Spiralling Inside INSEAD with a helicopter view !

2006-11-04T20:10:00.000+01:00

2006-06-15T21:10:00.000+02:00

A Humorous Mass Mail

In Pharmacology, all drugs have two names, a trade name and generic name. For example, the trade name of Tylenol also has a generic name of Acetaminophen. Aleve is also called Naproxen. Amoxil is also call Amoxicillin and Advil is also called Ibuprofen.The FDA has been looking for a generic name for Viagra. After careful consideration by a team of government experts, it recently announced that it has settled on the generic name of Mycoxafloppin. Also considered were Mycoxafailin, Mydixadrupin, Mydixarizin, Dixafix, and of course, Ibepokin.Pfizer Corp. announced today that Viagra will soon be available in liquid form, and will be marketed by Pepsi Cola as a power beverage suitable for use as a mixer. It will now be possible for a man to literally pour himself a stiff one. Obviously we can no longer call this a soft drink, and it gives new meaning to the names of "cocktails", "highballs" and just a good old-fashioned "stiff drink". Pepsi will market the new concoction by the name of: MOUNT & DO.Thought for the day: There is more money being spent on breast implants and Viagra today than on Alzheimer's research. This means that by 2040, there should be a large elderly population with perky boobs and huge erections and absolutely no recollection of what to do with them.

2006-06-14T19:03:00.000+02:00

Tsotsi Screening
A Proud moment at INSEAD, unfortunately non-academic again (actually its more appropriately ANTI-Academic) when we had the Tsotsi screening. The Producer PETER FUDAKOWSKI is an INSEAD alum and was with us when we actually were watching the movie as a part of the Africa Week. For those of you like me who didn't know the movie, its an Oscar winner this year. I was quite impressed with the film although I will not watch it a second time (too intense, I prefer stupid comedies with more blondes per man than were found in Tsotsi) . Its amazing how proud individuals are to come back to INSEAD and talk to the MBAs even when you are an overachiever by INSEAD standards. Needless to say the man got an overwhelming round of standing ovation and applause after the movie.

Profile of Peter
In 2003, Peter commissioned Gavin Hood to adapt Athol Fugard's only novel, Tsotsi, as a feature film. Together with his wife Henrietta Fudakowski who worked closely with Gavin as script editor, they produced TSOTSI in South Africa between 2004 and 2005 with funding from the UK Film & TV Production Company plc (of which Peter is CEO), the Industrial Development Corporation of SA, the National Film & Video Foundation of SA, and the co-production services of Paul Raleigh of Moviworld. Peter graduated with a masters degree in Economics from Cambridge University and an MBA from The European Institute for Business Administration, INSEAD, Fontainebleau. But his first love was always for feature films. In 1979 Peter joined the First National Bank of Chicago with the thought that financing features films would be a good place to start his career as a producer. Working in the film financing department, Peter helped fund many an independent American movie over the three years with the bank.

2006-06-13T16:23:00.000+02:00

INSEAD Awards

I have decided to constitute the following awards for current class of July 2006. Lets see if there are nominations on the comments section

1. Most Un-teamable Person you have had in a team (so what if this is personal, this is a personal blog, you can use initials and the background (atleast industry/consulting/banking)?

2. The worst elective you have ever done in your year?

3. The worst core course you have done in a year?

Alongside this, I will also appreciate a few people personally in the blog at an "impersonal level" meaning not necessarily friends but people who most of the class would agree are superstars who the school and the community should be proud of for shining even amidst such a great pool of talented people !

2006-06-07T19:28:00.000+02:00

Who am I?

What is a better way to make a comeback than describe myself in the words of people who care to describe me - Right? Well, we are all in the process of writing profiles for our friends to go into a......"Year Book". So here is who I am in the words of people who got the special opportunity.

Basic Characteristics: Loves sleeping, creative mind, spontaneous, living chaos

One Word: Nirvana

Free Flow: "Oh, there were some exercises to prepare for the Finance exam?" DS would have surprises like this daily. Yet, he is a fantastic friend. No matter what you are stuck with, DS has an alternative! He appears quiet but he’s alert at any moment. A great travel companion who can regale you with tales from far and around, and always willing to try out the untrodden path. Searching for him? Simply look up above the heads in a crowd. DS can also be proud for shocking the waitstaff at the local Pub when telling them that pork sausage is, in fact, a form of “viande”. Looking forward, his creative entrepreneurial ideas will surely spring to life through his positive energy and determination.

Most likely to: become filthy rich in the Middle East

Famous Last Words: Thank God I did not become a Consultant. I am neither as evil nor as nice as I am taken to be….and I might even hire a consultant one day!

But hey...I have more time to change the famous last words here on the blog !!! Lucky me. So thats all I have to say now...

2006-06-06T22:48:00.000+02:00

After such a long eerie silence I have decided to come back and blog in length very soon the last three weeks of INSEAD that I predict to be quite hectic....

Where has the DS Been?

Trip to Montpelier
After creating a list of potential targets I can drive to south of France with (which incidentally is much cheaper as a group than flying or taking trains), I wrote emails and finally formed a group of 3 guys to drive down to the southern beaches of France. As you might realize le plage en France has a whole new meaning to the single male from any non-european origin. Ok, I can't exactly claim to be a single male but then we were three guys who were confused between driving to Barecelona and Nice and decided we should pick a mid-point to go so that we can decide after getting there. We ended up drooling all weekend long in this transit point beach and returned back to Fontainebleau without going either to Barecelona or Nice. As smart as it turned out, we spent the weekend there. This was also a graceful way of avoiding the embarrassment of the "Great Summer Ball 2006" at INSEAD. Without a girl, EUR 135 or a Tuxedo, I find driving through the alps a lot more fun than drinking with the same friends you drink with pretty much every weekend. The trip was very eventful. The photographer amongst the three of us on the roadtrip managed enough photographs for me to be able to create a presentation and thus pass the French Oral test.

Offer Acceptance
DS has accepted, no marks for guessing, one of the two offers in a no-name company that has actually been successful so far in recruiting McKinsey consultants (Remember the consulting company ranked by the Unscientific DS Survey a few days back) and B-school grads from top-tier schools mostly in the US to go to a certain country with a lot of money generated from the sale of a certain fossil fuel.

Trip to London
A Friend in London invited me (or did I invite myself) to London for a weekend to seen Big-Ben, the Buckingham Palace, Drunk English people and a bollywood movie. It did end up a lot of fun. It was my first experience on the Eurostar and I strongly recommend it if you are in Paris as it is much more convenient than driving down to CDG.

Got a Speeding Ticket
Got a speeding ticket, thanks to a camera on the peripherique on my way back from the airport (after an interview abroad)…it sucked. Atleast I had to only pay EUR 45 as I was able to make it online before 15 days of ticket issue expired. The French have an interesting packaging of tickets. You get a discount if you pay the ticket ahead of time and a penalty if you are late by 145 days ! I only wish they started measuring their own public services for efficiency instead of incentivizing the traffic violator for efficiency.

Coursework
I am sure all of you by now know you are in the wrong blog to read about "academic excellence" or "Career Progression" in INSEAD. I am starting to think I am an "admissions defect". If you do insist on knowing about INSEAD's academic culture, I strongly recommend visiting www.insead.edu, the schools official website to stimulate yourself intellectually by searching for "Strategy" or "Dean's List" or "Patrick Turner" (ok that was a cheap shot Pat only to find out if you read my blog to that level of detail or you just like freaking me out once in a while). Jokes apart, here is an update on an interesting course.

Brand Management
Although I have no idea why I actually like Brand Management, I am starting the enjoy the class especially comparing taste of vodkas in class (now for the perverts who think we have started drinking in class) it was merely an exercise to see how much difference branding does. It is a fun class with a hyperactive visiting prof jumping around all the time. The videos are kind of relaxing too.

2006-05-11T20:11:00.000+02:00

Long Absence.

Apologies for the long absence. I am on a paid trip spree. Unfortunately, although I am going pretty much to the same places, I am forced to actually do multiple trips back and forth because it is almost impossible and super sensitive to coordinate two recruiters from the same region (even city). So I ended up being on flights for over 36 hours in the last 2 weeks. Result: Well I have two offers with one just about median salary and one well above INSEAD median salary :-). I am happy, also considering the tax regime in the country I potentially might live in.

P5 classes
I arrived late to start P5 but am impressed with the array of classes to choose from. I have been dropping and picking courses like apples in a super market. I really hope to stay focused and get something out of this period after the most unfocused period of my life at INSEAD P5. There is so much I still want to complete before I leave and one thing I am attempting to do is bridge the gap between "Social" life and "academic life" :-). Yes, I have decided to learn something here :-). So I ended up getting hyper active and reading about 10 classes worth of reading on one day in my potentially favorite course "Brand Management". Do I want to become a marketer? Well I am not sure....but this course really fascinates me. The case discussion today on Cacherel was rather disappointing with our visiting professor who focussed on tons of fancy videos instead of actually any useful debate. I am hoping this changes over time. We will see. My other classes are still vague, and uncertain (I might swap them for something else).

I have an interview scheduled for tomorrow. Will keep you guys updated.

The Social Scene

It is so fabulous to be able to see so many P5s returning home to fonty from Wharton and Singapore. I met some of my groupmates / housemates after what seems like a lifetime but really 2 months. Amazing eh?

Ok, I haven't seen quality log0ffs in a while but I thought this one is alright for bringing myself back to the mainstream INSEAD blogging....

Guys,

Now that I am not a career rep anymore I have changed my profile to a foot massage expert. In line with my REP project, I am planning to start a massage business after graduation and now in great need of practical experience as time is running out.

Ladies are welcome to my place in Dover from Monday through Wednesday for a private massage session.
Boys are served from Thursday through Sunday.

Please note that I charge a slight fee for my services, i.e. SD10/h for women and SD20/h for men.

Waiting for you.

Yours,
<>

2006-04-29T09:07:00.000+02:00

The Unofficial Ranking.

Here is the unofficial, unscientific ranking of three of the Top 4 consulting companies based on the performance of 5 or more of their employees at INSEAD.

(1) McKinsey
(2) BCG
(3) Bain

Booz Allen is not considered competition even by "Siemens management Consulting" and they seem to be getting a not an "as encouraging a response as the other three". Besides, if they are not spending atleast 200 K Euros in INSEAD sending their associates to our classes, they certainly don't belong in the league. I was surprised there are so many from McKinsey in the dean's list and none of them blog as far as I know (again unscientific google blog search of a few names yielded rien). So thats the ranking people.

Here are my theories about consultants
1. They are always cheerful and positive (Lets say thats the exterior)
2. They are analytical and smart.
3. They can learn Powerphrases and keywords faster than the average MBA
4. They can give you amazing stories on why joining Syngenta, Mittal Steel and Pop's soda are some of the best career moves after an exceptional career in one of the BIG three.

Wannabe - why would you even think I want to be a consultant. The INSEAD careerhunt (the expensive treasurehunt) has lead me to believe that I am a "doer" and will take industry jobs of "saving the world" and that too all by myself types. I have about six interviews (some second round, some first round) lined up next month and I am in the Salary negotiation phase in one. So things are still going well in my view and there are more jobs than INSEADers can handle. Thats my view.

About the Jan - July view in the comment. I disown it. I do agree that the internship can be a huuuuuge advantage if used effectively. But thats more for career changers. If you need more I can explain that more.

Gotta run.

2006-04-25T22:16:00.000+02:00

Spiral Returns

Ok folks sorry for the long absence from the blog. Essentially, I have been sought after by a few companies for first round interviews. In the last three weeks, I have got one ding without an interview. All others chose to interview me. Its kind of interesting to see so many recruiting industry companies extremely inefficient in getting back on what actually happenned in the interviews. Maybe they sadistically expect me to follow-up...but every second day there has been an interview so I haven't done a great job with follow-up. But atleast luckily with a couple of options I have next rounds lined up - so life looks ok. Have been terribly busy and expect to be extremely busy for the next 3-4 weeks even if one in four of the companies interviewing me in fact get back with some second rounds. I am atleast not as depressed as Mr. Anonymous as yet although. I need to admit that there is a wave of negativism striking the campus in general as pipelines are depleting. I think people should realize that if they don't have campus interviews lined up they are better off picking up the phone and talking to alumni in their field of interest. I see some doing that really well already and some who sit and complain about jobs not being served in platters. But the %age of offers already made (including consultants) is not very encouraging but then certain offices are to get back still.

