Demonisation of Foreign Exchange Markets

With the Rupee fluctuating from mid 30s to early 50s against the US dollar in period of just 6 months, the foreign exchange market, more than any other market has been cast in a villain’s role. Even heads of states have been known to visit invective upon the market. This kind of animosity may come from the fact that few heads of state study economics. Pursing no education seems to be a better preparation for a career in politics. Even very few chief executives have attained a fundamental understanding of the functioning of prices in modern economics. Prices, including exchange rates, are the agents that distribute scarce resources among competing demands. Prices do their work, without any one being conscious of their activity, much like the human body’s central autonomous system that controls its functioning.
Finance ministers and central bankers are supposed to know more about economics than heads of state do. Yet they too have an adversarial relationship with foreign exchange market because exchange rates have a habit of making them look silly; the currency market has made a monkey out of many a finance minister. In popular thinking, the whole foreign exchange market derives its existence from business centred on speculation. What is missed out in this rush to diagnose the foreign exchange markets is an important, if not crucial distinction about volatility.
In normal functioning markets, prices move up and down in more or less continuous manner. While a normal market can be trending up or down, it can even experience large fluctuations from time to time and there will be specialised agents willing to deal in derivatives contract. The importance of this is that derivatives are the principal tool that investors use to hedge foreign exchange risks. Among these are forward foreign exchange contracts and options on foreign exchange. Hence one can make an important generalisation that investors are not put off by the possibility that national currency will weaken over time – if that is their view, they can hedge, so long as there are dealers offering such instruments at a reasonable prices. Where this breaks down is in case of exchange rate that is capable of sharp discontinuous movements as has been witnessed in India recently owing to partially fixed exchange rate regime when Rupee started appreciating. Thus dollar rate crash seems inevitable in near future.

The Nuts & Bolts of Currency Speculation

Each time our currency appreciates/depreciates or markets face a liquidity problem, our respected finance minister makes a TV appearance and promptly blames it to currency speculation. An analogy to this syndrome can be found in home minister blaming every militant attack on “Foreign Hand”. Intrigued, I decided to engage my mental faculties to understand this phenomenon a bit more.

To understand the role of speculators, we must follow the mechanics of going short the domestic currency. Going short means that individuals sell a currency which they do not own. This is done in hope that they can buy it back at a later time at a cheaper price. In foreign exchange, the short sale is accomplished by selling the currency in a forward transaction. A forward foreign exchange transaction, has its value date further out on the settlement calendar than spot, the latter being a trade for nearly immediate settlement.

The forward sale of a currency involves paying a “lending fee” that is based on the spread between the interest rate of the currency being sold and the currency being bought. But this lending rate, rather than being explicitly stated is folded into the forward exchange rate. The amount by which the forward exchange rate diverges from the spot exchange rates, called the forward points, determines the cost of going short the currency. Herein lies the basic principle of currency trading: The higher the domestic interest rates, more expensive it is to maintain a short position in that currency.

This is why central banks may choose to hike its short-term interest rate to defend its currency in the face of market pressure. The idea is to try to muscle speculators out of the market by raising the cost of their going short but in doing so the bank must accept that it is damaging its own economy. Higher interest rates may lead to bankruptcies and higher rates of unemployment. That damage can be catastrophic, as has been evident in the history of emerging market nations where bank loans are typically based on floating interest rates. Needless to say, you would be seeing the finance minister a lot more on TV.

In Defense of Capital Market

By Chandan Pal

If one copies from one source, it’s known as plagiarism and copying from multiple sources is known as research. To that extent, you would find this post, my first on this blog, a very well researched one. In fact, I have spent the last few months hopping from one economic blog to another in a vain attempt to understand the economic turmoil that we all are faced with. The financially turbulent era of “Sub prime crisis” is a challenge for market oriented economist to explain. The crisis has plagued countries around the world, leaving skeptical observers confounded by economic reversals and seasoned professional investors flat footed.

The age old debate of Free Capital Markets vs. Regulated Markets has been clinched; it seems for the time being, in favour of the latter. A broad spectrum of reforms has been recommended in the International financial system, following the remarkable collapse of Lehman Brothers and other financial giants. And when confronted with financial crisis, many leaders, if not all, hunt for villains and indict the Capital Markets instead of re-examining the policy blunders of their own making. The first blame goes to capital markets and the system that affords mobility to these markets. The witch hunting season has hit full bloom while and perpetrators of greed and mayhem roam scot-free under the cover of financial bailouts.

There exists remarkable evidence in history of all financial crises, that it is the government policies that has almost always, exacerbated the upheavals. In other words, the predisposing conditions of a crisis are local in nature; crisis comes from within and not outside, and certainly not because capital moves freely from one market to another or market determined forces. One lesson rings loud and clear, regulation or no-regulation, the world will see many more such financial crises unless governments refuse to indulge themselves in markets.

