked power. And, it’s a company that last month came within three hours of a Department of Justice antitrust suit.

No wonder it’s fallen off the TRUSTe/Ponemon Institute’s list of the top 20 most trusted companies in the United States.

And it’s quite a tumble Google’s taken. The company ranked 10th in the Ponemon opinion surveys conducted in 2006 and 2007. This year it didn’t even merit a ranking. Quite a blow for a company for whom user trust is critical. But then consumer perception is a fickle animal, as Google founder Sergey Brin once noted. 

“Some say Google is God,” Brin said back in 2003. “Others say Google is Satan.”

Seems the latter camp’s picked up quite a few new members in the ensuing years….

Source: John Paczkowski in Digital Daily

 

Rob and Larry

I must say today was a satisfying day for me. I attended two presentations, one as a part of International Business course and another as a part of Game Theory course.    

Rob Britton: He came. He made fun of everyone including the current MD of American Airlines. He handled even the embarrassing questions with smile (haha..i asked him about airlines colluding and screwing the customers :D). But at the end of the 2 hour class he had delivered his message - How tough his business is. That is Rob Britton for you. Rob is the Adviser to the Chairman of American Airlines. He retired as the MD of American Airlines in 2006. He had come to deliver a talk on “Airlines Alliances” as a part of my International Business Course.

While delivering Rob’s knowledge through this post would take years for me (:D), I will try to explain things with a simple example. Suppose you are trying to go from NY to Mumbai via London. You go to the travel agent and book a ticket. And the agent issues a ticket. Since the airlines have entered into various alliances (STAR alliance, ONEWorld etc) to achieve economies of scale, you, as a passenger would travel from NY to London in American Airlines flight  and from London to Mumbai in a BA flight.  But you would get a single "American Airline ticket" with a little note that your flight from London to Mumbai would be on BA (code sharing). 

Now, for this entire system to work smoothly and effectively, internal and external factors play important role. The predominant internal factor being the alignment of the IT systems of the two alliance airlines. With most of the airlines running mainframes or their own software packages, integrating between two different airlines become a daunting task. Revamping your entire system costs you TONS of dollars. But the passenger doesn’t care all these.  He or she wants only one thing. A smoother transit between the planes without going through the immigration hassles again. This gets complex if you are moving from some small city in USA to some interior small town with airport in Bulgaria. You might need to fly 6 different airlines.The external factors are predominantly governmental regulations (there are still government carriers who when bankrupt go and shovel money from treasury again), anti law suits for price colluding and different alliances competing with each other on price. 

Kudos Rob. Airlines is a really really tough business to be in.   

Larry Burns: First you think that this guy is like any other Strategy and R&D head of a big multi-national. Next when he comes closer to you when you talk, you think that he is little too curious in taking your questions. But when Larry discloses that he lost his hearing ability and that he replies you based on your lip movement, he sits at the top of your heart.  Given my past experiences with “bossy” bosses, I thought that “top management” and “sense of humor” are disjoint. Larry disproved that notion with his amazingly witty jokes.  A sample – “ Two lawyers are hanging at the end of a cliff fighting for life. You can save only one of them. Given that situation what would you do? Go for lunch or read newspaper ?” 

He talked about GM-Chrysler merger possibility, GM’s investment in alternate energy, Chevy Volt, Tata Nano, GM-Toyota alliance, Obama, McCain, Chinese government, Indian automobile market and above all how he hearts game theory  and uses it in his daily strategic decision making process.  Some interesting facts from Larry's presentation: 

• 1% of reduction in US automobile market share means 700000 less vehicles 
• Despite all the branding efforts of Toyota, it still has only 13% market share
• 1 out of every 7 person in the US is employed with the automobile industry, either directly or indirectly
• GM is one of the top purchaser of Viagra in US (haha..that explains the higher healthcare costs of GM and is joked as a pharma company making cars!!) 
• GM introduced EV1 in 1997 ( a failed electric car) with the aim of launching Chevy-Volt in 2010. (wow!!) 

Thanks for the wonderful presentation Larry. We now REALLY hope US govt helps GM and bails it out from the current crisis. Good Luck!!

What they say and what they mean..

Which direction am I heading towards

I am writing this post after a long time. When I was in first year, I thought that I would be able to devote more time to blogs, thinking that the load in the electives courses would be light. But Second year is as heavy as (and busy as :)) first year. The problem in 2nd year is that since most of the subjects are specializations, only students who have relevant experience in those areas take those courses. Means the benchmark is set at a very high level, right from the first minute. 