Coming UP: The DS Ranking of Consultants
As I was browsing through the dean's list released for P3, I saw a bunch of consultants and wannabe consultants in the list and I started going through the data and found some very interesting correlations. I am currently doing an "Unofficial ranking of Consultant Quality" that I plan to report out in the next post. The idea is to rank the "TOP 4" consultants based on the performance of their "Alumni" in INSEAD. I can't rank Booz Allen Hamilton because not enough alumni of that company (<5 samples) have actually made it to INSEAD ;-). But I am going to publish a ranking of Bain, McKinsey and BCG based on the academic performance of their sponsored employees in our school. (Trust me, going through the data is a lot of work and there is no way to make any scientifically inference, but then scientific inferences are made by consultants, I am an industry guy who goes with "gut feel" right?). Please note that only the Dean's list is public information (top 10-12 percentile of class) so I am going to put in the effort of sorting through the data to find the %age mckinseyites in deans list, %age Bainies in the deans list and %age BCG ites in the deans list to rank them all.

So to pep up the conversation lets see if all of you commentators are smart enough (including the anonymous ones) to rank the three in the right order. Remember this is pure academic acumen and nothing else :-).

Wannabe - where are you? I miss you when there are polls ;-).

2006-04-14T14:29:00.000+02:00

Israelis Rock !

Hello everyone, the Israeli week rocked overall. I have witnessed, the amphistorming, watched a movie and participated in the Passover dinner and had gulped in some israeli yogurt (Tastes the same as the French ones) before rushing for one of the interviews. The star event was the Passover dinner. The ambience, the rigor with which the event was planned and conducted was just extra-ordinary. I got to understand after the process (with about 100 fellow MBAs/Partners and families) the idea of what a passover dinner is and why the dinner follows a certain process and how important it is to the families. It was an amazing experience. The most special part is when the hosts were incredibly hospitable and felt honored to have us around despite being fellow inseaders. Hats off to the Israelis for bringing the experience to INSEAD.

Industry recruitments heating up.

Industry interviews are all coming in. Unsolicited interview requests are coming in too. I had two industry interviews this week and three more next week. I haven't received any dings after the consulting one. Thats got to be good. I am extremely happy with the pipeline. I would actually like to accelerate time if there is anyways to see what happens at the end. With many consultants having arrived at decisions, the campus has individuals more focused on the job search or "enjoying" the rest of INSEAD as they already have offers.
At this point, I am almost certainly anyone with a decent amount of focus on what they want and having enough contingency plans to actually have atleast a job on graduation.

2006-04-11T14:44:00.000+02:00

It happens only at INSEAD

As the P4s live life interview to interview, it feels to be a bystander. I have applied to a total of 6 companies so far. Have interviewed with two, dinged by two and waiting to hear back from 2. This is like the bottom 10 %ile of P4 pool interms of activity level. Meanwhile here is an update from L'Ecole.

It has been a good week overall, without naming names, I screwed up the case interview with one of the big 3 consultants ! Well isn't that what happens when you haven't practiced a single case until 18 hours to the interview? Well whatever you call it, it was a good experience to go through the consulting experience.

About the subject for this post...well the ISRAELI WEEK is here. Perhaps this is the only school in the world to have a backtoback Israeli-Arab week and today its my turn to watch a movie that will be some form of Propoganda. lol. Not really, the Israelis have a movie tonight on "indian and moroccan immigrants" to Israel. It should be fun to watch. There is their traditional dinner tomorrow. The israelis were also nice enough to do an amphistorming for the P4s which typically doesn't happen with the other national weeks because doing amphi stormings in electives is a cumbersome affair

2006-04-07T14:34:00.000+02:00

The McStory

If Mckinsey has its way - certainly the 1 billion chinese people will aspire to do an MBA. Mckinsey claims that there is a need for 75 K managers in china and there are only 4000 that make the "mark". Now what is mark, I will let Mckinsey answer.

What the gazillion smart corporates like GE/ Syngenta / Philips / Mittal have realized is they could hire at the bschools instead of letting the consultants charge a premium for doing something they can do themselves with a few MBAs. But the question to the MBA aspiring for a general management degree is - whether the MBA graduate will be motivated enough to sweat it out in these environments (in GE maybe, but in Mittal less so) without the carrots and sticks that come with a consulting career. We need to wait and watch for a few more years before we can answer that question.

I think I will write a book review post soon. Just finished reading a couple of them.

2006-04-05T14:38:00.000+02:00

The Interview Day coming

The campus is starting to fill with P4s in suits. The interviews are in full swing. I have seen no one on campus who has told me after an Interview - 'I cracked it, I think I am going to work for consultant X'. NO ONE. None out of some 20 odd people I have been asked. Does that mean I have sucker friends? Or is everyone being modest? We will know.

Otherwise, classes and presentations are proceeding at a reasonable pace. Guidant was here yesterday. I was happy to see some very interesting people. I am not sure with the uncertainity prevailing with the merger if there will be enough enthusiasm (many P4s seemed to place the bet on mittal steel instead of guidant yesterday since the presentations were at the same time). We will see how it all turns out.

2006-04-02T16:22:00.000+02:00

Where are the sundays?

Thank you all for the wishes. I am glad the recall value of my recruiter is reasonable within Europe :-). Now that someone called Siemens a boring company, I think I should apply to them. They just sound and feel too German for me. From conversation with these european companies, I feel the German companies are the ones that are most unlikely to recruit MBAs. So haven't spent a lot of time investigating them.

Life is moving quite fast. Sundays have stopped being weekends. I have cases to read and group meetings to attend today besides writing a cover letter so that I can focus the "recruitment energy" for the rest of the week on the interview preparation / attending a couple of presentations. This week we have companies like Guidant, Amex, Mittal Steel, Carrier visiting. That is more impressive than a consulting list atleast to me :-).

Career Fair
INSEAD for the first time in its existance conducted two career fairs. One for boutique consulting companies the Friday last week (we had Accenture in Boutiques :-)) and then we had one industry career fair this week. Amazon, GE, CEMEX, Philip Morris were amongst the 20 odd participants we had. I think it was fairly well organized and I atleast got a couple of interesting leads.

2006-04-01T18:30:00.002+02:00

A Week full of activity

Amazing number of things have happenned this week. The arab week continued to be great. Lot of arab dressed girls, amazing food (including the arab dinner / party), a special visitor to campus (Camel) and a great souk (market). It was fun and it still was one of the grandest national weeks we have had in the year. Needless to say, getting dressed in a thoub was exciting for the dinner / party.

About the company that mattered most, it already invited me for an interview (did they read my blog?) and I am excited about it. I also got invited by one of the top consultants to interview. Atleast 2 of the 4 consultants seem to have a process to see through uninterested people. So as you might expect I got dinged. One of the several hunches was indeed right. As my friend wannabe wants a clue...let me just call it a "European Conglomerate" reinventing itself currently.

2006-03-27T23:45:00.000+02:00

Welcome Arab Week !!!!

Lets throw the oil money as an excuse for the most spectacular start to a national (oops, regional is a more appropriate word now) week ever: The Arab Week. Whether it is the cafteria decoration or the richness or the amphistorming or the movie(s) screened in the evening - This certainly was the best opening day EVER for a week I have witnessed so far. The Arab week has raised the bar for the rest of INSEADers to follow.
The arabic music is just spectacular. Its so much fun to listen to it everytime I walk away for the coffee. Despite having 6 hours of classes and a couple of class assignments to turn in and a cover letter to finish up today, I decided to sneak into the movie showing "Paradise Now". I was kind of embarassed to sit next to an Israeli (talk about the price of diversity) when the actors kept calling them "occupiers". The movie was a spectacular experience and I decide to continue to be neutral on the political issues in the region. The movie is charged with emotions of youth and it is portrayed rather well although it would be unfair to call it balanced as it gives a very one-sided (palestinian) view of the world.
As you might guess the week has tons of sponsors and rumors are they have "excess money". Will keep you posted on any more exciting stories from the week. Today I sent out the application to my favorite company ever (any guesses on what the company is?)

2006-03-20T15:06:00.001+01:00

The 40 Hours of Lack of Classes

In the next 40 hours I don't have classes. I have NO CLASSES ! Thats going to be the longest 40 hours without classes in a year (outside of period breaks and weekend of course). I do have a couple of company presentations and a couple of class meetings and a couple of cover letters to take care of. It still is a lot of time so I thought I will visit all you nice folks out here. Not bad eh? Meanwhile I thought I will give you a quick sneakpreview of some of the classes I do and some personal assessments.

First Class I do: Realizing Entrepreneurial Potential
Easily my favorite course this period, the cases feel incredibly close to heart (of mostly non-MBAs) going out there and doing buy-outs. The professor is not really a professor. He is an Alum who does buying companies for a job and I can see he is goddamn good at what he does. He brings in his experience a ton in classes and his style is not very different from the style of Patrick Turner from our class. Surprisingly enough, the MBAs in the class are quite stressed out with the job search and are not as participative with the case discussions. The content is very rich though. There is some valuation that we do in the class, we talk about the debt levels that one should take and all the real useful stuff when you go out there and buy things up. My rating is a 4 on a scale of 5. The project on this course is extremely demanding. We are expected to propose a company to buy and this includes a resonable level of 2 way communication. Oops, maybe my prof. wouldn't be too happy I say such things here. But what the hell, this is an anonymous blog right?

Second Class I do: Negotiation Analysis
If you are in business school please take every class on negotiations !!!!!!!!!!!!!!! ....atleast to improve your grades. If things go the way they are now, I might end up with the highest grade during my INSEAD year in this class. Love it. Its so simple, there are so many things you are told in class and atleast the two negotiators I dealt with so far haven't really followed most of what is told in class :-). I never thought negotiation skills can be picked up in class. I now do and I do recommend classes !

Third Class I do: Market Driving Strategies
This is a game class. We play a game with a team. If you are all A Types its a mess. Luckily for us there is only one AA type the rest of us are between A and Z. Its fun. Interestingly the whole team has people from the same section in P1 and we have known each other from P1. Most people still hang out with the same guys they met on the first few days on campus. Its kind of nice to know that smaller communities are formed within INSEAD and we get along quite well. It took me a game registration to figure that out duuh !

Fourth and Final Class I am in: Industry and Competitive Analysis
Karel Cool is super cool ! He is quite interesting. For the tone in which he started class one, I thought this was going to be less exciting than any other 28 bid point course. Within 90 minutes, I changed my mind and figured out this perhaps will end up being the most spectacular class in my INSEAD life. I know when I spoke to an Alumni a few days back (he graduated in 1998) he spoke about the "bath tub"I was to see in ICA. It is amazing to still see the bathtub. I was surprised some courses just stay the same. It is amazing how much there is to learn even with some old analogies. So when you go to INSEAD in 2010, watch out for the bathtub in ICA.

Now to the industry I am going into. I don't like to go into small companies because you need to put in more than the 50 hours and I am not willing to take that commitment atleast until I figure out my entrepreneurial career is not headed anywhere. So I am looking at the big guys ! Any big guy is good for me. Any recommendations anyone?

2006-03-19T15:03:00.000+01:00

Awesome Weekend

The weather is Fontainebleau is incredible. The sun is out, the sweaters are getting thinner, and the birds are chirping. Sigh ! Love France.

The McKinsey presentations were loved by several of my classmates. The partner I had dinner with (in a table of 5), was an incredibly smart German. Its amazing they fly some 50 partners/consultants in total from all over the world for a dinner. I feel there are several more efficient ways of doing this ! Anyways, no complaints on the food and drinks. We were treated royally. I should say the guy who made the "presentation" was the best public speaker I have seen in my INSEAD life (The MD of my previous employer was one such). Anyways, it was fun.