Mutual Funds & Dramatics

Just finished the classes for the second last term of the

course.Normally, I have a feeling of relief and easy going after the
classes get over but this time its another story. This term was
brutual in another form. The classes that started at 9 AM in the
morning somtimes lasted till 10 PM in the night. We did have few hours
of break (sometimes) in between depending upon the electives one has
chosen, but it did not made our life easy.Moreover, we attended more
than 8 extra classes or contact classes for Investment Management with
the professor.I did bunked few of them as well but few students like
Anupam and Bacha attended all of the classes.The total experience of
studying investment management is no less terrifying then the
experience of people who have invested in stock markets ! The prof was
great but he worked so hard that it was impossible to meet his
standards.Moreover, being a novice it was even more difficult.Now the
real test starts. The next 20 days we have to submit more than 8
projects and assignments, courtsey we did not have any End Term exams
this term.So all grades have been translated to projects and
assignments.Its going to be a real night mare and thats the reason why
people are dull and looking tired.
The most fun part of this phase was the Business Ethics course where
each group had to give presentations or do role plays, small skits to
express the topic that was given to them. Our group comprising of
myself, Anupam,VPP,Pradeep, Riddhi, Jatin and Ajay Pandey did multiple
role plays on consumer behaviour and ethics. Our director and producer
was Anupam and the hero was Ajay Pandey who was the narrator or
"Sutradhar" for the skit(s).Needless to say the director was excellent
and everything was planned to the minutest details and well rehersed
as well.Our actual performance was much better then what we usually
did in our rehersals. I know ours was the best peformance of the
entire batch. Ajay Pandey played a fantastic role of sutradhar and his
command over hindi resulted in a classical style of speaking and
narrating the events, mixed with humour and facts. I believe each one
us performed the best but Ajay was exceptional.Our director also
played the role of music director and how he managed that was only he
can explain.

We should have video recorded the entire skit but unfortunately I was
not carrying the recording device with me this time. Even the photos
were not taken of the live performance. I do have some photos of the
rehersals that I took one night before. More about this later.But
right now I am feeling extremely tired and nervous as I estimate the
workload I have to complete befor the term end on 15th Nov 2008 and we
move into our final term at IIM Indore, the hillock that never sleeps!
Tomorrow evening am back on a flight to Delhi for Diwali and I only
thinking about mutual funds and my hunt for efficient portfolios!

Investments and Money market!

As we witness the biggest crash the financial markets have seen and what is sending jitters down the spine of most of B school students; we are currently going through another round of nightmare in our Investment Management classes.Though we studied financial management in our earlier terms as well but this time, we are studing IM as an specialised subject and needless to say, the subject requires lots of hard work made worse by even a hard working professor, who works hard and wants student to work even harder.Last 5 days have been like a nightmare for all students who have opted for this subject. The classic case is that, the other students are having a gala time in the 5th term as it seems easy for most of them, compared to other terms, we witnessed earlier. But the same cannot be said for us.Last few days I have not slept for more than 3 hours in a single stretch and today it really got over me. I bunked my class of IM, which was an extra class. i thought of going round our beautiful campus. Just walked down with Chandan to our main gate and I realised on the way down and up, how beautiful this place is.The enveloping darkness giving way to light combined with lush green hill made the scenery awesome.We have been witnessing this scenery for almost one year now, but still it seems fresh and always something new to witness. The cool breeze which has become even cooler made my walk exhiliarting and refreshing. Moreover, we just finished out first phase of classes for Corporate Performance Management, so life should be little cool as far as classes are concerned.However, we have our midterm for IM on sunday morning, and I hope that is not a nightmare!

Good and Excellent can never be together!

While introspecting my sorroundings, I realised that mediocricity and excellence can never go together or rather they are mutually exclusive to each other. I also searched for some good material on this issue and I am writing some text which I believe expresses my feelings on the issue very closely. Here you go...............As per my experience, a mediocre is always seeking to find how to exert minimum effort and receive the maximum reward. According to me mediocrity is the enemy of excellence. Mediocricity is one of the greatest philosophical diseases of our culture. It has infected every aspect of our lives and our society. Tragically it is one ideological disease that is eating away the Indian civilisation. Consciously or sub-consciously, people everywhere seem to be asking, "What is the least I can do and still keep my job? What is the least I can do and still get the best placements? What is the least I can do and still get reasonable grades in school? What is the least I can do and still stay physically fit? What is the least I can do...?" The list is long and can go on and on! These are classic cases and one can see this repeating in n number of situations in everyday life in one form or the other.
In most cases its the helplessness that it creates that pulls my mood down!

Inside Out!

Just finished off the projects.The project on strategy was interesting and there were many learnings from that . However, the International Business project was more of a run of the mill type of report. Sridhar is working on the Finance project and I will get to see it probably on Monday. I think the entire group is worried for Finance project. This is the last chance for everyone to improve upon the grades, cos everyone has sort of screwed the end term exam!Today is the opening ceremony of Bejing Olympics and surprisingly, I am not watching that. I think, this is the first olympic opening ceremony that I am not watching. I still remember fondly, watching the LA and Barcelona games opening ceremony, with awe and delight! I do not know, why such change in attitudes.

The class has really not been able to choose electives as they have wanted. Infact, the number of electives floated were quite less than what we expected for the final 2 terms. The reasons given were lack of time with teachers or no teachers at all or some administrative reason. Few people chased some of the teachers and when they agreed, the EPGP committee refused. This saw hectic activity amongst the students which translated into actions like giving representations in person and by email to the director and everyone concerned. But the end result was nil! We have to opt from optionals already floated. The committee final decided not to allow any teachers to float any new optionals. As far, as I am concerned I am ok with the optionals. I think, I have got what I wanted, but it would have still better if certain teachers like Prof Ganesh and Prof Chandrashekar had offered couple of electives. Few students are quite unhappy by the way the requests were turned down. But alas! Its part of life. You win some and loose some, you never won e'm all!