I am taking 4 courses this semester - International Business , Game Theory , Financial Management , and Marketing Strategy . I have a winter intensive in Case Analysis and Presentations. I am taking 5 courses in spring - Corporate Strategy , Mergers and Acquisitions , Financial Statement Analysis , Data Driven Marketing , Corporate Finance. 

These courses make me eligible to call myself a major in Consulting and Finance!!!! Yes. I would be majoring in Consulting and Finance. And I am already excited.

And regarding this semester courses, Marketing Strategy is a sailthru with a OK (4 out of 10 rating)  prof. But the profs for the first three subjects are kick-ass profs. They are simply amazing. I really enjoy their classes. It simply can't get better than this. The flip side is that each course has an average of 3-4 readings every class, a submission or a presentation or an exam in every class. Who said 2nd year would be better than first year :)

India, Infosys and Internship...

And I am back! For those of you who were looking for my regular blog updates-A big “sorry”. My internship has kept me busy. And when I wrote that I meant it!! And for those of you who are still unaware where I did my internship – I did it with the IT giant INFOSYS in Bangalore in India. Yes Finally I also got “Bangalored”.

I was a part of Infosys’ global internship program called “InStep”. InStep is primarily the brainchild of NRN, the founder and Chief Mentor of Infosys. The program brings in the best brains from the top universities across the world who would work on important projects of Infosys. The interns bring in different perspectives of the problem resulting in innovative solutions. Given that I am a mechanical engineer with 4 years of technical sales and marketing experience and various manufacturing industry exposure (Oil & Gas, Minerals &Metals, Auto..) and an MBA from one of the top North American schools, I was a natural choice for Infosys. I was there for 17 weeks – having fun professionally (yes..I definitely enjoyed my work..) and personally.

Infosys was an amazing experience for me in three aspects. First and foremost, IT was a new industry to me. My earlier exposure was more towards the machines side. And definitely it was good and I loved it. If I am to call my earlier experience good, the IT experience would also have been similar good – but Infosys made that “exceptional”. The way they take care of their people, the way they groom them for future- everything is “class”. Not every company in the IT industry is able to do it. At least not every company of Infosys’s size is able to do it. Given that it is very difficult to be a “big company while retaining culture of a small company, Infosys has done this successfully.

Second, the project I was involved with. I was in one of Infosys’ critical projects and I got to use most of my 1 year of MBA learning, my leadership skills, set higher benchmark for myself and exceed expectations.

Third and most important – the people I met. I will tell you why with a simple statistics. My “facebook” friends list increased by 90 (:)) during the Infy internship period. And 82 of these friends were my fellow interns at Infosys and the rest are Infosys employees. I made such amazing friends – from all across the world, from the top universities. I can now confidently say that if I am to travel to any region in the world, I have a friend there. From Australia to Zimbabwe to Bulgaria to Kenya to Japan. I owe a big, lovely “thanks” to Infosys for making this happen.

I have had so many learnings during my 17 weeks marathon at Infosys that I need to apply these learnings during my second year of MBA program. I am also curious in knowing how my baby (yes..I am talking about my project :)) is growing. And I would be happy to see my baby growing up good and serving for the betterment of this world.

Status updates

Finally after the 20hr long journey, I am back to India. The first major thing I felt once I landed in India is that India has become hotter over the years. Statistics prove that the average temperature over the years has increased considerably by 5-6 deg C. The effect could be felt. Bangalore, the place where I am currently staying, which was considered to be a pensioner’s paradise, with climatic conditions similar to the Silicon Valley, is now like a microwave. What else would happen when you cut down all the trees and build IT parks? :-)

I finished my orientation today. The good thing here is that they take care of you like a kid. Everything is set for you and every thing is available at your call. I met with my project mentor and had a nice discussion with him regarding the work. Hope to get into the work groove by Monday. Life without daily deadlines and targets is boring – especially very difficult once you are used to the MBA deliverables!!

That apart, an interesting incident happened on my way from my house in Toronto to the Toronto Airport. I was talking to the cab driver who happened to be from Eretria, a small country in North East Africa. He was asking me about my origins and when I said him that I am from India, he then started recollecting his memories when he used to watch all the Amitabh Bachchan and Dharmendra movies in Eritrea during his child days. He even remembered a dialogue from the movie Mother India. That was a surprise to me. All these days, I was of the opinion that African countries in the late 1980’s were not open to the outside world with little or no contact with others.