Nano Working

My nano at last is out of its packet today and its celebrating itself after a near month long break. Tons of music, tons of memories. Why do you think I am getting all nostalgic already

The True North

Well, I think I did mention my true north a while back didn't I? Doing something on my own. Although I do think I will not be able to pull something off the bag this year, I am planning to move into Industry (a boring one hopefully) and spend 40-50 hour work weeks and start on creating / buying something out ! Will call that blog "A Search" probably.

Travel around Europe
I plan a "every weekend travel" at the end of P4 probably because there is a bird telling me this is the last sometime I will be spending in Europe. I love the continent. It is just fabulous. Berlin and Paris are certainly my favorite cities but I am sure I am going to fall in love with Milan, Barecelona, Nice, Vienna and Prague when I see them.

Positivity in air...the spiral departs ;-)

2006-03-16T17:12:00.000+01:00

Consultants in Town

The consultants are recruiting and it seems they are recruiting heavily and aggressively. The presentations were very bullish about recruitment forecasts. But you never know until interview invitations come out. I am quite indifferent. Although I think I know exactly what I am looking for, I think I am going to get sucked into an unfocused job search process based on the "order of arrival". We will see how it goes. Four presentations are over so far with overwhelming attendance for each one of them. BAH, Bain, and BCG were in town the first three days of the week.

Life is moving forward slowly....classes are fun. I like Realizing Entrepreneurial Potential. Although the project seems to be too much of a hazzle. Now gotta run for a presentation by the dean on the performance of our profs last period :-). Later folks.

2006-03-13T12:45:00.000+01:00

The Ride begins again !

The real INSEAD recruitment season begins with Booz-Allen visiting campus today. As you know me already, I am not keen on Consultants. I certainly hope to keep tab of the pulse on campus and who knows something interesting might pop-out of the 20 odd visitors ;-).

The weekend was good. Lots of work. Caught up with the stuff to be done in the week. I organized myself for the first time forcibly so I am not too messy during the week. I know exactly what I am doing for the most part (Even the sections I will be attending classes in for the rest of the week so I can make the most out of the CS activities)

I spent several hours over the weekend with some of the executives visiting INSEAD on trainings. It is interesting to hear the views people hold on INSEAD. Most(read:all) of them, I should say are more positive than Chunkey Monkey's views ;-).

Chunkey Monkey - You certainly are frustrated ! You are free to hold your views. Any system you take no matter how efficiently designed, has strengths and exagerrated strengths turn into weaknesses. You seem to be someone from the INSEAD system who did not successfully collect the rent. The ones who see the rent being taken away always cry ! No more human nature comments now ;-).

Gotta run.

2006-03-10T18:42:00.000+01:00

Pamper Time

It has been a hectic starting week. Three days up and I have spent about 25 hours in amphis just listening to professors, career services and professional interview trainers). Phew ! Thats a lot for someone graduating in a few months - yes? I really am hoping my schedule is going to get a little more relaxing than it is at the moment but its not going to be. There are going to be on the same day as many as 6 recruiters starting next week. They are all going to sell to us "their jobs" ! They pamper us with dinner invitations / cocktails and what not. But that lasts a couple of weeks. The tables get reversed starting first week of April when they start interviewing. After having seen a wide range of talented classmates, its going to be interesting to see who goes where. Its a part of the experience.

Todays experience in the mock-interviews was encouraging. I was told although I sounded guarded I sounded confident and clear for the jobs I am interested in (non consulting, non-banking). I will save it there. I have got motivated by a couple of consultants, I will keep you posted on how things turn-out. I need to get started on a ton of things this weekend.

2006-03-09T11:40:00.000+01:00

Coming soon...singapore Vs fonty

2006-03-09T11:31:00.000+01:00

Defending INSEAD Once

For once I have decided to take a "defensive stance" on INSEAD because that is one USP the school should not give up on. 14% does look high on the outset. How many american citizens do you think are in HWSK? Take a guess on that and I will not take the argument any further. On your stat. 80 still looks on the higher side, I would think it is in the 50-60 range.

INSEAD supposedly has a policy of "upper cap" (near the 10% mark) in its admission policy for nationalities. So to beat that, competition is fiercer in such pools as Indian / French / British applicants (compared to the chances of a girl from Estonia). Once a professor told me the dilemma for the admissions team is really that "whether to simply admit the best quality applicants" or "to be politically correct through a complex and rigid quota system". Of course the US schools are going through similar dilemmas but with respect to American applicants. Also note that Indians with 5-6 years experience do not have any educational institutions to go to get an MBA that has the richness of experience that is available in today's US / European schools.

2006-03-07T15:02:00.000+01:00

Life is Beautiful

As P4 is about to start, I just realized life is beautiful for several reasons.

(1) I found a very very beautiful place to live in that just seems too good to be true. Firstly its less than 3 kms from Campus at Avon. Its right behind the fontainebleau chateau and looks like either an imitation of a chateau yet with the luxuries of a hot shower, refrigerator and an "Electric" heating system. If you live in france you will know how big it is to have an electric heating instead of a gas heating system. I live on the first floor in a studio kind of setting. The house is soo scenic even in winter with the atleast 200 square meter garden. Its awesome. All this at an affordable rent (30% less than my earlier house in the middle of nowhere) and a nice landlady who trained me for half hour on how the bed is supposed to be set in France (before you guys get ideas, she is atleast 75)

(2) Being back "home" its nice to see a lot of old friends again. I haven't met the couple of the "Best INSEAD buddies" yet, but then I certainly have seen a lot of people I spent 4 months with. Some all 3 Ps in singapore have switched as well and I feel a "elder brother" love for them too :-). Holiday stories are being shared. Mine was uneventful but then I have the singapore story to tell the fonty folks.

(3) Juicer at EUR 6.95. I love it when France tries to be competitive. I found a citrus juicer at 6:95 when I was looking for a EUR 6.40 adapter (Singapore appliance in France). Wow...something is changing in France. Why do you all think I am abnoxious?

Talking about abnoxious, I think the following comment deserves "reposting here" so no one misses it. I am impressed with myself for being obnoxious enough to attract such critical attention. Loving it all the way. Except that the person who posted the comment remained anonymous.

Anonymous said...
You are another obnoxious idiot MBA. An idiot like you is born everyday. Good riddance!

Obviously the "Good Riddance" means the person who posted it is in Singapore.

2006-03-05T21:29:00.000+01:00

The Return to Fontainebleau.

Well, I am back home ! Home Sweet home. I am forced to look for a house around here because of the mishaps at the end of P2. There are plenty of houses available around here. Today I visited 5 of them, 4 of which I consider quite nice. That is a good strike rate don't you think. Being on campus a good 4 days earlier than period start date, I took the opportunity to turn in the last report due. I also am starting to look for housemates so I can take a large house and share (2/3 bedrooms)....I want to also live north so its easier to go to Paris than from the south. I will keep you all posted on how the search goes.

2006-02-28T13:07:00.000+01:00

The Turner Episode

After all that Paranoia in P2 about Prof. JC knowing about my blog, this time it caught me by surprise. "You were given enough clues" said Patrick Turner, my favorite professor (well this is not made up if you read my other posts already ;-)) when I went to his office to say good bye. Today was the last day of the period and it did catch me by surprise. But then I am glad it was less embarassing than being caught by our IT prof. especially before the grades were released
:-D.

The Period Ends

The period ends and for once everyone feels very nostalgic. There are reasons for it. One some singapore starters will never get to see singapore again because they plan to spend time either in Fonty or Wharton / Fonty combo. I can't be emotional for singapore because I afterall felt like a broke tourist all the time. The coursework of course was exceptional. I certainly had the best "pack of professors" amidst all three periods but then I am sure it was simply attributed to the "self-selection" involved in electives. I think as I leave singapore, I leave very positive impressions of a country "that works" and a program that has the same high standards and quality ! I find a lot of +s to doing your INSEAD MBA in singapore. Here are a few broad categories

A lot better focus on Entrepreneurship compared to Fonty.
A great city life with a lot of life outside INSEAD.
Cheap tickets for the weekend to exotic places like Thailand, Cambodia, Indonesia and Malaysia.
Small campus, feels a lot less french and friendly (did I say that?)

The Fonty Househunt.

I start P4 in fonty in a few days and I still don't have a house. So I need to go and do that after I finish writing all the reports I need to turn in for P3 :-).

2006-02-17T17:28:00.000+01:00

Frank Brown Open House

Frank Brown is the new dean of INSEAD taking over later this year. We finally had a chance to say hello to him (I had to sneak out of class to be there for a few minutes but it was worth it). Extremely candid about what he wants to do for the school, he was very candid in responding to some very tough student questions. He did not commit to any "new schools in any specific geography" although he agreed that there are certainly expansion plans in his years as the dean. He had areas where he saw huge improvements on its way especially with respect to recruiters, MBA alumni relations and fund-raising. He looks like a "doer" and If I ever had a "Buy" rating on INSEAD, today seems to switch it to a "Strong Buy".

2006-02-12T19:10:00.000+01:00

Coming Soon !!!

1. The Malaysia Trip !

2. Whacky INSEADers - I think I am going to write about 3 wierdest INSEADers in my six months here :-)

3. Is INSEAD Crazy ? (How many things am I supposed to do this week)

4. The "Logoff" Contest: DS loses the opportunity to log-someone off due to "absence of creativity".

2006-02-09T15:14:00.000+01:00

The Dash

I am sure the Olivier Mineau blog has a lot of pictures of this great INSEAD tradition, I chose to miss :-(. The Heritage Dash is a great event. One day everyone agrees to wear all kinds of crazy costumes and run to school in 3 minutes from one of the condos here to INSEAD. This is a strictly singaporean thing. Its supposed to be a spectacle and I won't depress myself by describing it again..

The thing is I woke up at 5 this morning and couldn't sleep anymore until about 8. I was thinking of making myself an "FT Vest" (the geek that I am) but overslept enough to even miss a class...

2006-02-07T16:47:00.000+01:00

Attention Wannabe

I am in Malaysia this weekend. So if you see this and give me the privilage of adding a name to a face email me before friday.

Broke and Yet on a trip

I am completely broke at the moment, thanks to my inability to access my french bank account - I owe the rent for Feb and then I have to pay for my malaysia trip this weekend...how do I manage

Meeting with L'Optimiste

I finally caught up with a few minutes with blogger L'Optimiste for a few minutes - Amazing guy...was totally impressed how clueful the guy is in P1 or should I say P0 considering the Pre-MBA internship he did with a leading I-Bank. He certainly does have high standards for fellow classmates, yet, I found him to be extremely composed, and goal oriented. Good job L'optimiste, you did make a great impression on the deathspiral ;-). (a contrast even in the name Optimiste and Deathspiral are antonyms eh).

Disaster Recovery

The week has started on a disasterous note. I have a guest tomorrow, the MD of one of the divisions of my former employer visiting the campus. Its going to be a busy day with 3 classes. i have given myself a "Reading holiday"...meaning walk into classes without reading the days "prescribed reading" :-)

Tons happenning but gotta get going. Cheers

2006-02-05T18:15:00.000+01:00

http://leshindmans.blogspot.com/

2006-02-05T08:24:00.000+01:00

Announcement
Belated Happy birthday buddy wannabe. You share a birthday with the most important person in my life and yet, I didn't wish you. Happy Birthday and I promise not to miss it next time.

Today
Despite 6 hours of lectures today, I am all energized to blog all night long. We had a listening experiment in Social Psychology in Management class. This is becoming my favorite class. The class was structured like a workshop and the last interactive session was when the prof wanted us to speak in our native languages and the 'listener' had to be someone who didn't understand the languages. The problem to be discussed was "something deep and emotional". It was so interesting to hear the portugese. When I spoke in my native language (which I bet you haven't heard of) my listener understood all the emotions I went through. It is amazing how much we take for granted about body language. It was an amazing class.
VOBM class was good today too. We listened to a very modest entrepreneur from India. Electives...sigh ! I love them !

Ok guys - taken off the earlier post (in the first time in the history of my blogs existance) simply because the very idea of having a blog of this kind is to ramble what you want, when you want without being suspicous about being "judged". Sorry Kv...if you missed the "Tagging post".