Feeling a bit light today after finishing off the projects. Officially, the 4th terms ends on the 17th August 2008. I have already seen assignments coming my way for the 5th term from some of the professors like our favourite Prof V.K Gupta! I will write about Prof VK Gupta in my next post. He is one of the stars of IIM Indore and I think he is the most liked by students not only for his knowledge but for many other things..........

Time and tide await none eh?

As I write this post, we are almost at the fag end of 4th term. To say in other words, we are already 66.66% MBA ! Just 14 more days and we will move into the 5th term, the second last term of our course. Time has literally flew past by. I believe this year( starting Oct 07), has been the most hectic year in my entire life and I see more is coming in the next two terms. The 5th and 6th terms are basically full of electives. I have chosen a mix of finance and strategy. Finance is what is giving me jitters! Uptil now ,though I have studied quite a bit of finance but still I am far from comfortable. Its well known that certain subjects in term 5 and 6 require very good understanding of corporate finance and more over the teachers in finance are said to be brutal! So, I am mentally preparing myself for the grind. I sincerely hope, I do well in finance in my next 2 terms.
IIM campus during this time of the year is at its best. The weather at Indore is awesome and the entire scenery inside and outside the campus is lush green! Its so soothing to the eyes that I spent many minutes ( we do not have hours at IIM to do anything except studying or preparing for some presentation or project etc etc. )sitting in my hostel room balcony, enjoying the scenes of the surroundings. I feel completely at peace and extremely happy from inside, whenever I am there. My balcony opens onto a hill slope from where one can see the main gate of IIM campus. The slope is not very wide but its quite substantial in length. During this part of the year, the entire hill slope looks stunningly beautiful with flowers and lush green grass plus trees.Early morning there are visitors, white birds.Many of my classmates mistook them for ducks. They look very pretty in the green background. They come in flock of 5-6 and roam on the entire hill side and they go as quietly as they come, roughly before noon! I have taken some very good pictures of our guests basking in glory!
Just few days back, we had a guest lecture by MD & CEO of Morgan Stanley in India, Narayan Ramchandran.It was an awesome lecture and our guest went about giving us tips on how to develop and sustain the art of reading.It was one of those speeches that awed the entire audience be it students or the faculty. I heard one of the professors commenting after hearing the speech that he felt very small before the guest and the speech has inspired him to read and read more with dedication. The prof is well respected and has tons of experience, that speaks about the quality of the lecture.
Time to work on the Internationa Business project, more to come later............

EXPGP and Sarovar Portico !

The fourth term first phase, classes started on the 14th of June 2008! During this time some MDP's (Management Development Programs) were also planned simultaneously. I believe the administration goofed up the plan as our stay at MDC clashed with MDP's of senior management personal of some big corporations. However, this turned out to be a boon in disguise, as we were moved to a star hotel in central of Indore called Sarovar Portico. Needless to say, the hotel could not have been at a better place. It was located right above the biggest shopping mall in Indore called “Treasure Island”. Right from the start of our course in Oct 2007, we did not have any opportunity to see Indore. Whatever opportunity we got, was by the way of traveling to either the airport or the railway station on our way back to our homes! This was a golden opportunity and I believe 31 of us who moved to the hotel thoroughly enjoyed every moment of it. It seemed to us as if we were on our vacation! We traveled everyday at 8.00 am from the hotel to IIM campus to attend classes and then back to the hotel at 6.00 PM by IIM bus. Even our grueling class sessions could not hamper the spirit of our stay there .It was difficult to study in the hotel, because the hotel had everything that could make even a studios person go on a Roll! We tried studying the first night, but the temptations to enjoy the night life were too much! So, most of my class mates landed up in the mall or the PVR or the hotel bar and it continued all the three nights, we were there! Fortunately for us, this was the start of the 4th term, so the work load was at its minimum. What we enjoyed most was the swimming pool on the 9th floor of the hotel. The pool was shallow, so everyone right from the expert to the novice was inside and in full force. The only thing we regret is, we got only @ 1.5 hrs everyday to enjoy the pool experience! It was great fun and thereafter. Obviously, under such circumstances the studies had to go in for a complete toss, for the 2 days and 3 nights we were there. This also gave us an excellent opportunity to see the city and experience it first hand. Let me tell you, I loved the city and the people, who seem to be much more courteous and polite as compared to people in the city where I come from!
It was very difficult to come back to our hostel once the guests left! We thought perhaps, the experience could last for some more time! But we had to come back to our abode at IIM, the MDC and we did!

i CAnvas: From IIM Indore to Wharton School !

Thursday was a very important day for all of us at IIM Indore. Our B school magazine "i CANVas" entered into a partnership with the online business magazine from the Wharton SChool of the University of Pennslvyania titled indiaknowledge@Wharton. "i Canvas" will initially carry article excerpts from the online magazine and a link will be provided at the end of the excerpts, which will direct the user to the actual article on the Wharton portal. It would have been great , had we got the rights to publish the articles in full, but due to an earlier agreement of Wharton School with Economic Times in India, we will not be able to publish the entire article in print. However, we can publish complete articles on the student portal of IIM Indore under the name of i CAnvas, as there is no such restriction on publishing articles online. I believe this is really a very big achievement for our magazine, our batch and also our institute, considering the fact that we are hardly few months old! I think what clinched the deal was the way i Canvas is designed and presented. Its a unique concept in itself, and I think the editor of ik@Wharton was really impressed by our concept and the way we are progressing on the magazine front! I think all Big things take shape this way.The best part of the agreement is that ik@Wharton will mentor us for our future magazine initiative.This agreement would not have been possible without the active help and support of Divya Nagar of Gutenberg, who is also the representative of ik@Wharton.Many thanks to her for making this possible.We look forward to her continuing support in all our future initiative and our relationship with ik@Wharton.

