Harsh lessons learnt for life from my first year of MBA

Well folks I've almost completed my first year of MBA. The journey was not easy and had lots of tweets and status updates. I could not have done this without the support of my Friends, Family, Teachers (yeah both of them ;) ), all chicken corners and fast food joints in Greater Noida. Oops I forgot this was not end of second year, sorry wrong speech. So coming back to point the year bygone has told me many lessons which I swear I’ll never forget in my life. As I've a habit of forgetting things, I decided to write a blog about the 10 most valuable lessons I learnt.

1. It is always hard to stay awake in a class but easier to stay awake through a late night movie. Even after having a bucket at KFC. If you don’t believe me, aa forget it I know most of you are already saying “Been there, done that”

2. On the first day of the month you’ll be having Butter chicken with 100 pipers. On the last of the month you’ll be having Dal Roti with hostel ka paani. (This I have a feeling will stay ever after my MBA)

3. You’ll always remember the latest song and sing it even while sleeping, but you’ll never remember that economics theory even when the teacher demands from you in the class.

4. It is easier to wake up early in the morning to watch a cricket match, but impossible for completing a left over assignment.

5. You can always motivate a group for a sip of Royal Challenge, but never for that Marketing group assignment. (I bet Vijay Mallaya loves that, hope he gives me a job when it comes to placements)

6. Text messages are still the way for it, when you know you have your faculty over at Facebook too.

7. That mentos thing (late for class wali) never works in real life. Teachers are way too smart to fall for that trick and you just freeze when they shout or throw some sarcasm at you.

8. Do break rules but don’t get caught not only applies at the traffic lights but also in B-School life.

9. Never think weekends are supposed to be fun, you’ll only be disappointed.

10. Trust me. It was far easier to write this blog than a 500 words project report.

So there they are, if you also have some do share it with me at the bottom. For moment let the feeling that we are seniors now sink in.

Social media over a cup of coffee

As always last Saturday I’d nothing useful to do, and some said weekends are meant to be fun. Well quite simply no if you’re single, 22 and coming to a new place, knowing not many and having no bike. But I simply refused my usual self to exist and woke up at 9. Yes on a weekend I woke up at 9, when was the last time that happened?

But because of my kind friend Mudassir, it was not going to be the same tale again. He had emailed me earlier about a certain OCC (no it is not an abbreviation for Over a Cup of Coffee but Open Coffee Club) having a discussion about Social Media. Well after that it was just what I was missing for the past few weeks “A high octane discussion by people mostly young from different companies and some even from different countries”.

We were past the clichés pretty soon, and went onto some serious discussion. It was really exciting to meet few entrepreneurs and specially some who were in the social media space. Social media is such a space where every fifth person on Facebook and every second on twitter feels like an expert. Not that I’m questioning anyone’s expertise as I feel no expert, but there were really some good takeaways from the discussion.

One that really has stuck me is that Facebook was designed as a platform where people will stay and will be reluctant to leave. Well this thought had never crossed my mind. We all think of leveraging what this new Facebook revolution has given us. But in the process we all try to bring prospective customers to our website, so instead of that we are better off by keeping them hooked on the platform itself and engaging them as much as possible by discussions and debates. The idea that nobody likes to be sold to forcefully also add to this and makes the point that content is the king hygiene today.

Another important point was how much of a truth was behind what Facebook might tell me the profile of my TG. To be honest I know most of the links I’ve liked in the past few months were either obligations or were due to my conscience forcing me so that I keep my Facebook friends engaged. So if Facebook come up with some analysis of that data constructing an image of me, I won’t be surprised if I fail to recognize myself. And then is this article on Facebook which talks about some more things that have crossed my mind more than once in the previous few months. Perhaps that’s the reason I’ve shifted more to Twitter.

Ah Twitter. Then there was one of the most significant things I remember. Someone pointed out that instead of shoving our products down the throat of a follower on Twitter, one should try to collect information about what they tweet and perhaps make better products or even innovation, who knows what all is possible. I remember another person mentioning that he had written a book on Sanskrit. He had a Facebook page which had not many followers. But a simple comment on some forum discussing about Sanskrit brought 6000 followers to his page. Moral of the story, it’s not only about sharing on your own page but also at other places also.

I think Social media is in a nascent stage now, where not many can predict which way it will go and what consequences it will bring with it. A thing called Orkut was hip a few years ago and today it is as good as Gautam Gambhir’s facial expressions DEAD. But one thing is for sure, along with all the changes, it will definitely bring along new opportunities, open new business horizons and much more.

P.S-I would like to apologize to have not mentioned any names above. For the people who were present there and are reading, I had to rush as I had no breakfast that morning and can’t survive on a hungry stomach on a weekend so it was not possible for me to know some better. But there is one person I do remember. It’s Amarinder and Amarinder thanks for everything, for moderating and for arranging it all. I would love to attend more OCC meets till the time I’m here.

Comments are welcomed J

That’s how you hit two targets with one shot says Congress

Today an LTTE Leader made a sensational appearance hinting that DMK might have been indirectly responsible for Rajiv Gandhi’s death. But that’s not the crucial. The crucial thing is the timing. If we look back at most of the incidents around DMK and Congress one can easily sense what’s going on.