2006-01-29T15:51:00.000+01:00

My annoying disappearances

Today one of my groupmates on something I said went "So you are the helicopter view blogger"....lol. That is the first time it happenned to me in 6 months of blogging. So what are the chances of that happenning. I am impressed by DL and his view of life. He is one of the high energy, has something to say about everything kind of guy ! One hell of a perceptive guy to be able to crack the helicopter view thingie...But then what else do you expect of a guy who goes to class with laptop in his hand. If I am a geek, he is geek^geek

I am trying to build a brand here with the Death Spiral thingie and I am now the "helicopter view guy". But I am glad someone at INSEAD spotted me based on "the story". The experience this time was "I have never been happier than this before in INSEAD". That was a good catch...and I knew I was contributing something to the community.

Life is beautiful. I can't believe the veteran Kanags stays in Dover (I do too) and I haven't put in the efforts to get in touch with him. I can even see if I can be a bigger geek than him on the X-Box thingie he keeps talking about on his Blog. I promise to catch Kanags sometime this week. Owe it to the big guy ! But then, whats with all the geek talk around here. I have mentioned it a zillion times already

I do apologize for the disappearance. I just find my skype phone a lot more fascinating than my otherwise mundane "Research life". When all fellow INSEADers feel swamped with work, for a change, I feel motivated to swamp myself. A survey is ready on my business and I plan to run it amidst INSEADers this dog year ! (Well Happy Chinese New Year all of you !!!!)

I have done nothing I can be proud of this long weekend except a lot of catching up with the project. I have been sending emails to the great Mr. Turner at odd hours so he knows I am working on it ;-) (time testing consulting business strategy according to the most hilarious book I have read this year "Story of Lies")

Now I will be concerned if some consultants are reading this where I might send my CV as well...but do you think they will spot me? Tempted to run a survey on that too...but I will let it pass this one time !

2006-01-23T15:16:00.000+01:00

Congratulations WBV on your admission !

Optimiste, I owe you a note :-). I loved your comment in the "Making radical career changes" workshop, maybe its your comment that made me get to the ahaa moment.

Dear Ol' Wannabe - Gambling & Family...well I am a geek in geektown, no care about nothing else.

2006-01-23T14:59:00.000+01:00

The Ahaaah moment

This blog should be killed. My ahaaah moment is here. This career is no more clueless. Its full of life and I know exactly what I want to do in life :-). I stick to most of the *hints* I had provided you guys with in the past, but it has been a little bigger discovery than it has ever been. Today more than ever I am sure....I am sure I don't want to work ....

....well it is not as scary as it sounds. I do want to work. But I have discovered now (over the last three weeks primarily) that "Being employed for myself is the thing that makes me the happiest and there is not even a close substitute" (if only I had known this before spending 43,500 euros of tuition and 20,000 on living and another 50,000 on opportunity costs life would have been easier yes? Not really, I wouldn't have experimented as much. What has changed my mind?

In the last three weeks I have been working on this project type course called "Entrepreneurial field study" supervised by a genius of a prof. called Patrick Turner. Its all individual work and he links you up with industry and gets you project typically with start-ups. I chose however to build something on my own (an opportunity validation) in a business lets say relevant to all of you. I have not worked on any one course in the last 4 months more than I have for this one course in the last 2 weeks...the one other difference is I am loooooooooving working on this. It has been great fun and I do think its part of the reason why I don't appear here as much. Life is beautiful. Any suggestions what I should change my blog title too?

On a more serious note here are a few tidbits on whats going on with life
(1) Malspyware attack - ruined the weekend. But have been taking it easy.
(2) Singapore is a treat to geeks like me. I spent 3 hours in Sim-lim-square and spent S$200 on a "Skype phone". Its a cordless phone that connects to skype on my computer through a USB dongle. So you can make skype / skype out and other calls just with a phone. Loooooove the new toy. (The nano is already old)...love singapore.
(3) No plans for the chinese new year.
(4) Undecided still on the wharton P4 trip.
(5) Electives are going smooth...don't understand why a couple of courses haven't started a good 15 days after we started classes.

Ok people I gotta go read for tomorrow...sigh what a disgusting excuse...well I gotta play with my skype phone.

2006-01-19T12:33:00.000+01:00

"When I was in ******, we were in this beautiful artificial hut all alone, full moon, by the lake, just the two of us. It was perhaps the biggest day in my life till date. It was indeed big. The moon, the woman, the lake remind me there is nothing I want to change about life. This is as good as it gets. A few hours back, just before we took our first flight together a good 3.5 years after we had met, it was only an hour after I had asked her to marry me. It was the happiest day of my life, I had never been so sure about myself"

For all of you double checking the title of my blog, I am tempted to do the same. Well I was sitting in the middle of 70 others during this seemingly out of place wierd elective and discovering my emotions. This is a part of the class called Social Psychology of Management and I actually enjoy doing the course despite the fact that my emotional intelligence is below the INSEAD average of "Competent". The prof is fantastic despite being a wharton alum ;-). I am learning a ton but am a little more skeptical when it comes to implementing changes in my own life. Although personal development through learning is the one most important thing in my life, I think I need to do it at my own pace, doing it through a course is not working atleast for me. And yes, there are a couple of superskeptics doing this as an elective (I thought one could self-select out of such torture if they don't believe in it)...anyways, life is beautiful life is good.

About drinking in malaysia...good idea ! Lets see if I implement it in the chinese new years. This saturday, we have a party in Km8, santosa beach. The INSEAD drinking fever slowly is starting (or wait...) I have been out every single day of the week / weekend so far....so maybe it just continues....

2006-01-16T06:30:00.000+01:00

Happy New Year Everyone

Ok everyone, I am back again for a very slow start. I said, if I can read 35 pages of Chap 5 for Macro economics, I can certainly spend a few minutes blogging this morning. I decided I am going to get back to my routine (or atleast try) starting today. Lets see how this works...so no promises, besides young and energetic fellas from the December class are already taking over from the oldies like myself so why bother ;-).

L'Optmiste - welcome to INSEAD. Hope you had a good welcome party and maybe we already know each other. I am not keen on keeping the mystery going. I think it should be good to catch up over a coffee or something. Will you ask me questions about your blog? Lets exchange emails. My schedule for this week is particularly bad thanks to my "relaxing first week"

Wannabe - talk about drinks being expensive. Ms. Fiancee thinks "Singapore is good for DS's liver". They certainly have no understanding of drinker behavior or simply have a high ethical standard. Whatever it is "Being an INSEADer at S'pore sucks" because about half the drinking "pleasures" disappear with sober classmates :-).

A quick intro to the classes I am taking
1. ISM - Something about IT (prof. has abundant opportunity to improve and the course feels very outdated)
2. Macroeconomics - The best prof this period so far a welcome change from the one I had in Fonty for Micro. The subject is incredibly interesting. At last I am having my official class on "Big mac index" that thing certainly is going to come in handy on the salary negotiations
3. Intl Political Analysis - The course sounds interesting...lessons yet to begin

I am doing 4 electives on top of this one of which is a project. Most of my electives are focused on entrepreneurship except one OB one and I am being a rebel in not doing the advanced finance elective (ACF)...saving myself a ton of work !

Grades are out for P2, I have "above average" grades in all courses ! That atleast brought my self-esteem back after the disaster in Financial accounting last period !

Ok people, gotta go grab lunch before the class this afternoon in IT.

2006-01-11T12:38:00.000+01:00

Happy New Year 2006.
So Wish you all a very happy new year 2006. It certainly is going to be an action packed year. Unlike 2005, when I knew exactly what was going to happen, I start this year nervously partly because of the number of unknowns ahead. I have a rather safe plan B (Returning to my ex-employer) because I enjoyed the last job I held.

Death Sprial Returns.
Ok people, I am very sorry for being away for the longest break ever. I am back reporting from Singapore.....
First impressions
(1) New campus...everything is modern, the little things we complain about in Fonty have been taken care of here, kind of an "Everyone knows everyone" place.
(2) Same people different place feeling. (There are over 180 people who transferred from Fonty to here and lesser people who stayed back from S'pore)
(3) An efficient well managed city (in quite a contrast to the slow and charming forest) with a very contemporary feel.
(4) A 16th floor apartment (against a solo house in the forests) in a 500 apt. complex.

It feels great to be here. More soon.

2005-12-19T17:51:00.000+01:00

I bet I am making a 3 on this one !

One more finance exams...when I walk in I always hope to pass and when I walk out I am perhaps the only one smiling. Today the test was truely gruelling (or so everyone claims). I was totally pressed for time...I finished like 2 minutes before the end of the exam...so that I assume is a good sign. I am extremely happy with this period and won't be surprised if I do move up from the 'average' position awarded in P1...but then I can't get so optimistic with just two exam performances. (Man. Accounting and Finance) the other three 'poet' courses can swing me anyways right? True...I think I might end up being turned into a geek here. I am a geek....oops. (Wannabe happy?)

Ok what is the 3 doing up there in the subject. I thought it would be a good idea to explain how the GPA works here. If any of you are six sigma black belts this will be much simpler. But let me start by saying the grading is relative. So anyone with an average performance gets a 2.5 and everyones score is given 2.5 +/- the number of standard deviations you are from the mean. So essentially a 3.0 means atleast a 0.5 from the mean...for the people who know the normal curve you might know that about 99% of the data lies between +/- 3 Sigma...so if you do get below -0.5 (oh yes, people do get GPAs that are negative atleast in core courses) one needs to redo the courses (and they say that happens too)....now in P1 I narrowly missed escaping some cruel lonliness in the Z curve in financial accounting (I can never get balance sheets to balance and the accounting graders are always out to punish me for such mundane mistakes)

What am I doing blogging now about boring grade points which anyways don't matter....I am going and getting my beer to celebrate the commencement of P2 holidays !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Merry Christmas everyone !!!!!!!!!!

2005-12-18T17:51:00.000+01:00

I am not alone :-).

Here is a not so clueless MBA with a very interesting article...enjoy reading

KV - thanks for the message. 1 more day to go for 15 days of vacation. Just can't wait :-).

Now back to the Strategy book (not that I am done with Finance)

All in a day’s interview
By Laura Huang
Published: November 27 2005 18:36 Last updated: November 27 2005 18:36
Alittle while ago, I was asked: “How many jellybeans can fit in an aircraft?” I was not talking to a precocious five-year-old. I was talking to a 40-something-year-old man, at one of the leading companies in the world, in the process of interviewing for a coveted position within their organisation.
//
In this same interview I was asked: “What is 36 cubed?” and: What do you think the interest rate will be on February 17, 2007? The exact interest rate please, to the nearest hundredth of a per cent.”
As any MBA student can tell you, we are in the recruiting season.
What is interesting is that this interview was not at an investment bank or a financial services institution, as my cohorts here at Insead might have guessed. It was actually for a position within a sales and marketing department. Despite the seemingly casual interview process for sales and marketing posts, at least in comparison with those for investment banking roles, this particular institution had nonetheless incorporated the “stress interview” into their repertoire.
The stress interview is one in which rapid questions are fired at you, usually complex and time-intensive in nature, with the goal being to see how you react to “stress”. This type of interview can take on other variations, such as when an employer lines up a group of interviewers, either one at a time or en masse, with each given the sole mission of intimidating you.
Contrast the stress interview with the behavioural interview, where applicants are asked to describe past experiences where they demonstrated leadership, teamwork or creativity. Here, any answer is accepted; what is important is how one describes the situation.
There are also informational interviews, the structured interview and the semi-structured interview, among others.
And here in Singapore, where we are sometimes interviewed by companies that frequent only the Fontainebleau campus, there are also video-conference interviews, on-campus interviews and on-site interviews. These, in fact, form a different axis on which all the other types may be plotted.
Preparation for each nuance of interview has proved to be time consuming. But the best advice that I have received about interviewing is this: relax and remember that you are interviewing them, just as much as they are interviewing you.
This advice helped me to rule out one employer who chuckled when I said that five years from now I wanted to be in a job where I felt a sense of joy in my career. He replied that he had not experienced a single day of joy in the course of his 20-year-career and that it was called “work” for a reason. This, I decided, would not be the company for me.
It also helped me rule out a potential employer who had invited me for a final-round interview, only to reveal that the position was not actually in Singapore, as I had been led me to believe.
The advice has also helped me rule out consulting, to the horror of many of my fellow MBAs.
Instead, I have decided to remain true to my strengths and passions and not be led astray by contracts etched in gold. I will continue in the realm of sales and marketing and devote myself to shaping consumer behaviour.
I may be atypical, as it amazes me how many MBAs turn out to be career-switchers, whether they opt for a change in location, function or industry.
There are former strategy consultants looking for management roles in industry. There are those from business development who are trying their hand at investment banking. There are entrepreneurs bidding for top-tier consulting jobs. And there are those tired of working for others, trying to start up their own ventures. Everyone wants someone else’s job.
Why not create some kind of internal market for these jobs? It is analogous to the “double-coincidence” problem we studied in macro- economics.
In the past, people would trade bread for eggs and eggs for bread. But in order to do so, the baker would have to find exactly the right person who was willing to take his bread and give him eggs in exchange. And when the baker wanted milk he would have to find another person who was willing to trade bread in exchange for milk.
And, thus, monetary units were created to solve this problem, where the baker sold his bread for money and then used money to buy whatever else he needed.
In the same way, we should create a system for jobs pre-Insead.
The number of fellow participants at Insead who are scared they will not find a job is amazing. These are people who have excelled their whole lives, been showered with praise and large sums in year-end bonuses, only to admit that they are afraid they are not good enough.
Despite any change or lack of change in functions, we all bring with us many newly cultivated MBA skills. Even I am impressed by my recently developed Excel skills and my ability to create macros and pivot tables when, just a year ago, I was one of those people who would scroll down a 30,000 line spreadsheet using the little down arrow.
I now also notice marketing campaigns in a different way and feel (almost) compelled to tell anyone who will listen how they might be improved. I find myself thinking in frameworks and wish that people would express themselves in more organised and concise ways.
I think of new ventures and products that would thrive in Singapore and observe organisations that are not spending enough on their sales force or need a significant change in management.
As we enter the last of five academic periods, I suppose we are almost ready to re-enter the real world. All that is left is to determine who is ready to accept us, with all this fresh MBA knowledge.
The company is out there and when I find it I am sure the interview will go very well, now I know that “six to the sixth power” and “whatever interest rate is printed on the front page of the Financial Times” are not clever enough answers.