As we start collecting articles for the 3rd issue and seek sponsors, my mind has started thinking about the future of i CAnvas, what happens once we are gone from the campus. There are many options to that, but i think we really need to start thinking on those lines. Its high time, because time has really flown by and will flow even faster in the coming future.Whatever we decide, but one thing is paramount, we need to have a framework in place which will ensure that i CANvas story goes on and on irrespective of the batches passing out of IIM Indore and independent of the individuals!I think it will need a collaborative effort from the EPGP, PGP student fraternity and the faculty, who are sort of permanent to IIM Indore!As we move on to global scene with i CAnvas, our resolution to succeed and excel in whatever we do has grown many folds! We have seen and observed that how an idea can shape up and grow, with sheer dint of smart work and will power! The learning that we have from the i CAnavs inititave is no less then what we are learning from our course at IIM Indore.

Journey to Excel

Half the journey is officially over. We have completed 3 of the 6 terms of EPGP. But in reality we have covered more than half the course considering the learning we have had. Quite interestingly, more than half still remains. Because we have “miles to go before we sleep”.
Someone has very correctly said that every situation in life is a management situation. Excelling in life is not a war that is over within a stipulated time but a continuous battle. So one has to ensure excellence by choice and not by chance. Most of us generally learn through experience – mostly cognitive in nature… a few of us choose to practice prior to confronting the best teacher in the world – experience; yet there are a handful few who choose to undergo this gruelling session of EPGP for excelling over the excels. The academic part is merely a paltry percentage of the whole platter.
If someone asks me what is the biggest gain at IIM Indore, I would be attributing the same to the learning of “Art of Balancing”. Balancing your studies with your office, your leaves with your classes, your boss with your professor, your family with your off campus assignments and your exams with your appraisal leading to promotion. It is inevitable that many will succumb eventually and will do compromise on one front for the other, but believe me if you have your goal fixed, nothing in this world is impossible for human beings for they are the most adaptable and elastic lot among all.
Talking about goals, I used to believe that people in a group may diverge in opinion but they converge in the goal (at least in premier organisations). But seeing what’s going on around I find that goals have become very individualistic in nature. Everyone has a goal in mind but that’s for fulfilling his personal needs. “Hazaron Khwahishen Aisi ki har kwhahish kam nikle” – this perhaps fully explains the current state of most organisation goals.
We can only expect of a better tomorrow… a tomorrow where “the mind is without fear and head held high”, where excelling doesn’t mean cannibalizing, where competition is ‘healthy’ in the truest sense and where there is a common single goal to strive for.

The Optionals Puzzle!

The fourth term has started and we can see the pressure building up. Already, there are number of case studies that need to worked upon and submitted before the start of classes for Corporate Finance -2. It seems the Prof wants us to read the whole course and solve all case studies even before we enter the class! I am left wondering, what I will be doing inside the class. But I guess, I know the answer to this. After having spent more than 6 months here, I know how it is going to be. There are couple of assignments in other subjects as well, but I think they are all doable. Term 4, after I have gone through with all the books and reading material provided, seems to be tougher then term 3. There are 5 subjects in all and all of them are new to us! Term 4 will be the last term as far as compulsory subjects are concerned. Term 5 and term 6 have optionals. Students are free to choose optionals of their choice, but it is easier said then done! Though there are many electives available belonging to different areas of management like Finance, Marketing, Operations, HR, Strategy and Analytics, there is some minimum criteria which needs to be fulfilled before one can really study the chosen subject. The criteria has to do with a minimum number of students opting, the grouping that needs to be formed, as for many subjects there will be simultaneously classes etc etc. It’s a really complicated task and I believe Anupam; our class CR has an extremely tough task in finalising the optional groups and the final plan. I saw the final choices made by the students and the class slots available. The number of permutations and combinations that can come out is un countable. So, I really do not know how he will solve this puzzle without making few unhappy with regards to choice of optionals! My all the best to him!

End of Term Three! Ah!

The third term ended on 20th May 2008! What a relief! I managed to submit all projects and submissions on time. Our OM project went off very well, much better then we expected. Anupam could gather relevant data at the last moment and when we analysed that using quantitative techniques, we found some amazing results. The entire APDRP program where in crores have been pumped in last 5 years in the name of increasing efficiency and productivity at the distribution level in our chosen circle i.e Nagpur Urban circle was sham! There was no correlation between money pumped in and the numbers of efficiency that were provided to those that matter. APDRP is said to be last resort adopted by the Govt Of India in helping state electricity boards improve efficiency and drastically down on power loss. But what we saw as the result of our study, even the last resort is going to nuts! I cannot generalise this for all circles across India but the trends here will be visible elsewhere as well, after all Maharashtra Electricity Board is said to be one of the better managed and one of the most progressive boards in the country.