Before going on let’s have a look at some of the facts. DMK is the third largest party in the UPA coalition behind Congress and Trinamool Congress with a substantial 18 seats. The last two years of the government has seen more scams and allegations of corruption than bills passed, with DMK seen as the centre of it most of it. The media has mostly shown DMK as a corrupted party which has nepotism grounded in it. The DMK lost badly in the recent assembly elections in Tamil Nadu and the by the looks of it, it doesn’t seem that they will gain the lost ground soon and easily. And then the most important fact of them all, two DMK MP’s, one of them being DMK supreme’s daughter is behind bars for one of the largest corruption cases India has seen.

Enough facts now let’s see the ground situation. Congress suffering from bad public image is trying to put all corruption image on the face of DMK and even distancing itself from DMK sometimes. They cannot afford to leave DMK’s hand as if DMK pulls out, the government can collapse. So what they are doing is putting one foot in the door. Sonia Gandhi showing some closeness to J. Jaylalitha and reminding DMK they are just an option. I won’t be surprised if they leave DMK and join hands with AIADMK in the next general elections.

This was the Congress’s situation. Now let’s have a look at DMK’s state of affairs. DMK has hit an all time low. They have a very low public acceptance with them at the moment. So if they decide to pull out leading to a collapse of the government, they won’t be too confident while going for the assembly elections at such a moment. So they are in a situation where they can’t demand anything and can only sit and wait for things to turn better.

So it’s more of an alliance where nobody can do anything but to stay together. But Kanimozhi has been made a scapegoat by Congress to show DMK what they are capable of. Also this has shown how helpless a father can be in the wake of Indian politics.

Social Networking +1

I was going through my twitter Newsfeed when an idea struck me to relieve me of my boredom so I got down writing

Facebook ask me what I'm thinking, Twitter asks what I’m doing, Foursquare asks where I am and Orkut....aaaa. Ok forget Orkut I can’t remember, anyways it’s dead. I decided to create some fictional Social Networking website with some catchy status update asking lines.

1. Food&me.com

Yeah it had to start with food.

What’s hitting that belly?

2. IPLHooked.com

Who is getting the next curse?

3. PoliticiansToTihar.com

Oh this one is one of my favourites.

Who’s coming next?

4. YeahImfat.com

What’s the next excuse to console?

5. GeeksAreGod.com

For some of my geek friends

How many lines of code today?

6. OneSidedLovers.com

Who is the hot chick that just moved to office/college/school/colony blab blab............

7. DepressedExLovers.com

When are the next happy hours and what’s on your mind Devdas?

8. PoliticiansInTihar.com

Yeah one more

How much?

9. RajniRulez.com

Any Joke will do sire.

10. Bored4mOffice.com

ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ

Eureka........Eureka!

Don’t worry, I was not having a bath when I said the above words nor have I discovered anything new. I was in my usual place in the office doing nothing but some reading and mind thrashing. But during the course of my meditation (of course mind thrashing) I came upon the news of LinkedIn IPO and I could feel the fears of some sceptics and laughs of some lunatics. For the past 6 months or so I been hearing a lot of talk of another bubble in the making from the bubble obsessed people, our now beloved friends Americans. To be more precise another dot com bubble.

The recent events like the takeover of Skype by Microsoft and the LinkedIn IPO helped a lot by giving a lot to talk and write. I couldn’t help but feel that the only reason many of the American watch News is to find another bubble or to create one. So obsessed are they with the idea of a bubble that even after having disastrous consequences twice in a decade they still want another one.

It seems like God has definitely blessed America or Americans as to say by once again listening to them. I have been hearing stories of people driving across States with posters on their cars saying “God give us another bubble”. But this definitely is not a dot com bubble, even if it turns out to be a bubble in the end. This time it’s all about social networking. Be it Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Zygna or Skype. The buzz word is social networking. There are people saying this is not a bubble as all these have sustainable business models generating good revenue year after year. But so were the companies that started the last dot com bubble like Ebay, Amazon and its revenue not profits people.

But this is not where the things go wrong. I read someplace there are three kinds of entrepreneurs. The first are the innovators, the second are the ones who tweak and take it to masses and third are the cheap imitators. The third ones are the one which are most dangerous. It seems that most of the people who run to the markets to invest have either not read or forgotten that “All that glitters is not gold”. The LinkedIn IPO showed how eagerly people wanted an IPO from the social networking breed. With some shares going at double or more the initial price of $45, its valuation went straight away to $8 billion in the trading market from the $2.5 billion it had earlier.

And the Curious Case of Microsoft buying Skype has not helped, but add more fuel to the fire. By no means this looks like a bubble. It when every Tom, Dick and Harry is making social networking sites to make those millions (which I guess is already going on) and the rest of Tom, Dick and Harries think that they can rank in the moolah by investing is when things go wrong. Both things have started, but not risen to alarming propositions. The next year is going to be very interesting to watch whether Facebook or Twitter comes out with IPO and how big of a response come from people (it sure is going to be big). It’s after that, the people who would think that they missed the bus will be interesting to watch. As these will be the gullible ones to burn their hands by investing in the third category of ventures. So let’s wait and watch the movie. From the looks of the initial trailer or teaser or whatever you call, it looks to be an interesting one. I have already bought the popcorns and a nice comfy seat. For the moment GOD BLESS AMERICA!