2005-12-17T17:33:00.000+01:00

Long Break in a couple of days

I need to jump the hurdle of two more finals before I can enjoy tranquility for another 15 days. Well not really, there is a lot of mixed feeling already on Campus with everyone going their way for the break and "Ever after". Some stay here, many go to singapore, and then the "sections" are broken down and new ones have been created. So January is going to be as good as new.

The finals this period have been lesser of an ordeal than the P1 finals. There are a couple of "decently quantitative courses" but even finance is getting a lot more "intuition" driven than otherwise...although they say that is good for poets and not for engineers as an "engineer pressured into being an engineer by society" I am secretly cherishing the long essays I am writing in my marketing (finished Friday) and strategy exams(on monday). Jake's exam is over and I should say it was not difficult at all. I never thought I could enjoy writing an accounting exam as much EVER (especially after that stupid grade I got for P1 financial accounting). This time I think it certainly will help me move my grades up by a notch when my Mktg and OB will keep me as close to average (hopefully)!

The break is here. I am looking forward to it. But then now I need to get back to Black-scholes (for winning Nobel Prizes for making way too many assumptions about what shouldn't be assumed in the first place) and why Microsoft had to change ESOs (Executive Stock options) to RS (Restricted Shares) before announcing Dividends (instead of trying to fix the innumerable bugs on windows xp)...ok people Chao !

2005-12-12T12:32:00.000+01:00

Exceptional INSEADer !

When there are anonymous ordinary bloggers like me, there are some exceptional ones that are more tech savvy (With PODcasts included) that are changing the world.

You have no idea what you are losing if you don't check out.

http://www.activefreemedia.com/

Ahh...yes, going back to study. Naaah. going for lunch.

2005-12-12T12:08:00.000+01:00

An Excuse not to study

Finals are approaching and I have left no stones unturned to excuse myself from studying....Some examples of things I have been doing so far

1. Planning a Vacation at home for Christmas
2. Dinner with housemates.
3. Googling words like "Jobs", "Career", & "Put Options"
4. Drinking coffee thrice an hour
5. Downloading wierd podcasts on self-awareness & spirituality
6. Calling up friends and family I have ignored for several weeks now
7. And even reading other blogs ;-)

So finals are almost here and I have put about 5 quality study hours so far including the weekend. The pace has got better so far. I hope to keep it up so that I maintain my "as average as it gets" profile. I will have to put a few hours on my finance and accounting to "Stay away from Trouble".

Adios people, Finance beckons !

2005-12-08T10:06:00.000+01:00

Disappearance

That was a long time away from here (nearly a week). I was away from Fontainebleau for the weekend and am trying to grab every straw I can to keep pace with P2 craze. A quick update on what is going on. P2 is almost coming to an end. We have already had the last classes in both Managerial Accounting (our favorite class) and Marketing (MY favorite subject) so far.

Berlin was incredibly cold. I was there for a friends wedding and partied quite a bit (isn't sleeping 9 hours in total all weekend long a little crazy).

This week the US - Canadian week is on. I haven't enjoyed much of what was offered until now but I hope to catch up today with the movie "Walmart" followed up by some iceskating this evening.

Elective results are out and I did not get one elective in enterpreneurship I really wanted. Otherwise no big surprises.

2005-11-30T17:46:00.000+01:00

The best day at INSEAD so far.

Today certainly was the best day at INSEAD so far although I missed my alarm and slept on until 9:15 am. (didn't miss any class / appointments though). Started with a career counselling session. Was good to hear a view of a coach who pretty much said "Consulting is not really for you". Today was an action packed day. 10 countries / regions are fighting for 9 spots in "National weeks" scene for the next three periods. Tomorrow is the vote and its heating up. Also the most popular performance this week will lead to "First pick" on the slots. So some serious competition going on. I find the Israeli's, Italians and Spaniards the most creative although for some unstatable emotional reasons, deciding on the "Arab week" as well. Thats not why I call it the best day so far though.

Today we got to see INSEAD in its true form.

In leading organization we got to the last class on "Cultural Challenges in managing cultures" and each of us were supposed to talk about stereotypes about our cultures. Of course only 2 groups got to present and not out of coincidence did we get to see about 10 different countries. The 9 countries I learnt about today include: Canada, Spain, France, India, Russia, Poland, Costa Rica, Australia, & Israel and there are several I am forced to go through the slides without the background. It is a pure coincidence that none of the 7-8 americans in my class didn't get up there, although my groupmate american had a fun fun fun slide about the country.

One of those days, I feel I made the right choice, by coming here. All that said, if you like and respect culture - INSEAD is the place to be. I think there are a lot of BS in b-school and this amazing diversity of people makes me look forward to tomorrow.

2005-11-26T18:05:00.000+01:00

Party, "Elections" and the CV.

The CV book and the zillion other cases to do is the talk of the town in campus. I didn't make it to the party last night as I didn't "Get tickets"...yes such things happen too. Most people I spoke to were disappointed with the party because the club got overcrowded supposedly. I was home watching some tv and thinking about my finances that were getting a little out of control. After a long time I had a 'peaceful' friday all for myself. However, I made it up with a "guys night out" with some friends. That was fun too.

The CV thing is going great. I don't think my CV ever looked as good (thanks to the several feedbacks I have received from people around the world). I still am getting feedback and in the true spirit of deadlines will click go at 9:00 Pm tonight (a good 2 hours and 59 minutes before I run out of time).

Juggling several things?

Well the whole hype about the program being overwhelming is still as I already called it a 'hype'. Yes there are unrealistic expectations occassionally but you always have the choice with you - You just can't do everything and you need to be ok with that. At the very least you discover your likes and dislikes as time passes and you are occassionally surprised. But as time passes, I have noticed the extremely serious loosen up a little bit and the happy go lucky get more serious !

French Test

I strongly recommend you attempt the initial test after adequate preparation. The further you get with your score the better it gets. After having put enough efforts on my language, now I am convinced its a total waste of time / distraction in b-school but a "neccessary evil" atleast for INSEAD to help its own positioning. Of course if you do fail the test, if you take the INSEAD class you are atleast "safe" with your graduation requirement as they teach you exactly what is tested and test you exactly on what you know. Get my message? ;-).

French Forests

In no way is this a "balance" between urban and rural. Its rural rural and more rural. I had a lot of fun in the summer even fall. The forest was beautiful, the drive was soothing, the personal garden at home a place I wanted to rush every day. But to ruin it all winter arrived and I am f**king cold. It gets really really cold and living in a large house (although well heated) doesn't help a whole lot. I love the fire place at school and at home. Its about time I pack my bags for singapore. Now if you are saying its a balance between "urban and rural" between "Singapore and Fonty". True. Agreed.

2005-11-25T07:50:00.000+01:00

Ze French Ouik.

It is the French week that is being concluded here in INSEAD. I need to give credit to the French for having done an excellent job bringing to INSEAD the culture from "outside the campus inside". Their unique selling point was the fashion show they arranged organized by G. Lafayette from Paris. But they also had a good 'Amphi storming' and the CEO of Louis Vuitton (an INSEAD alum) as the guest speaker earlier in the week. Today is the party at Champs Elysee in Paris at club Poona. This time with no LBS girls :-).

Change in Grades

After a lot of controversy our grades were redone in two courses because of some large scale mix-up at the MBA office between Professors and secretaries and office staff. I got nearly a 3 sigma increase in my OB grade and almost a 1 sigma fall in my accounting grade. I am still a happy man because my overall GPA went up by nearly 0.4

Gruelling Week

After a lot of rest and drinking, this was the most gruelling week at INSEAD so far. There are about 4 group assignments to be turned in on monday and tuesday and classload has not been any lesser than normal. The problem is that even some of the investment bankers are struggling to "guide the teams" (read: do the assignments for the most part themselves) satisfactorily to completion. And guess what? we are already talking about exams again...3 weeks more to go and this time I am not too optimistic about the finance course.

2005-11-24T09:01:00.000+01:00

No offense to consultants.

But I found the following logoff hilarious.

After having spent years toiling as a consultant I have come to realize that life is somewhat similar to another professional we all probably know of. I present my view below and would appreciate your candid input, since most of us are, have been or will be in the same boat.

1. We work very odd hours.
2. We are paid a lot of money to keep our client happy.
3. We are paid well but our pimp gets most of the money.
4. We spend a majority of our time in a hotel room.
5. We charge by the hour but our time can be extended.
6. We are not proud of what we do.
7. Creating fantasies for our clients is rewarded.
8. It's difficult to have a family.
9. We have no job satisfaction.
10. If a client beats us up, the pimp just sends us to another client.
11. We are embarrassed to tell people what we do for a living.
12. People ask us, "What do you do?" and we can't explain it.
13. Our client pays for our hotel room plus our hourly rate.
14. Our client always wants to know how much we charge and what they get for the money. 15. Our pimp drives nice cars like Mercedes or Jaguars.
16. We know the pimp is charging more than we are worth but if the client is foolish enough to pay it's not our problem.
17. When we leave to go see a client, we look great, but return looking like hell (compare our appearance on Monday AM to Friday PM).
18. We are rated on our "performance" in an excruciating ordeal.
19. Even though we might get paid the big bucks, it's the client who walks away smiling.
20. The client always thinks our "cut" of our billing rate is higher than it actually is, and in turn, expects miracles from us.
21. When we deduct our "take" from our billing rate, we constantly wonder if we could get a better deal with another pimp.

And now let me log off since I forgot to do that in the first place. Sorry for the mass but I hope to hear from you.

2005-11-22T08:57:00.000+01:00

Quotable Quote

"Politics at work is a lot like Sex, we all love it, all of us do it but no one wants to ever talk about it"

Prof: "Politics can be caused by demographics, once I was the only man in a university programme full of women"
Guy in the back row: "What programme? Name Please"

Prof: "I always wondered how your voice sounded, you haven't spoken at all".
Response: "You are going to regret you said that".

2005-11-21T19:05:00.000+01:00

The LBS Woman Post.