Our other project was on marketing. We tried to study the competitive landscape of hatch back cars in India, with special reference to Hyundai's "i 10". As part of the project we also did a customer survey , trying to understand the customer's perception when it comes to buying a car for himself in India.This project was not upto our expectations because we could not articulate the objective of the project with clarity at the inception level. Anyways, we did it well so that we may land up a good grade in this project. Some of the highlights of the survey we did was, in India people tend to give more importance to the cost of maintenance, after sales service and surprisingly parking space ! The first two were obvious but parking space has become one of the important criteria was a little bit suprising, not because it was unexpected but because it came very high when it came to customer's priorities.
The next issue of i CANvas is also out. This time around the magazine has come out exceedingly well! Thanks to all the hardwork done by our editor Chandan. The highlights of this issue is the number of industry leaders who have chosen i CANvas as medium to express their thoughts. The distribution has already started and I am pretty sure, we will get rave reviews as before for this issue as well! Three cheers for all those who made this possible, including the entire class of EPGP 2009!

Third Term Part 2

I have just finished off assimilating data for the HRM project. This project require us to do a survey on people's experience of applying for a job using the online application system available on different company's websites. We had to do get at least 20 responses for this survey.I just managed to get the 20th response today morning. Anupam also used his energy in getting as many responses as he could from different sources. Few of my respondents were very prompt, some others replied after a delay and some others, I had to chase them very hard.Few other's responses are still awaited ! There are two really big projects that are lined up. First one is on Operations Management and the other is on Marketing. Anupam has been able to collate lot of data for the OM project, but I really have to start working on that. We really have to do very well in the project, because we have sort of screwed the exam. Just waiting to finish off the HRM, so that I can concentrate on the OM project. In the OM project we are trying to study the effect of "Accelerated Power Development and Reforms Programme (APDRP)” . This scheme was launched by the Govt in March 2003 . The main objectives of the programme were : a. Reduce Aggregate Technical & Commercial (AT&C) losses b. Bring about commercial viability in the power sector c.Reduce outages and last d. interruptions and Increase consumer satisfaction.
We have chosen the Nagpur circle to study the effect of this scheme. Since, Anupam comes from this line , it was easy for him to get the data for this project.
Next project that is lined up is on Marketing. I really do not know what I have to do on that at the moment.Our project mate Riddhi is working on that currently, but I really do not know where and what stage he has reached. Other project mate Chandan is busy with the next issue of i CANvas, expected to come out by Friday. I really hope to finish off both the HRM and OM project by this weekend, so that we all can concentrate on marketing project.The marketing prof is in class of his own, so naturally his expectations would be very high. Need to work on that project very seriously. The last date for all projects is 20 th May 2008 and there is no history of deadline extension in IIM Indore! Hopefully,we will be able to deliver all projects within time and beyond expected quality! Amen!!

"Sleep" In the air tonight!

Just came out of the most gruelling and demanding term, since my entry into IIM. It was a real nightmare this time, I hardly slept in the last 10 days or so. The highlights of this phase was the excellent marketing funda's that came from marketing prof. But with limited time, we could hardly digest what was being told in the class, in one of the most classic style of teaching I have witnessed. There was a video session on intricacies of marketing plan given by none another then Prof Peter Doyle, Professor of Marketing and Strategic Management at the University of Warwick. The HRM classes were also quite good, we came across lots of ingenuity from the Prof. when it came to deliver the lecture. We even played a "duster game" in the class, which was great fun. Apart from that the term made me crazy! The late night classes and then submissions and finally the exams, which literally drove everyone to nuts! I had never imagined that one can sit in the class till 9.00 PM in the night and the very next day at 8.30 am, he is supposed to write his exam of all what was taught in the last 16 lectures or so ,including what was taught last evening ! And that is not the end, I had to appear in other exam ( Corporate Finance) after a gap of 15 mins.So effectively I had 11 hours to prepare for both my exams the very next day ( I had already appeared in two other exam on friday and saturday.The Operations management exam was brutal, that is all I can say about it). I really do not know what I wrote in all the 4 exams this time. My half of the mind was dreaming and rest half was trying to help me writing so called answers. Make no mistake, all is not over! I have still to submit 3 projects by the middle of the next month, to ensure that I move into the 4th term. I am feeling as if my whole energy has been sapped out of my body! Its an erring feeling! I had thought, that I would be able to write blog everyday this time but the moment I finished my last blog, heavens fell on me and rest is history! I still was able to snap some photographs this time but it was all done early morning or late nights! Life is getting tougher here with each passing day and I just expressed doubt to my friend Navneet in Bangalore, whether I will be able to survive this ordeal till Feb 2009! On the other side, my friend Mirnal at ISB Hyderabad just called up and he has started feeling the heat of the course. Today was his first day at class and he could understand what I have been undergoing since last 6 months! I think he is better prepared then I was, as far as facing MBA course is concerned! I am feeling a little drowsy..More later..

