Recruitment already?

A few companies posted job descriptions and invited applications. A lot of people are already showing signs of anxiety. First, people try to gather a lot of information regarding the job. Thereafter, the resume and expression of intent needs be tailored based on the job posting. Then starts the wait for the shortlist. Once the shortlist is announced there is a customary round of amazement as to why a particular individual got shortlisted. This is followed by a round of introspection as to why oneself was not shortlisted. This cycle continues during interview stages if a company has multiple rounds of interview.

I can already imagine the combined anxiousness during the placement period in the months of February and March.

Term 5 subjects

My subjects for Term 5 are:

Sales Management
Pricing
Managing IT in Information Intensive Organizations
Options and Futures

Some other subjects that I wanted to take include:
Logistics & Supply Chain Management
Technology and Business Innovation
Marketing of Services
Branding
Marketing Research

Apart from Options and Futures all others courses have been great learning experience. We have only had two classes of Options and Futures so I am not sure as to how will it turn out.

Also, once in the Elective terms we choose our own study groups. On the face of it this is great, however, for people like me who do not plan a lot in advance this caused a few problems. I am a member of 3 different groups for the courses, I have another group for PaEV (Planning and Entrepreneurial Venture), a group for interview prep etc, and another group for participating in B-School competitions. The difficult part is that the number of common persons across these groups is rather low. So one needs to coordinate with around 25 other peers, this can be a nightmare because of differing priorities. I am learning to traverse the maze!

Term 4 over

Term 4, last of the core terms, is over. We bid for elective courses a couple of weeks ago. The choices available are mind-boggling. It is a struggle to choose one course over the other. At the end of the day I get the feeling that I would like to do most of the available courses. However, this is not to be and I need to choose at least 3 and at most 5 courses for term 5.

Goldman Sachs, India CEO

The CEO of Goldman Sachs India L. Brooks Entwistle visited the campus yesterday. Both, the topic of his talk and his approach were unique.

The topic was "Goldman Sachs - six months in India". He talked about his apprehensions before coming to India, and his activities and concerns in the last six months. Rather, than making it a recount of what he did, he prompted us to think through the process with him. He asked us what would we consider under the circumstances, what actions would we take, and why.

He divided the talk into 3 parts:

• Before coming to India
• Immediately after coming to India, and the breakup of the JV between GS and Kotak Mahindra
• After breakup till now

Before coming to India
- Future of GS in India? and GS' plans of investment in India?
- His own knowledge of the market.
- His comfort in dealing with the Indian culture and way of working?
- Softer issues, such as his family's comfort level regarding the move?

Immediately after coming to India
Both GS' and Kotak' top management knew about the end of the JV between the two. However most other employees did not know about it. After coming to India his key concerns were:
- Legal and Regulatory Issues to be tackled
- Setting up an office and taking up residence to convey that the decision to come to India was not in passing, and that he had come for good
- Meetings with all the big shots of the financial world, i.e. top bosses of SEBI, BSE and NSE, to convey GS' intentions of setting up base in India
- Ensure that despite of end of JV, the relations with Kotak remained cordial. GS did so by ensuring that both parties functioned in distinct segments of the market.
- Start process of obtaining necessary licenses to start functioning

Thereafter
- Prioritize the areas which GS planned to enter
- Focus on building the leadership team, by bringing in people from GS worldwide and also by hiring local people

From a generic perspective the talk can be used to create an outline of things to be done and considered to setup an office in another country.

Rough Waters Ahead

The next week is going to be telling. We have 3 assignments, 1 case submission, and 4 exams lined up within the next week.

Exams at ISB are especially tough. We have 2 exams a day on consecutive days. If you think that you can mug up stuff at the last moment you have had it.

I know I will last the week, but wishes from you all would surely help.

Think beyond the conventional

This term is full of assignments that are designed to make us think beyond the conventional. I have already mentioned about the take home exam in my previous post. We have other assignments which require usage of cross functional knowledge. A case in point is: Think about any problem in the organization you were working with. Come up with possible solutions for the same.

The assignments are very open-ended, they encourage us to build a perspective regarding issues that we face, further they require that we bring together knowledge and learning from different subjects, and to build upon the learning to develop / suggest possible solutions for the business problems of organizations.

Welcome to the real world!

Unique exam - GSBC

As is usual for each term, Week 1 does not pressure you too much. This makes you complacent, and proves to be costly in subsequent weeks. Let's see whether I am able to avoid this mistake in this term.

The exam for Government Society and Business is rather unique. It is a take home exam, and the topic is more or less upto us. We need to choose a government policy change in the past few years and need to evaluate the impact the impact of this policy change on a hypothetical firm of our choice.

Writing this exam is going to be a challenge. Any ideas from you guys???