This post is dedicated to the LBS women who lit up the party on saturday. Ok KV here are the details: There was this one girl who was totally totally drunk even before the real party started (read: before I got drunk). She was doing everything she could think of to attract attention. Some examples include: licking a guys bottom (with clothes on of course), exposing her LBS stamp (not in a very politically correct place) to everyone who was around and she was all over people who gave her a chance :-). In our true competitive INSEADer spirit, a couple of my section-mates stretched the limits on the fooling around and the thing caught on like a wild fire. By this time I was drunk enough and was busy with my Vodka to notice anything more. Later I discovered (from one of my housemates) that I made some real good friends with a few LBS guys who actually offered me jobs in their home countries :-) Too bad we were in the rest room and I was too drunk to negotiate salaries :-).

On a serious note, about pre-reading: It totally depends on the professors. If you don't have a business (Finance, accounting and economics background), you better read it or you will end up in the wrong side of the normal curve in no time.

2005-11-20T15:24:00.000+01:00

The Wharton Exchange, LBS visitors Aussie Party & the third campus?

Hello all, I am back again to keep the promise on the Wharton exchange. It might be a little difficult to explain but I will keep it simple.

Wharton (and Singapore) exchange have NO RELATIONSHIP with academic performance or how rich your father is. At the beginning of the year everyone is giving 200 bidding points. They can use the 200 bidding points on the elective courses of thier choice + going to wharton. I for example bid less than 50 points for Wharton because I wasn't as keen as some people whose only goal in life is adding Philidalphia to their CV (so rationally they bid 190 points which is the upper bound) ! Since there are 35 seats and the bidding was "cut off" at 50, everyone who bid above 50 got to go to Wharton. Others are on the waitlist. Now even the ones who bid 190 go to wharton by paying just 50 points. Now they have 150 points to bid for 2 periods of electives (because they spend 1 in wharton anyways)

Aussie Party

Last night the Aussie week ended with a "Fosters Party". They had 4000 cans of fosters but thanks to my cold, I gulped down perhaps half a bottle of some noname vodka. As you might rightly guess, I was drunk enough to want to hit my sack the moment I got out! But it was a great party. We had visitors from LBS playing Rugby against INSEAD. The game was tied but most importantly the LBS women went wild wild wild ! The INSEAD women seeing the new competition made it a super fun night :-).

The 3rd Campus.

Well well well, I wouldn't want to speculate on this subject. The key reason is the dean said "nothing has still got to a paper" meaning its all very very preliminary. But one of the options that is being speculated is "Americas". The plural was stressed ;-).

2005-11-18T15:36:00.000+01:00

Whats with the anonymous comments?

Why do you all think there are so many anonymous comments on my blog? Ok...the week is almost finishing up. Let me try to answer a couple of questions here.

1. Why not L'Oreal ? Well it has nothing to do with being engaged or not. It just looks like a job for blondes and although I might sound like someone with no big aspirations for life (like becoming the CEO of GE) I certainly do not plan to work selling cosmetics and competing with hot chicks at that(I might have considered that before spending a fortune at this place)...its all about "playing your strengths" you see.

2. What did the dean say? Well...let me see...he said a ton of things. "Truely global school, we are independent and we make our decisions without "Parent" university riding our balls....Asia campus a true innovation, quality is great, we hope to make it the same size as fontainebleau campus but no dates in mind....we make a ton of money from the executive education and NOT the MBA program, hope to work with research centers in a few more cities"

3. Wharton exchange - There is a lot admits need to know about this before you get excited about it. I am going to create a detailed post over the weekend.

2005-11-17T08:45:00.000+01:00

Meet with the Dean

The dean of the school met with our promotion of MBAs to talk about the schools growth plans and stuff. I found him surprisingly down to earth. He spent some substantial time on "the business school for the world" concept.

Yesterday L'oreal was here promoting its e-strat games wonder if a lot of MBAs participate in it. It sounds like a lot of time commitment for a company who is interested in selling women's cosmetics working with hot chicks. Going by the two girls who presented it, it certainly looks like L'oreal hires based on vital stats :-). My principle of elimination seems to be working VERY Effectively. One more company off the list :-).

A couple of cases were due today and a couple over today and tomorrow. Need to figure out the logistics with moving to singapore...and I am getting close to broke. Need to figure out the finances as well...

2005-11-14T22:30:00.000+01:00

P1 Grades Hurray !!!!

Woooooooow I got my P1 grades today and Guess what? I am AS AVERAGE AS IT GETS at INSEAD. How boring is that? Well in a place like this...I feel privilaged to be average in this talented community and not to be on the "Special Dean Letter list" :-). Love life !!! And yes, I did crack that one finance exam that kept my head out of water when I made a miserable grade in LPG (Org. Behavior) almost 2 standard deviations below the class average ....my F***ing group mates screwed up the final :-).

2005-11-12T14:19:00.000+01:00

Logoff

As she lay there dozing next to me, one voice inside my head kept saying, 'Relax, you're not the first doctor to sleep with one of his patients', but the another kept reminding me, Buddy, you are a veterinarian!'

2005-11-11T17:46:00.000+01:00

The Singapore Exchange Results, Parties, Oktoberfest, CV, & Groupwork.

Yesterday we heard back from the exchange coordinator the results of the Singapore exchange bidding process. The waitlist for a one period visit to Singapore is at an ALL TIME high of 82 Fonty participants. We are well past the learning curve on the exchange thingie in INSEAD. Everyone seems to have a perception that it is a good idea to spend P3 in Singapore (to save yourself from the gruelling cold in France) and return to fontainebleau to interview with European recruiters. Of course it is based on a random lottery and I was one of the lucky ones to make it in the lottery. Btw, if you do not want to risk ending up spending all time on one campus, INSEAD proposes ideas when you bid (they warned us about this situation even as we bid). There are multiple tiers of priorities and it is clearly communicated so people can "truely choose" what is best for them. Unfortunately there are a lot of gamblers and when there are gamblers there are losers too ;-). It is unfortunate I will leave behind a few people I have got to know very well and there is a bright chance I will not see them again at all after Christmas. Thats scary isn't it?

Parties
There were a couple of parties in a row on Wednesday and Thursday. There are some real talents I discovered yesterday in organizational and cooking skills in a few people. I continue to be pleasantly surprised and flattered by some people's company.

Wednesdays party was our champagne party. I drank atleast a bottle or more of champagne.

Oktoberfest

Today is Oktoberfest in France !!!! It is the heart of Europe week and I am sorry for not giving them as much coverage as I should have...partly because I have been down sick for most of this week. It has been the most "efficient, disciplined, well organized, united" week. The Austrians, Germans, Bavarians ;-), Swiss have all come together to put a great show. I am thinking of skipping the oktoberfest the one thing I want to do most for health reasons - this suuucks !
The amphistorming was real fun. The German secy. deserves special credit for her job.

CVs/ Resumes
We are working on our CVs for the job hunt (who does that 3 months into an MBA except us ???) now...we are expected to upload it next week. My lazyness I think won't allow me to finish before the due date.

Groupwork
There are three group assignments due next week. We plan to work on all of it on monday and tuesday. We have set aside 6 hours and are targetting to finish it quicker than that. Don't be surprised if I disappear.

2005-11-08T19:29:00.000+01:00

Death Spiral Defined

Ok guys, finally I understood what I stand for. Here is the definition from the guru himself.

Continuously pricing out of market because of an increasing burden rate applied to product cost

That of course is the managerial accounting term and there certainly is a finance term called deathspiral that is on its way (but essentially meaning a disaster in both courses). He is going to be so proud there is a blogger in his very class calling "oneself" the disasterous "Death Spiral".

Life is beautiful. Today's case was very interesting in the managerial accounting class. I am enjoying the humor in this class.

Todays class in Leading Organizations (OB II) was about "Pay for Performance". Everyone in the class had something to say about it and the prof. had a blast with the participation. I chose to listen to views because this subject has (perhaps just like the rest of the class) bothered me all my life. Some French sensitivities were seriously offended when some stereotypes about workhours and laws came up. There was also a significant "national skew" on who thought a 'piecerate meritocracy' works or not. The asians were split while europeans were heavily against it and the americans were neutral. Expected one would think. It came as a big surprise for me.

2005-11-06T14:41:00.000+01:00

Drinking alone !!!!

I did something for the first time in my life yesterday. After having rejected a housemates request to go to Paris with, I spent the evening at home (because of the cold getting from bad to worse mainly) drinking a glass of vodka all on my own watching TV. It felt wierd but the vodka was good though :-). Sleeping a proper 10 hours every night for 4 nights in a row. Gotta be good. Any suggestions for fixing the bad cold / cough / intermittent fever I have?

Yesterday had to be the laziest day in my INSEAD life so far. Despite the "warnings" I received from profs and seniors about the "gruelling nature" of P2 (being even tougher than P1), I haven't seen much action so far. This week looks a little worrisome with all the CV book stuff etc...but still tons of time to take care of things. I am still undecided on what to do with the singapore thingie....postpone until the last moment is the magic right?

2005-11-04T19:18:00.000+01:00

First week is over.

Did I say I hate the first weeks more than the last ones? I already feel like I have started catching up and to top it up there are a gazillion decisions to make already. Today for instance I had to make a decision on when I want to go to singapore and when I wanted to be in Fontainebleau. The weather in Fonty is going to get much better post february and I want to enjoy good weather ! That on one side, I also have to take care of the 'career' preferences when it comes to geographies, then there is the issue of electives and where they are available. Now it feels all hypocritical to have said in the application essay 'I love the one school two campus idea that is unique to INSEAD'...atleast I don't like it until I am able to decide.

Having a bad cold. I think I am going to let go of the first costume party of the period. Thats a shame. Better safe than sorry (the organizers claim to have a donation of 1500 beers from somewhere for the party).

Everyone have a nice weekend.

2005-11-03T18:56:00.000+01:00

The Football Match

Went to the Lille Vs Manchester United game last night. The French won 1-0 in the first championship league game I have ever watched :-). Awesome stadium, good quality crowd ! No homeworks done for today.....

2005-11-01T12:51:00.000+01:00

My bloody Housemates

Ok classes started yesterday and it has been good so far. I have one quick and interesting story to tell.

Yesterday in class the Prof for Managerial Accounting : Lets call him one Mr. JC mentioned "death spiral" out of the blue when I was not even paying attention in class (talk about a sincere participant in the first day of classes)...and that sent some chills through my spines. Why would there be a mention of death spiral in an accounting class? Anyways, I just flattered myself by saying maybe he follows my blog and wanted to 'send a signal'. So here I am trying to send Mr. JC a signal back.

Mr. JC : You have the best sense of humor amongst the three profs we have seen this period so far (First impressions of course). You are a funny guy. We all love you.

(Dear Readers: This is just hypocricy what else can I say to a guy who gives a 25% weight for class participation...I am just 'hedging' my bets on the possibility that as an Ex-Harvard prof, should be smart enough to trace me hopefully with no INSEAD IT support). Did I by the way drill myself into a hole by doing this? If this post gets deleted tomorrow you all know the reason right?

So the story didn't end there. I was still curious if he had mentioned it in the other section he teaches (there are 4 sections with approximately 75 students each) and spoke to my housemates about the mention and obviously they found my question "very wierd". I tried using all my skills in morphing my stupid thought. To prove that I am not insane to ask random questions, I had to finally confess. So now 4 more INSEADers know that I blog with the name Death Spiral. Well I think only 4 other INSEADers now know my identity. That somehow curtails my "freedom". I need to say some nice things about these four people so here I start.

M1: Beecombs in the head, smile on the face, gossip in the lips. Party animal, Easy go lucky, Talented singer. Expert accountant. All-rounder. One of M1s groupmates calls M1 the 'best looking person' of that particular gender in the entire school.

M2: The most unassuming person I have ever met from the 'firm'. Academic guru. Very normal until you mention the word "Flea". If you give M2 a choice between an encounter with a snake and sleeping in a bed with flees my guess is M2 would pick the snake. Or am I wrong? M2 also has a very special relationship with the landlady.

H1: The largest Height:Weight ratio in the promotion doesn't prevent the neurons in the top from communicating with the neurons in the rest of the body and being sarcastic. H1 is committed to pulling the leg(s) of others. If your first impression is that he is a geek (which happens to be right) H1 seems to know everyone on campus on a personal level. A very relationship kinda person. The only INSEADer I know that doesn't drink. Always our designated driver :-).

