I am back…

After a long long break , I am back to my blog. It has been a busy period. A lot has happened in between. And among all the distractions, the MBA goes on.

And yes, an amazing last term awaits. Here are a few things that are going to happen.

1. IBE – As part of the mandatory International Business Experience, am going to Mexico with 3 other people. Will be a fun filled week ahead.

2. Wimbledon (probably) – After I spent 3 hours seeing Federer lose in French Open (and I lost a lot of pounds on my beer at the social), I am so looking forward to the Wimbledon where I can possible watch him win the title. (At least get in and watch on the big screen, thats the plan)

3. Regatta – Cranfield Annual Regatta is during the last week of July, and we are sailing ! Has to be fun.

4. Lords – India VS Eng – 1st test – last week of July, must watch game. Tickets booked and we are definitely going.

This is just a list of planned things, and a lot of unplanned things will come up for sure.

During the last 2 months or so, I have been busy as well. Here is a list.

1. Visited Wales – 3 day trip to south Wales, Cardiff etc.

2. Visited Lake District – lovely place and a lot of good drives. Amazing.

And also visited a lot of places in London, like touring the Big Ben, London Eye, Greenwich et al.

Also went to a visit to the London Metal Exchange to see live trading. Awesome.

 

Almost half way through my MBA

Yeah, I am doing an MBA from Cranfield School of Management and already neck deep into it. Next week, we have mid term exams and I will be half way done through my MBA.

Here are a few musings from my MBA so far:

Its fun : Those who think doing an MBA is tough, competitive and way too difficult after lots of work experience, I would say its not. Its quite a lot of fun actually. The work load is manageable, competitive and we do have lots of parties here (especially since we live far away from London).

There is always something happening here: We are always upto something. We had the VCIC competition recently, some people are doing Hult global challenge, a few are deep into preparing for Regatta, Ski Trip, Eastern european extravaganza etc. We had pancakes day last week, having a St Patricks day this week, an auction for supporting London Marathon this friday apart from Career’s fair tomorrow, and Venture capitalist’s briefing, Exam reviews, couple of assignment submissions, and job interviews for a few of us. Boy ! Its a lot to chew.

And if I add what all we had in the first term, I would be going on and on about it… People here have amazing levels of energy and are extremely supportive.

 

Vote for Project ‘Paani’ (Water)

http://apps.facebook.com/hultglobal/contests/101940/voteable_entries/17796207

A few of my colleagues are working on Project Paani for a Hult Global Case challenge.

Sincerely request you all to vote for this amazing idea of solving water crisis in countries around the world that need it.

FT Global MBA Rankings 2011

Here is how Cranfield fared in the FTMBA 2011 rankings:

• 6th in the UK

• 13th in Europe

• 34th in the world

• 3rd in the world for teaching Economics

• 5th in the world for value for money

• 8th in the world for career progresion

• 8th for top salaries in Europe

See full rankings in FT website here.

[Source : CMAWorld]

[Source : FT Rankings]

John Glen on Economics of Cricket

Professor John Glen is an economist and teaches at Cranfield School Of Management. Personally, the best professor I have come across, and also the one without whom I would not have liked economics.

Love to hear him, now and then. The other day at the coffee machine, we were talking about the ongoing IPL auctions and the Ashes. Here in this interview he talks about what the recent Ashes win will do for Cricket in UK and sporting in general. Also the upcoming tour of No 1 Test Team India in summer will generate huge interest and huge returns for the two boards.

 

Feeling Sleepy in class …

Here is the video of my friend and neighbour Subhash who is notorious for sleeping in the class.

This was taken by yours truly sitting in the bench behind him during a Supply Chain lecture by Mike Bernon.

A 16 hour slog and still going …

This has been one of the most hectic days of my MBA life so far. And I suspect that term 2 is going to be this busy the whole period. Wow.. I am loving it.