Summers and the third term - part 1

Landed in Indore on the night of 17th April. It was unusually hot! I was surprised to find that, I had expected Indore to be cooler then Delhi. On the way to the campus the thermometer in the metro taxi showed 31 degrees, which came down to 29 degrees at the campus. The campus looked deserted, including the MDC our abode at the IIM I campus. Early morning, when I went out for a jog along the famed winding hill road, the signs of the summers were evident all around. The lush green grass had turned golden in colour and it looked as if the grass was just managing to stick to the soil. The trees were either without leaves or looked burnt out. This was the first summer for me at the campus and in all probability the last one, unless some teacher decide to extend my stay at the campus for any reason! The famous fountain infront of the admin block was deserted. I was surprised to see that and the usually well tended lawns were also not in great shape. Just 15-20 days back it was so different. We were having our convocation for the 2008 pass out and everything was its best, including the weather. I expected Indore nights to be cooler but I was wrong! The much famous evening wind " Shab e Malwa" was there, but it was far from the cooler side that I always felt ! Moving towards the hostel block, they had no signs of any human activity. The PGP folks are away for their summers and will be back only in June, I was told. That was the reason why things were in such a shape apart from the heat, that bakes central and northern India during this part of the year. This was holiday time at IIM Indore for most of the staff and the likes !
I hoped that once the EPGP guys start arriving from the next day the things will change at least in our part of the campus i.e the MDC and the classrooms andyes it did! The first thing that changed was the quality of the food at the mess! With few people in the MDC during the summers, the kitchen was operating at its minimum capacity, with guys coming in , it saw dramatic improvement.
We have had 2 days of classes including today's and the work load at present is minimal! I am expecting it to overshoot any day! Till, it happens I am with my camera and trying to find interesting things which have not become part of my photo collection in last 6 months at the campus.With the kind of work culture we are used to here, I may not get another chance to capture the campus in the heat of the summer!

Retail As I Saw!

After attending my marketing class, I was curious to visit and observe how the new brand retail stores and the local retailer in neighbourhoods are doing. Though, many of us have observed such things earlier as well, but this time with something at the back of mind, I wanted to really observe how the two things are working in India. With that in mind, I just happened to drop in the Reliance Retail store, which recently got inagurated close to my neighbourhood in Delhi. Surprisingly, Reliance chose a village on the National Highway called Mahipalpur to open this store. The first one in this part of area, as far as my information goes. This village is known for seconds showrooms of leading brands in India and as a warehouse for all the major courier companies ,as it is very close to the airport. The store is not big in size, much smaller then the departmental stores we find in malls . Reliance has tried to package it quiet well and I think it has a well laid out interiors and shelves, which gives good exposure of the kind of products available to the consumers. The staff is quite young and most of them try their level best to speak in English, albeit for many its first time in their lives! As far as the shoppers are concerned, I found two types of consumers. The first variety is the middle class and upper middle class office goers who stop enroute to their office or home to get their supplies! Such people are always in hurry and they come in and go out as soon as they are done! I found high level of awarness among this bunch of people, because they know where they would find things that they are looking for . They seem to be sort of regulars here.
The other bunch comes from the village.They form the majority here. The villagers here have good amount of cash with them, but for them this store is sort of disney land! I observed many come and move around the store, pick up things, ask the price and go back! This bunch's behaviour makes one amused! I found one elderly villager talking to the store keeper, about why the apples here are costly and what if he takes apple without the packing that is available in the store. He was surprised that he could not bargain as he could do with the vendor on the street! He probably thought, that the packaging is responsible for the higher price or the apples look clean and polished that is reason for the premium. There was another group of ladies who were just moving from one shelf to another and in the end ended up buying nothing! This reminded me of an article, I read on retail in India. It simply talked that Indian consumer is still confused and really does not know, what he wants, when he visits such type of retail stores! He is still evolving. Considering the fact the majority of Indian consumers are like the villagers I saw and enjoyed, I can agree with that statement. Retail such as this are new pheonmeonea and one finds many interesting people trying to come to terms with what is the "new shopping experience".For one , Indians are used to shopping everyday, that is why the neighbourhood retailers sells so well! He is always a call away and home delivery is always free ,moreover he gives goods for credit. Talking about the neighbourhood retailer or the bania, I was surprised to know that my neighbourhood chap knows that I am at studying at Indore and he knows when I am visiting and when I am not! Every evening, I find many people sitting and talking to him just to pass time and this fellow is trying to entertain all. The buyers and "time passers" ! One lady came back and returned a packet of rice saying that she does not find it good, the chap simply took it back and offered her many other varieties. No wonder, such things are impossible at the retail store such as the Reliance's. He also asked her ,about her inlaws health and when her niece is coming back from abroad. I believe this is his USP! The community feeling that this chap is offering is unsurpassable and I can now understand what my prof at IIM said that no matter what happens ,the neighbourhood bania and the retail stores both have great future in India!

Oh Assignments and projects !

This week had been very hectic. I believe everyone was and is extremely busy with completing assignments and projects ,which needed to be submitted before the start of classes on 19th. This assignments and project submission has become an integral part of the life. No single day passes when one is not engrossed in doing one or the other. There seems to be no end to this ,at least till we graduate next year. I just spoke with my friend Harpreet, who is also doing his MBA at Lyon Business School in France and he was also working on one of his assignments . Most of the cases that we are doing at IIM and he is doing at Lyon B School are common. They all have their origin at the mother of B schools " The Harvard Business School".Working on cases is always easy when done in groups. Other thing on which I worked this week was the next issue of "i CANvas". We have got little delayed this time with the issue, probably by few days. My friend and editor Chandan has been spending sleepless nights working with designers and printers in Bangalore for this. Hats off to him! The pressure on me this time has been relatively less then what it was at the time of inaguration. But, I think I will have quite a work once the material starts coming to me for editing and proof reading.
Yesterday, my dear friend Mrinal started his B school life at ISB Hyderabad. Infact, I knew he would really love that place. When we planned for going back to B school, we thought it would be great if we could become classmates. But destiny had planned otherwise. I landed up at IIM I and he at ISB Hyderabad. We may not be together, but I know we will be working closely on many things in the coming year. My best wishes go out to him for his future at ISB and beyond!I also look forward to visit him at ISB in the near future may be for participating in an event or for just a party!!