H2: Very serious, means business, analytical, intuitive, critical, and shrewd. Has an unmatched skill in seeing the 'dark side' of people (and unfortunately is mostly right). I am committed to determining through a serial multiple hypothesis test what H2 does in the bathroom 1/2 hour+ every day (leaving me exactly enough time to be late to class if I shower). H2 also believes I plan to be rich by eating his butter and not paying for it. Remember H2 that I am kidding, take it easy and I promise to steal less butter from now on.

Now to the famous landlady.....aaah well, I choose to not talk about it unless I get persuaded to do it.

Ok folks, if I don't blog in three more days call 911 because those four did something to me after reading this.

2005-11-01T12:39:00.000+01:00

Amsterdam Brief.

Ok people here is the brief on amsterdam. Arrived in amsterdam on Thursday evening driving. Stayed in a hotel in the west end of the city. Nice place. TulipInn. Just two of us drove down. After grabbing a bite in an incredible italian restaurant, we went to check out the night scene. Spent until 4 am walking around the central station (only drinking) and its neighborhoods. Bar hopped like 4 times including one 'politically incorrect bar'. It was fun. Lot of dancing and partying was going on. We were told that the real parties happen about 5-6 kms away in another area but we were happy with the sights and sounds of the central station area :-). The sights of the 'window girl' was one of awe. Although you know what to expect from such places, there always is an element of surprise (and in this case 'Quality' was the surprise). Temptations weren't good enough !

Friday afternoon was spent at Vangough museum and walking around the city. It was good fun. We also took a cruise in the canals. Two guys on a cruise is no fun. So we decided to make it a photo op. Clicked a ton of pictures. It is amazing how the city is connected through these water ways. Reminded me of the city of new orleans for some strange reason. Dinner again at the same italian restaurant and a 'show'. This show is not for children. It was an onstage live show. It was wierd to watch it. The "smoking sandra" show was lets say interesting.

Slept half day, checked out....walked around a little bit and left on saturday night. So as you might notice nothing much happenned. But isn't that the best part of having a break. We were back in Fontainebleau by like 9 pm.

Sunday was just relaxing and sleeping and sleeping. I wish life remained the same but it didn't. More on that in P2 Blog. Lets all welcome P2.

2005-10-26T16:51:00.000+02:00

Death Spiral Returns with a BANG !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Wow ! Isn't life good. That was just a week off from all you "complainers". I am one of the most frequent bloggers that the MBA fraternity has provided. But atleast now I know for certain I have some expectations to meet and I am hell bent on not disappointing you.

Today
Today is a day. Its not just another day. Its not even just another day of INSEAD (any day here is special already). It is the day I finish one period. It is one of those rare days when I have all the time on earth to look back and say "Phew ! Thats the most I have ever done in 2 months". I mean it people and I am not alone. Today I finished my 5th and last final in Finance. It was "suspiciously easy". The course sucked my blood all period long but today I felt like I knew it all in the finals. When I came to INSEAD, I knew what stocks and bonds mean. Today, I know how to value a company by levering and unlevering betas of companies and why in a "tax-full" world its smart to run a company with as much debt as you can practically take on !!! Not bad eh? I can do the same with almost every course this period. Profs were of great quality (except one) and I am decisively happy about having come here. I even know what I want to do with my career. Oh wait a minute. I know exactly what I don't want to do with my career. But the thing is by doing principle of elimination (the only thing GMAT contributed to my IQ/EQ/BS-Q), I have brilliantly elimated consulting, investment banking, retail banking, pharma, and a few other industries. That roughly leaves me with picking some 20% of the companies that come here to recruit. That I call a "process of scientific clue formation"

The Exams
The finals all happenned in a period of 65 hours. 5 Exams of 3-4 hours each all packed in 65 stressful hours. It was so much fun to see so many adults being collectively stressed. It is one hell of a social experiment I hope to repeat when I become the CEO of some company and have the power to do so. I am going to one day say "Ok people, lets see how good you are at your jobs, you need to take so many hours of test in the next two days or you get fired"? Am I death spiral or a sadist? ;-)

The Four day Break
I am sitting here on a Wed afternoon and have four days to do whatever I want all by myself !!! Imagine that !!! 4 days for myself, no studying, no parties, no exams to worry about (I will for simplicity that there is no reading to do for monday the first day of next period which is overly wrong !!!!) . And as the famous saying goes "Good boys go to heaven and bad boys go to amsterdam" and guess where I am going ;-). Good guess people. Amsterdam and the stones....let me not leave none unturned this long wierd october weekend :-).

The one special difference
Except for the day I got sooo drunk in the "Heaven or Hell" costume party, I have slept an average 8 hours every 24 hours in this period. It is supposed to be one of the two most stressful periods and I don't buy the argument from certain quarters that it is extremely stressful.

I can see that there are more people visiting the blog if I actually don't blog than if I do. No one bothers to comment if I blog daily. Here I am missing for a week and there are a zillion comments.

LeOptimiste - sorry for not actually sending you an email earlier. I logged onto the blogger after a week today (people, it wasn't that long ago after all....). Shoot me an email at deathspiral2006@gmail.com will try to have a look at your questions.

2005-10-18T08:58:00.000+02:00

Visiting Leader.

A senior executive from a leading Investment bank (oops, am I not talking like the dean now?).... from Morgan Stanley was here to kind of "endorse" all that we are learning in FMV (Financial Markets and Valuation aka Finance 1) . I have probably spent about 50% of my P1 time on this course. Homework takes for ever and every one of the 16 (with two passes allowed) are graded. I am however glad that the hardwork was worth it because the guy from the industry was actually explaining the terms. He even touched on "vicious downward spiral" in prices (assuming lesser mortals in P1 wouldn't know death spirals ;-) . He even managed to get away with calling the Ex-IB guys in the room "chickens" when no one was keen on answering a couple of his questions. The presentation was ok. About 50% of the people in the audience were bored. (I asked a sample of about 5).

Nothing much happenning. I need to organize myself to start preparing for the finals next week. Its scarily close and back-to-back.

2005-10-15T13:24:00.000+02:00

40 Years after graduating?

Any guesses on how I would look 4 years after graduating from INSEAD? If I extrapolate from the Alumni that are visiting today, I would be speaking French and be hairless :-). Well there seems to be a very exciting program going on today here. I am on campus for my boring finance tutorial and this place is filled with people. People mostly from Europe (INSEAD wasn't as global before remember) from the class of 1965,70,75...and so on....The place is full of old people being told 'every cubicle has computers with internet'. I was tempted to ask the one person who held the door for me when I walked in (when I should have been the one doing it) 'How much did you pay as tution?' but then changed my mind.

They all have nostaligia in their eyes and certainly no finals to worry about.

2005-10-14T12:15:00.000+02:00

LPG Report over

I am done with the report and feel much better. I finally managed to read the singapore blog and it sounds like the singaporean INSEADers are having some serious fun. Strongly recommend you to visit http://inseadmba06.blogspot.com/

2005-10-13T19:58:00.000+02:00

Say Anything you want?

People, I have been on MS Word for 6 hours so far today, doing my OB (called Leading People and Groups in this part of the world) in a row. I have been typing, editing, correcting and I am so happy to set it aside to come here and talk to all you nice people. You know why? I can make mistakes here and you don't have a choice :-). For a component with 60% weightage, you can't do the same. About 4 hours back, I had thought I had the final report when I ended up figuring out a few changes and before I knew it, my report was ripped apart and redone. It has been fun. With my love for talking (read typing), I seem to have liked what I did. I still think there is more color in the report than meat but lets see how I score on it.

Ok, the spiral gotta go now.

2005-10-12T13:21:00.000+02:00

Suck-it up day

With the exams around the corner, this weeks social theme was to "Flatter professors". Obviously wednesday was picked to execute because there were two professors who we found best suited for the prank. The pretty stats prof. and the accounting prof from NYU with a good sense of humor. Every workgroup brought in gifts for the profs starting ranging from pineapples to wine bottles. The profs were in a really fun mood.

As the tradition goes (Atleast the tradition created in 3 weeks), we are supposed to make a flattering comment before making our point / asking the question. The stats prof. unfortunately found it distracting (she lauged a lot) and requested to call it off. The accounting class had a lot of reverse flattery.

1. Seeing the gifts the accounting prof. said "no more pre-class homework any more" (and he meant it)

2. MBA: "I am not the accounting God you are"
Prof: "I know, you are not even close"

Girl MBA: "You are very attractive....my question is"
Prof: "Well good, meet me in my office after class"

Guy MBA: "You are very attractive..."
Prof: "Don't see me in my office"

I had fun, now back to my OB Report.

2005-10-10T18:27:00.000+02:00

The Wharton Exchange

To of course educate my loyal reader wannabe...here is a glimpse of how the wharton exchange works.

Everyone is given 200 points around the middle of P1. The 200 points can be used to bid for
1. The wharton exchange
2. Electives you need in P3,4, &5. (P=Period, the two month INSEAD term)

The Singapore-Fontainebleau exchange interestingly is seen by the administration as somekind of obligation the institute has for us and so they don't need us to spend bidding points. If net-flow is too skewed lotteries are used to pick the lucky winners.

Participants in the Jan-Dec class have a chance to go to wharton in either P4 or P5 while participants in Sept-Jul class get to go only in P4. Generally the demand for the wharton exchange in our class is very low because it is "Peak job hunt season" here at INSEAD and people don't want to sacrifice on this opportunity.

IFC / World Bank is here to recruit.

They are here to recruit today and they are looking at both classes I think it should be interesting.

Overheard in the bar

"I am throwing a costume party this weekend to bring class averages in the finals down".

2005-10-08T13:01:00.000+02:00

The OB Report.

Ok, you need to tell things about what you think about your group, who is performing, who is not, what needs to be done. I reread my whole blog once so that I am able to better prepare for the report. Alas, I have been reporting garbage pretty much. lol. I have been writing a lot of stuff that are completely irrelevant (to the OB Report) and have been focussed on entertainment. I also have so many errors in the way I have written, I felt really bad for you readers :-). From the stats, I see there are about 20 of you reading this blog daily (on an average). and thanks to you we crossed the 2000 mark a few days back (or is it wannabe refreshing his page 19 times too often to make me feel good). My target for the year is to hit 15,000 clicks. You can make a difference. :-).

Accounting answer papers were returned and I am +0.8 sigma from the mean (meaning above average). I am starting to like the Prof. I can't believe I have set myself such low academic standards.

The Kamasutra Party

The K/S Party to close the Indian week was a superhit. Every girl was in an Indian dress with 'bindi'. I stayed until 4 in the morning but stayed sober (was driving). The bollywood dance competition was particularly fun with a lot of people trying to shake the 'indian' way. Got into long conversations with a couple of my classmates for the first time in a month. I still don't know about 30% of my class one-to-one.

2005-10-07T14:46:00.000+02:00

Decisions Decisions Decisions

The dean made a presentation to the class and all of us need to make decisions. Lots of them. Where do we want to go for our P3,4 and 5 and that means where do we want to find our jobs. The options include INSEAD Singapore and Wharton. There is whole bidding process that seems to work fairly well and the dean, being a guy with an economics background, was thoroughly enjoying himself when he was telling us about it all.

In case you didn't understand 'P' up above. INSEAD is based on a period system where one period is 2 months. So your courses last only 2 months and you move on to the next set after 2 months.

2005-10-03T19:48:00.000+02:00

India-Pakistan Week Rocks.

Well what better way to start the week than eating Samosas and watching the indian girls dancing before your OB class? nothing.

Nothing more to report today besides a gruelling feedback session with my group....apparently I don't speak as much in my group and people want me to speak more. I also get too caught up with my computer, any guesses what I do during these 'wade offs'?

2005-10-02T16:32:00.000+02:00

Oktober starts !!!

1. What is the best way to celebrate a month of action (the highest level of activity in my life in about 8 years now)?
2. What is the best excuse not to look at all the piling up homework, classwork, & Prescribed reading?
3. Whats the best way to welcome Oktober into the year?