Hot and Happening-Chennai

The sun has set and offices in New York Downtown are beginning to empty out. Robert, a consultant with a head-hunting firm, is checking his email. He looks at the clock on his cellphone: 6.30 pm. He logs off, shuts down his PC and goes to the men’s room. Looking into the mirror, he combs his hair, practises a smile and goes down to the parking lot to get into his car.

You can’t be sure what’s on Rob’s mind as he is driving home, but one thought is most likely to escape him: that most things he can’t do without today come from Chennai. His car, an Elantra, is made in Chennai. The Nokia handset, which told him the time is made in Chennai. The Dell desktop, which he just shut down, is also made in Chennai. So is the Saint-Gobain mirror he looked into moments ago. And the Samsung TV he is going to switch on once he is home — that is also made in Chennai.

Rob isn’t real. He could be a Mike in London or a Peter in Paris. What is real is that he represents the young global Indian who aspires for a good life. He could be someone who never set foot in Chennai and has no links with the city — not even a distant relative — and yet, he has a strong ‘Chennai connection’. Even the lingerie his girlfriend or wife dreams of buying someday, thanks to Fashion TV, is most likely to be made-in-Chennai: one-sixth of the bras sold by Victoria’s Secret are currently manufactured in a factory on the outskirts of the city.

The ‘Chennai connection’ is going to get even stronger as more and more multinational companies descend on the city to set up their plants and back offices. Most of them are already here now: Nokia, Flextronics, Motorola, Hyundai, Samsung, Dell, Caparo, Saint-Gobain, Foxconn, Perlos, Jabil, Salcomp, Laird, Wintek, Ford, Moser Baer, Accenture, IBM, Delphi… The list is as mind-boggling as the line-up of musicians who descend on the city during margazhi, the music season in December.

Consider this: If you are a brand addict or the one who use any of those famous brand (be it any!!), chances are more than 90% that it is or atleast has one of its critical compenents from Chennai.

Welcome to my Chennai!!

Expectations..

I am writing this post 60mins after by Birthday celebrations are over. And if you had guessed I would post something “senti”, you get full marks.

I began noticing this trend/feeling that occured to me for the past few years. And I am sure that every one of us would have this. You accept it or deny it, but the fact is you begin to expect calls/wishes from some persons, someone you consider very special, someone whom you consider had made an impact on you, someone whom you want to share your everything. And this feeling of expectancy comes from the inner unconscious mind. Your brain begins to pump in that extra blood and your heart beats faster as the moment gets closer. And when the wish gets fulfilled the feeling of ecstasy you get cannot be defined by words.

This year's birthday has been particularly special for me and thanks to that special person for making it happen!!

Rotman NetImpact Leadership Conference 2008

Finally we were done with the Rotman NetImpact Leadership Conference yesterday. For those of you who don't know what NetImpact is- Net Impact is an international nonprofit organization whose mission is to make a positive impact on society by growing and strengthening a community of new leaders who use business to improve the world. I was in the organizing committee leading the external communications for the schools for this year's conference.

This year we had the CEO of Microsoft Canada, Phil Sorgen delivering the Key Note address. Phil threw some important aspects regarding the how CSR has changed over the years-from monetary part to the service part- from donating money to giving services such as computers, windows softwares and access to MSN webpage for advertisements. At the other end was the beneficiary, Tom McAllister, CEO, KidsHelp Phone, an organization which receives large funding from Microsoft. Tom talked about KidsHelp Phone's help to children and how Microsoft's funding has helped them to reach out more children.

On a side note, one thing what I learnt from Phil was how to speak. He was so dynamic and convincing that after hearing his speech, your impression about Microsoft would increase. Hope to be a part of such good events in future also.

What is happening inside your head?

Last week I happened to watch a fantastic presentation by Jill Taylor regarding Human Brain-thanks to TED. TED has become one of my favorite hangout sites. Thanks to our strategy Prof. Anita McGahan, through whom I got introduced into this exciting world of TED.As a Neuroanatomist who suffered explosion of her brain blood vessel, Jill took me into a new world of brains. Through out her 16mins video presentation, I was agape. Never before I knew that our right part of the brain is the one which is responsible for our present actions and the left hemisphere is the one which coordinates the past and future actions. And the right hemisphere is about pictures, left hemisphere is about details. So guys protect your left part of your during exams.