The "i CANvas" story!

i CANvas, is a B school magazine, which was launched on 1st of Jan 2008. The idea for the magazine came from a very lean and simple chap , we call him Narasimham! Well, the qualities portrayed by the word "Narasimham" are not there in this chap, at least look wise! Each one in our class will remember this guy not only for i CANvas, but also because he is one of the pillars on which our finance universe stands. The other pillar is Prof. VK Gupta! Whenever, we miss out on anything in accounting, we just remind ourselves of Narsimham and Gupta umbrella and things become clear and simple as any thing!The magazine idea came from him and others took over from there. The idea was debated heatedly over and over again for almost a month. Why we need it and what will happen to it after we are gone ? What will be format? etc etc.I do not remember the number of emails exchanged on this topic day and night, and most of them heated in nature! Ultimately, it was decided that we will have a quarterly magazine from the house of EPGP at IIM Indore.Our creative director and born cartoonist from Bangalore, Chandan was chosen as the first editor! This chap spends more time drawing cartoons in class of professors then listening to them! But his cartoons are amazing! The name i CANvas came from him. He gave a long logical story about how "I can" can be transformed into Canvas of the world and so on and so forth, but yes, this name was accepted instantenously! Then started emails to prospective writers and sponsors. Chandan came out to be very thorough professional and he made each one of us work extremely hard for articles and fillers and sponsors and what not.. Myself and Anupam were cursing the day, when we decided to launch this magazine. Chandan was particulary very harsh on both of us.Days and nights went by in the month of December 2007 and ultimately we could see a rough draft of the magazine. It looked awesome, after all it was culmination of our hardwork of last few months and I do not remember keeping awake all the night ,but for this magazine in last 10 years. Director's permission was required for its launch and when we went to see him he was literally filled with awe. I think, he never expected, that we would be coming out with such a magazine, which was not only designed well, but the quality of articles and the theme etc were truly world class! Infact, we were also left speechless! It really came out very well! The launch date was the new year day of 2008! What could we want more! I think the kind of media coverage we had on the launch day was amazing ! Chandan and Narasimham were proud parents of a baby called 'i CANvas". This magazine has received amazing reviews from the readers from the corporate world. We have tried to distribute this magazine to as many corporate leaders in India as possible, through whatever means we could !
The next issue is coming out in April 2008 and I hope its much more exiciting then the inagural issue! And finally its a joint effort of the class which made this possible. There are many who contributed articles, money ,logistics and most important moral support!!Our professors especially Prof Gupta, Prof Ganesh and Prof Rizvi gave us support in form of articles and motivated us to complete this task! A big thanks to them as well!

Third Term and Life at the planet i !

The first phase of the term 3 is currently going on. Looking back, it seems that time has just flown by! We came here in end of Sept 2007 and two terms have gone. I believe it is a fantastic experience for each one of us here. Sitting in classes from 9 am to 7 pm and then rushing back to MDC to work on case submissions, group studies, late night outs etc. all have become part and parcel of life. I believe when we are at the campus, we know we will not be sleeping for more than 2-3 hours at night, so we are sort of mentally prepared for that. Sometimes it becomes too hectic, that you start wondering that what these guys want to teach us by putting us under so much pressure. If it was not the breaks between the terms when we go home, life would have been gone for a toss!

The third term started of well and I was expecting the first phase to be a little easier then earlier. But alas! Slowly and gradually momentum picked up and we found ourselves in the same situation as during earlier two terms. One night each one of us had to finish off 5 cases of different subjects. Few teachers gave us respite by allowing us to work in groups; however the marketing case was to be done all alone. It was a nightmarish experience; I could only complete the marketing case and left the other cases to other guys in my group. The submission took place on time but no one had clue what the other chap had submitted in the same group because he was too busy finishing off his assigned case apart from his personal submission for marketing.
The term also saw the convocation for the 2008 pass out. Watching the lights for the convocation, reminded me that with each passing day ,the day is coming nearer when I will also be part of the convocation black gowns and procession, waiting for that IIM tag to be officially fixed to my name. The ceremony was good with usual speeches from the director and the guest. I wish I could see the entire ceremony but for the case submissions that were hanging on my head! The dinner party after the convocation was good, lots of new and good faces around but the same cannot be said about the food! Anyways, we had a great time mixing with the passing out batch and talking amongst ourselves. I also met my dear friend Pranav from PGP 2008 batch for the last time at the IIM I campus. It is always great talking to him and this was a special occasion. He was an IIM grad now! Sitting with him and talking in the hostel mess, I could feel that this young man is feeling nostalgic about leaving the I planet behind. He was part and parcel of this enchanting place for 2 years and tomorrow he will be leaving to start a new life as an IIM grad. My friendship with Pranav is a story in itself. I will write more on that later.
I really wanted to share the beauty of this place. The campus is over a hill, which recently has been named as "Management Hill", if translated into English literally.The view from around the campus is simply awesome. Miles and miles of greenery and I believe you can see up to 5-6 miles around the campus and even more, which for a person coming from a place like Delhi is unbelievable. The weather here is simply great but nights are unforgettable. There is a breeze which is tender and cool, which flows past this place or rather this city, which you tend to find only in the mountains. Combined with the view at night from any point on the hill, it seems like sky and earth looks all the same. It cannot be described in words only felt and enjoyed. The point on the hill which we had named "Anupam point" has been officially named as Sun Set point. This is an awesome place to enjoy the view of surrounding countryside at any part of the day or night. We named it after the most bulky chap in our class, who happens to be our Class rep as well. This chap has the tendency to walk up to that point, with either a book or binocular in hand and sit on the bench under the tree and either read or watch the views of the surroundings. I sincerely believe with binoculars in hand he was only trying to see the countryside around not anything else!!