We had a simulation exercise today which started with a submission of a project plan etc in the morning followed by the project simulation which involved a lot of running around, number crunching, trending, charting, planning, replanning, allocating resources, re-scoping, and more !!! We, in teams of 6, needed to plan to build a warehouse using optimum resources with maximising profit being the aim (a proportion of credits depend on that).  We planned for 14 weeks of activity, allocated labourers needed, calculated overheads and other costs, loans needed, repayment schedule, equipment/materials/cranes needed and lot more. Each week is sped up in 15-20 minutes by the simulation software and we get the progress of work after each week, after which we re-allocate taking into consideration the random delays the software puts in, and other incidentals.

8AM :Review project plan, collate documents, print and submit at 8:45

0845: Simulation Starts.

1000 : Already in the middle of the project and experiencing lots of delays in procurement etc. Our planning skills put to test.

1100 : First major disruption in plan – increase in scope. An unplanned activity comes up, everything else gets delayed by 2 weeks alteast.

1200 : Anothe major change, 2 of us have been deallocated from the project and people from different teams have replaced them for an hour. We managed it well as no one was indispensible in the team – good project management !.

1400 : All look good even after delays, but there are huge cost overruns because of delays.

1600: We finish with a positive profit figure but very low from what we expected earlier. Disappointment dawns. Damn it !

1700 : We also have to present the results, variances, and learning tomorrow and so we continued with preparing for presentations. And yes, for lunch people grabbed what they could get hold of and kept working.

1900 : IBE briefings were also squeezed in for today in the timetables and so we had to attend those as well. International Business Experience (IBE) is a programme of one week where we visit various companies and institutions in a different country (in June). I will be going to Vietnam !

0000: Finished preparing for presentations after that, and its 12 midnight now. Need to hit the sack as it will be an early start tomorrow at 0830 for presentations.

 

Another Ranking – 5 Palms …

http://www.eduniversal-ranking.com/business-school-university-ranking-5palms.html

Cranfield is placed at no 46 in this ranking. This ranking is for ‘Business Schools with major international influence’.

The criteria for this ranking is a simple question asked to deans or directors of 1000 top academic instutes over the world – ‘Which business school(s) would you recommend to anyone wishing to study in this country?”. The rankings also depend on the level of International recognition through accreditations, memberships and other rankings.

Interesting to note is that IIMs show up here. IIMB at 25 and IIMA at 52. IIMB has been India’s no 1 in this list since the last three years. (Source : click here)

 

References:

http://www.mybangalore.com/article/1210/iim-bangalore-rated-universal-business-school-in-india.html

Accounting WAC : Video

Here is the feeling of our cohort after getting the accounting WAC. As usual, there was a duration of 24 hours in which to turn in the written assessment of a case (WAC).

Exciting times and I really enjoyed the case and the time we had while discussing and writing it.

About Cranfield MBA …

A lot of people have asked me recently about how is it at Cranfield, and how life is when you join an MBA.

I am giving a shot to answer a few questions here.

Q> How is life at Cranfield

A> Cool ! I must say, and I have enjoyed every bit of it as of now. The pressure kicks in from day 1, but you get used to it. You learn to pace things up, and also learn to prioritise. Also you know how to be efficient when learning in teams.

Q> How is education/quality of curriculum.

A> World Class ! The professors are aweeeesoooommmmeeee.. About the curriculum, do have a look at our school website and see if it suffices any of your requirements.

Q>How is the post MBA job scenario in UK ?

A>Its quite dim. But it depends on person to person. Do see my earlier posts on “Getting a job in UK post MBA” and others to know more.

Q> What if I want to return to India after MBA ?

A> Not an issue. Many people have done that. Only thing is getting a good paying job to pay off the loan, otherwise not much an issue, as we do have good job market in India. But, if you want to go back to India, better do an MBA in India, from some reputed institute… as Cranfield is virtually unknown in India.

Q> I have x years of experience, do I qualify.

A> Let me answer it straight, if x<5, dont even think about it. If its more than 5, do write to the adcom and have your profile evaluated. Or email me, I could help. (for free !)

Q> US or UK ?

A> Deciding between US and UK schools