(PS: All the 3 links in this are MUST watch - my personal favorites)

So what further?

With MS trying to acquire Yahoo and Yahoo's board rejecting it as of now, here's what could happen:

(Thanks to Professor Davidoff, a former corporate attorney at Shearman & Sterling and a professor at Wayne State University Law School.)

1. Fight it out in the Proxy Contest. Yahoo will argue that Microsoft’s bid undervalues it; that the cultures will not match; that Microsoft has an uncertain future; and that its offered stock is an inappropriate investment. The dispute will be an ad-man’s dream, as Microsoft and Yahoo will daily fight out this contest in ads placed in national newspapers, mailings to shareholders and in the media generally. However, given the significant arbitrage position in Yahoo and the premium Microsoft is offering, Yahoo’s chances with this strategy appear to be less than certain.

2. Third-Party Buy-out. For this defense, Yahoo has to find a third party willing to buy. Then, if Yahoo decided to sell to a third party, the board would trigger its “Revlon” duties. The Yahoo board would now be required to accept the highest price reasonably available. It is hard to see Microsoft being outbid by many companies, except perhaps Google. But a pure acquisition bid by Google is unlikely given the regulatory issues that would surround it.

3. Alliance or Acquisition. This could be one of Yahoo’s best options, if it can find a good partner or acquisition. A third-party alliance with or acquisition of AOL, for example, would make Yahoo less attractive to Microsoft. If Yahoo wants to play hardball, it can attempt a transaction that would create regulatory problems for any acquisition of Yahoo by Microsoft. Of course, the problem with this technique is that if it succeeds, Yahoo will be stuck making the alliance or acquisition work. And if Microsoft finds the transaction unattractive enough to refuse to buy, then, well…

4. Crown Jewel Sale. Yahoo could sell its stake in AliBaba or another of its key assets in an attempt to make it less attractive to Microsoft. Again, though, Yahoo would be deprived of this asset if Microsoft simply went away. 5. Leveraged Recapitalization. Yahoo could play the old 1980s standard by levering up its balance sheet with debt and using the debt to buy back its shares at a premium. I suppose this may be possible for a technology company nowadays, though I’m not sure given the state of the credit markets. Still, this maneuver only makes Yahoo more expensive to buy — it does not forestall a bid by Microsoft if Microsoft is willing to pay to refinance the debt post-acquisition.

Thats too impressive..

Last week, I happened to see two videos which I would recommend "must watch" for all.

The first video is from TED, an annual conference held in California. This speaker is Mr. Hans Rosling, a Professor of global health at Karolinska Institute, Sweden. He talks about the macro economics and proves that how facts can break pre conceived notions.

The second video is more fun, also from TED, this one by by Anand Agarwala, the creator of BumpTop, a new GUI for destop. Watch for the applause when he calls the MAC and Windows desktop looks as "crap".

No Good…only the Bad and the ugly..

This is my first post in the New Year, exactly after 33 days.

I have been putting off writing about internship hunting because in my particular case, there hasn't been much action. Lemme say that again, there hasn't been any action. Except for some early disappointments. While the Internship interviews are in full fledge and the coveted Investment banking, finance and the “biggies” consulting interviews are on. While finance was never my cup of tea, the bad news is that I got rejected from the consulting biggies. Similar is the case with many of my friends who have gone through the process and have been unsuccessful. And I (we) have already begun feeling the pressure of the feared recession in North America. The daily newspaper contains reports of job cuts in US and Canada by major companies.

While I am confident of landing in a good summer internship, I would have been much happier, had I got into the BCG or the McKinsey. I am waiting for some miracle to happen, so that I can be there atleast for my full time. I am hoping that the market would also recover by that time and history proves that whenever the economy has recovered from the down cycle, the consulting and marketing jobs would boom.

Keeping my fingers tightly crossed for now and waiting for the D-Day when I could declare of my internship success.

The Inheritances of Granny 2007....

In another’s few hours time, the new baby would have been born. 2007 has been a good year with lesser natural calamities than 2006, bad year for the medical sector with major medical breakthroughs, worse year for the business sector biggies like Citigroup and Merrill Lynch. Here are the top 10 events that I consider to be significant in 2007.