Why People want to do EXPGP or PGPX?

Why MBA now? This is a typical question which is asked to almost all aspirants to EX PG courses across the world. We believe every aspirant is well versed to answer such questions.

Let’s see chronologically when the executive MBA has really made its mark in India. Last few years have seen phenomenal growth in executive MBA courses being offered by leading B-Schools in India. This trend of accelerated MBA targeting individuals with substantial work experience actually started by the arrival of Indian School of Business at Hyderabad, in India in the year 2001. In autumn of 2001, IIM Indore launched its EXPGP program, the US version of Ex-MBA in India, wherein working executives go to a B-School at regular intervals and then go back at their workplace and implement what they have learnt. Since then there is no looking back. IIM Ahmedabd launched its version of PGPX in 2005; followed by IIM Calcutta in 2006 .IIM Lucknow joined the bandwagon in 2007 by launching its own version of EX-MBA titled IPMX. The courses offered have different flavours but one thing that is common to all courses is that, they all target individuals with substantial work experience, ranging from 2 plus years at ISB, 5 plus years at IIM Indore to 7 plus years at IIM Ahmedabad. There is also an effort on the part of institutes to give these courses international flavour - all of the IIMs and ISB require GMAT score as one of the requirements for getting admission

But the question still remains to be answered, why there’s a spurt in such courses, offered by leading B-Schools in India. For us, who want to learn new skills to move to next level and to increase market value, an IIM degree was a must. We have observed the market scenario changing rapidly in last few years. It has become imperative for the working managers to change to this market needs drastically; lest they have a chance of being left out. This factor becomes more crucial for those in middle management positions. It’s no secret that in India and elsewhere, transition from lower level to middle level is smooth, but growing beyond this gets tougher at every step. The transformation from a Manager to a Leader takes place from this middle level onwards. This is what many participants we met felt. Says Mrinal Srivastava, an IIT Kanpur alumni and a admit at ISB, having learnt so much after spending considerable time in the Industry, I felt its time to revalidate my learning and equip myself with necessary skills so that my transformation to higher level becomes smooth and fast. Similar sentiments were echoed by Chandan Pal, an EXPGP participant at IIM Indore; he felt that this program helps him in honing his abilities to identify and seize opportunities, foster professional relationships across major industries and compete globally, may be even change his line of profession from IT to finance or consulting. The reasons are various but ultimate goal is the same. To learn, revalidate, equip and get ready to face the rigors of rapidly changing market dynamics, act as an agent of change and be a winner! Moreover, the accelerated MBA format not only makes one more competitive in the business world, but also gives one the confidence that comes from possessing a broad business background having excelled in a diverse team environment at work.


The other factor that propelled the growth is the rapidly growing Indian economy. The Indian economy has been growing at a consistent staggering rate of over 8 % per annum for the last five years. This has fuelled the demand for change managers. Managers who can act as instrument of change and lead by example. This demand has not only being generated by Indian companies but by many Multi National Corporations who are flocking to India in hordes and setting up their operations for various reasons. Inspite of all the hoopla of India having the largest trained manpower in the world, its no secret that quality of the workforce is a big question mark. Talk to any HR personnel and he can talk hours on how they are unable to find the right kind of talent in India. This reflects that there is growing market for management trainings, especially world class trainings and who else is equipped to train such people than the top B-Schools in India. Although the IIMs churn out excellent graduates but they are mostly freshers and there is time gap between where they are required and what there skill levels are at the time of graduation. This gap has fuelled the demand for PGPEX courses, wherein good managers go to the B school get trained in the world class facility and come back to work in about a year. Needless to the say, the managers who get admission to such courses have great potential to be world-class and have demonstrated their talent at work place and that’s the reason why they get chosen through a stringent admission process.

Another reason is that there is a class of Indians who always thought globally. We had many in our graduation class; bright people who did not wanted to write CAT but what wanted to write GMAT, do a MBA from abroad after 4-5 years of work experience. These courses have opened another window for such individuals. We have met some, who even after clocking 700+ in GMAT have chosen to do EPGP from IIM Indore foregoing the lure of international universities. For those who have contemplated coming back to India after MBA from foreign universities, this is a golden chance.

The rise of middle class in India also contributes to popularity of such courses. There are many in jobs who just wanted to do different and did not know how to do it. These courses also help such individuals and give them a chance of chosing their desired profession, which was not possible earlier in India. For example these courses also help in bringing out the cocooned entrepreneur sleeping within an individual and help him chase his dream.

There may be many more reasons, but one thing is for sure, the demand for such courses is growing exponentially. We are sure that other IIM’s and other institutes in India are also eager to jump into fray and design their own version of EXPGP courses to cater to this growing market of executives looking to go back to school!