1. IPhone Mania- Iphone captures the hearts of millions and redefines the mobile market. Gets credited with TIME Invention of the year award. Kudos Steve Job!!

2. Toyota overtakes GM as the largest car maker in the world – Toyota overtook GM as the largest car maker with reported sales of 2.348 billion cars. Add to that the strong growth predictions of Toyota for 2008.

3. Bye bye People’s Prez- Dr. APJ Abdul Kalam demits Rashtrapati Bhavan as a common man with just 2 suitcases. He will be remembered as the People’s President of India, the missile man who inspired millions of Children and motivated them for a better India in year 2020 and the hi-tech President whom even the Brits were agape seeing his presentation and motivational skills.

4. TATA completes acquisition of Corus- With the completion of Corus acquisition, TATA group becomes a true IMMC (Indian Made Multinational Companies). It also moved up as the 3rd world’s most transparent group.

5. The Juggernaut- Mukesh Ambani. How else can I describe him? He has tripled the mammoth Reliance in size and increased the market capitalization by 10 times ater Dhirubhai Ambani’s death. Unquestionably the best business leader of India and well deserved to be named the richest Indian with an annual package of 240 million INR!!

6. Citigroup gets it first Indian CEO- The troubled US bank major has this time turned to an Indian for help. Vikram Pandit has been appointed as the Chairman and CEO. Pandit, who is 50, is the first person of Indian origin to scale such stratospheric heights in the financial world, which has many well-regarded Indian executives.

7. Stem Cell Break through - In November, two groups of scientists in Japan and Wisconsin announced that they had found a way to reprogram human skin cells to behave like embryonic stem cells — without having to make or destroy any embryos. Embryonic stem cells are capable of turning into any of the 220 types of cell in the human body, so scientists have long touted them as a potential medicinal cure-all, from facilitating organ transplants to curing Alzheimer's. It's hoped that the new discovery could appease both sides of the stem cell war, paving the way for medical breakthroughs that do not require killing embryos.

8. Microsoft and Facebook- Here we go again in technology land. Microsoft invests $240 million for a 1.6% stake in Facebook, plus the right to broker the social networking site's international ads. The deal gives Facebook an implied value of $15 billion, for a company expected to earn just $30 million in 2007 but is nonetheless considered the model website of the future. All this just to make sure that Google doesn’t get a stake in Facebook and strengthens its social networking site presence.

9. Google and Doubleclick- When Microsoft can do it Google will definitely do it. Google Buys DoubleClick for $3.1 Billion. A huge price for a company worth just more than $1 billion a couple of years ago. But Google craved DoubleClick's capabilities: The company's specialty is placing advertisements on websites, known in the trade as "serving." Buying DoubleClick also kept it out of the hands of Microsoft. The combo makes Google a more potent player in Web advertising against rivals Microsoft and Yahoo. The European Union isn't happy, though, and is giving the deal extra scrutiny.

10. Bhutto- A Saga ends- The former and future Prime Minister of Pakistan, the Oxford and Harvard Graduate, was assassinated after departing a PPP rally in Rawalpindi in Pakistan. What is more stunning is the chain of assassinations associated with her family. Her son, Bilawal Bhutto, just 19, another Oxford student, has already named as the leader of PPP.

The journey towards my goal...

I was supposed to have started it long ago. But better now than never.

Finally I have begun my Consulting case analysis discussions for getting into my target industry-Consulting. Apart from keeping me busy for most of the time, the case analysis has served some useful purposes:

1. I have got used to the frameworks of the likes of Accenture, BCG and McKinsey-7S Matrix, BCG 2*2 matrix, GE/Mckinsey 3*3 matrix....ufffff........

2. I have got to know about differnet industries, the typical problems they would be facing and how to tide over them

I am sure that I would not have even bothered to know about these frameworks and the industrial issues-thanks to the tighter MBA schedule and my laziness. The cases have ranged from simple (??? definitely not!!) profitability analysis cases to complex cases such as decision making as the Dean of MBA school if I receive a grant of 100Million $.

All these case analysis has also helped me personally to analyse issues in a more structured way-to such an extent that I have begun framing a structure in mind even if takling/chatting with some one. :-)

Let me see where this takes me-whether this is a start of a new beginning or beginning of end!!

( And to all the beginers of case studies, I would sincerely recommend to visit this link..
http://www.bcg.com/careers/practice_revenue_growth.html

This is supposed to be a simple, straight case.. :-))