Oktoberfest !!!!

It all started on Friday when after a long days work I was walking back to the parking lot and in front of this library I met this classmate of mine who looked tired after a long week and I said
Me: 'Any plans for the weekend?'
Him: 'Not much really, just catch up with the studying I guess?'
Me: 'Come on, we can do better than that how about Oktoberfest?'
Him: 'Ok lets go'
Me: 'U are serious aren't you?'
Him: 'I am, you are aren't you?'
Me: 'Deal, I have dinner with my team, so you do the maps / hotel booking and I see you in school at 10:30. We will see if we can find one person each to join us and that will help share the gas prices, driving makes better sense'
Him: 'Deal'

3 hours later, I had donated my lebanese party ticket (20 euros) to a classmate so he can use it and was on the road with 4 guys to Munich (I learnt during the drive that it was 9 hours long, deep into germany and Oktoberfest is a festival of beer happenning since 1810)

11 hours later after plenty of breaks, we reached Munich. Checked into the hotel freshened up and were on a train to the Fest. 8 hours later, I was competing on my fourth liter of beer with a Cheq that I can't recall the name and was hugging every stranger I saw. 2 hours later I was in my bed. At 3 in the morning drive back to fontainebleau began and here I am blogging about the best party I have been in EVER !!!

If one day I return to interview candidates for my company in INSEAD, the questions I am going to ask are.

1. Describe a typical weekend?
2. Have you been to Oktoberfest?
3. How many times have you visited Paris?
4. Were you above or below average in the first test you ever take?

So all you guys who plan to work for me, go to INSEAD and help bring the class average down ;-).

Loved the weekend. The week actually starts with the exciting Mr. Brimm teach OB for 4.5 hours tomorrow + the India-Pakistan week. (there are about 100 of those around). The schedule looks promising. This is soooo fun.

About the clues - I have eliminated Investment banking as a place I want to work. So now I need to work on the 80% of the other jobs available. I am picking between Industry and Consulting now.

2005-09-29T14:17:00.000+02:00

The Death Spiral Begins.

The first ever INSEAD test was returned. I have already started trailing behind my peers. The average is 16.3 on 20 (inhuman I call it). I made 14. I am soo proud to be in the midst of these outstandingly smart people who knew not to choose phrases like (as the correct answer)

"It is more less than d(p)".

when I couldn't even interpret in my native language to be able to answer. Anyway, life moves on and I already know I start with an advantage with the course.

Who reads this blog for acads anyways right? So let me move on to stuff I am good at reporting.

The Red Day is here.

Thursday's are social days for our section. Social day means the whole class collectively does something (crazy or not) at school. Today, we were supposed to get dressed in one of the three colors of the lebanese flag. But the color had to be chosen based on whether one was "Single and Purely Single" (Green Color), "Grey Area" (White) or "Married or Totally Committed" (Red). I was so surprised almost everyone (about 80%) was in RED !!! So I did feel like in the middle of very old people (Guess what color I was wearing?)....We were also supposed to say "Istez" before we started any phrase (Prof in arabic) and it was fun. These things really balance out the insanity in the system. Last night I worked 4 hours on my Finance / Accounting assignments for today's class.

The Reason I came to b-school

Four years back I lost about $2000 in a week in the NASDAQ (worth 10 b-school applications, 1 vacation in France, etc etc etc). I then said to myself I wanted to go to B-school. Today, we spoke the subject concerning it (Stock picking) in Finance 1 (At last after all that crap about discounting, NPV etc in which Warren buffet doesn't believe in ;-) we got into Portfolio management. It was a very very interesting class on how variation can be reduced by picking different stocks with different risk-reward equations. Can't wait to learn more about all this.

Quotable Quotes

Question of the Day: "So the ending balance is the beginning balance so why is not the ending balance the beginning balance?"

Girl to Guy: "Is that really a white shirt or is it a red shirt that is so faded I can't see it?"

Guy back: "No no no...this should actually be green, I just didn't find a better green in the wardrobe".

Prof to Student: "You would want to use LIFO or FIFO depending on which shirt is in the inventory....if it is this one (pointing to his own) or that one (pointing to the student's). Mine is a lot more expensive than yours so expense it first."

Prof to Student: "I know thats a lot more interesting than what I am teaching here, but I am paid to teach this".

2005-09-26T11:33:00.000+02:00

First test ever

Ok, today I got evaluated for the first time and the journey 'towards' average has just begun. When everyone is equal it is so fun. Actually it is not. The test was in financial accounting and contributed about 30% to the final grade. The test wasn't all that difficult but I didn't really like the idea of including the little details he mentioned in the class on Friday. It was ok. So no complaints. Anyone going to INSEAD, please do get yourself the 6 MB Cheatsheet docket and save some serious time. If you are the 'customization geek' you might waste your personal time will contribute to the future class experience. But I am no customization geek so I am just enjoying the fruits of labor of all the alumni who are making 100s of 000s of euros around the world (or so I am told). A couple of guys freaked me out by walking out of the exam hall in 50 minutes (2 hour test) when I was done with about 30% of the test. Are they brilliant accountants ? The mean / median / mode of the test will tell.

Tomorrow we have the second test, this time a 10% evaluation through a multiple choice :-). So guess what? I am ignoring it absolutely with no pang of guilt.

I am thinking of going to the oktoberfest but am worried already that I am not getting the most out of the 'typical INSEAD weekend' (drink, drink, drink and drink more in funny clothes)...but wait a minute - isn't oktoberfest exactly that?

The girl is gone, leaving behind a lot of memories (sob sob). Atleast there is skype in this world of student budget.

Work beckons.

Lebanese Week

Its lebanese week here. All lebanese are wearing a funny cap I never saw in the 5 days I spent in Beirut :-). With all the bad things happenning in the country on the media (Journalist killed yesterday) I hope we get to know the good side of the story this week. This week is the first national week. Should be exciting.

2005-09-23T11:34:00.000+02:00

Fiancee cooks dinner

Ok, now if as wannabe points out the people invited for dinner last night would certainly know who I am if they read it. But what are the probabilities? I think the number of people who blog is much more than the number of people who actually read blogs. That relates to a funny comment the OB Prof (I loooove the guy) made....'when all of us have a view who is there to listen?'. So true.

Fiancee has been around for a week and I have been multitasking soooo well. (Read: Ignore acads, focus on the lady). My group has been super-extra nice in the last week covering for me on a lot of occassions. Fiancee has been nice too letting me do home-work instead of hang out with her. We watched 'broken flowers' the only english movie being screened in a 50 km radius from fontainebleau on Wednesday.

Yesterday we had a fabulous dinner with a handful of friends (mainly housemates and groupmates). I never knew the girl was so culinarily gifted. My organizational abilities (mastered over the last 3 weeks) complemented very well too. The girl leaves tomorrow. I plan to buy a 1 litre scotch bottle and drink it alone.

Exams already?

The first mid-period test is on monday. Accounting. Suuuucks. I haven't mastered the art of equating assets to liabilities+equity. I hate it.

Going to Paris tonight. Dinner in Champs-Elysee is the plan. No drinking.

2005-09-19T13:20:00.000+02:00

The M&M Class

Today the stats prof decided to be nice in the Stats class. Teach students about sampling with M&M candies. I couldn't complain. It was good fun counting M&Ms and eating them (silently) after we finished the sampling exercise. I am liking this class because it is simple and makes me feel in control. Here are my course ratings (although I know wannabe doesn't read it)

Financial Markets & Valuation - A++
Leading Groups and People (OB in the B-school world) - A+
Uncertainity Data and Judgement - B++ (The M&M class)
Financial Accounting - C
Micro (economics) - D--

I think my grades are going to be inversely related to my personal liking of the subject. Micro is an exception (Bad grade, bad liking)

2005-09-16T13:41:00.000+02:00

Life is rolling

Opinions, views, discussions I have been involved in.

"The Parties are great, can't get enough of it"

"Micro Professor is boring, that finance guy is amazing"

"I have still not found my car man"

"Want to go to Oktoberfest with me?"

"Did you read all those 30 pages for the stat class?"

"Has Death Spiral been blogging?"

"Want to play some soccer this weekend?"

Oh yes, besides the last one, everything above are real. It has been busy. There is a lot of reading. I have actually started ignoring a couple of courses just to get better with a couple of other courses. Also to make sure I sleep my 8-9 hours every night. I have my priorities right.

1. Sleep
2. Working for a worldclass company
10000000- getting on the dean's list.

For those who think #2 and #10000000 are related....you should talk to Prof. Gareth Dyas who has evidence that academic performance in an MBA and "Business success" (however that is defined) are inversely related.

People have already started liking / hating each other. My group seems to be nice. Let me define them for you

Mr. Niceguy - The youngest in the group is actually the nicest as well. Very sensitive, very mature, very interesting. Is good with numbers and people. One good combination I should say.

Mr. American - Embodies everything american. Self-confident, high energy. Brings a very valuable dimension to the team. Wish he listens a little more.

Mr. Multinational - This guy holds 2 citizenships and has LIVED in atleast 5 countries for long periods in time (1 year +)...still very calm, and composed. Wish he spoke a little more to enlighten us.

Mr. Stud - This guy in my view should be able to get any girl he wants in this school or outside(from a looks and fashion consciousness standpoint). That doesn't stop him from being nice, smart, intelligent and sensitive to the rest of the mundane creatures. He is European who speaks 3 languages with ease.

Only 2 in my group (includes me) are still struggling with the third language certification. I don't still understand most of the conversations that happen in the campus bar. Its wierd. But I am loving it so far.

I heard from a few people about their waitlist status / admits. Congratulations Januaries....

Bon week-end.

2005-09-14T20:22:00.000+02:00

Roller Coaster Over.

All the unstable roller coaster work over. Everything seems to be on track and as time passes I am falling further behind my classmates with courses :-). Life has been exciting to say the least.....

Sorry for staying away...a long blog on its way.

2005-09-09T17:01:00.000+02:00

A week ends.

A week ends, let me look back and what I have done for a week. I have attended classes for about 6 hours / day (average for 5 days). I have worked on homework / pre-reading at an average of 7 hours / day, attended a couple of corporate presentations, Cooked my own food (if boiling eggs, fixing salads can be called that) for the first time in 4 years. I have met a few very interesting people. I have started "participating" in classes (atleast a tiny bit), got my car registered, applied for my stay permit (Carte the Sejour), & finally flunked my french test and dealt with the decision rather well :-).

Life has been good. Today, the week ends with a presentation by McKinsey and two parties over the weekend. I am completely broke thanks to the French banks.

I have tons happenning but am too tired (slept 5 hours last night) to report now.

Au Revoir.

2005-09-05T17:25:00.000+02:00

Life Rocks on.

The week started beautifully, what better than having a half day of classes and "nothing" official for a good 24 hours non-stop. That atleast sound like a sunday ;-). But then, Bain is visiting campus to recruit from the december promotion and we are welcome to attend. So 5 hours or classes is not going to keep me away from waiting another 5.5 to attend the session for about an hour. It is my first "company presentation". I have attended a ton of them during engineering but then I bet this is going to be one "suave" experience if my bets are right. The Januaries seem to be excited with the number of companies visiting.

I finally got myself a headphone and then got myself connected to Skype. You heard that right. Skype. That does make me a geek doesn't it? Not really. I am just an innocent student who can no more afford making international calls through the phone. (well if I live in France, even if I am employed, I would use Skype).

What I learnt in class today?

Management & Sex Well, I learnt that "Sex" brings most happiness in a Texan woman's life and "Commuting to work" the least. The average time (based on 1000 samples) taken for "Sex" is about 0.2 hours.

Active listening: Until you repeat and convince the person who says something that you have actually understood what he has said, "you cannot move on" with the conversation. Its a lot more difficult than you can think.

Active gambling: Our prof for statistics lost a bet with a student and paid Euro 10. (Simple toss of a coin). Then she won about Euro 100 (and generously let the students keep it) when she actually gambled on "I bet 2 students in this class have the same birthday in this class" thingy. At the end she put up a slide which gave out the odds in her favor at 97% !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

2005-09-04T19:35:00.000+02:00

What a Party?

The welcome party was last night in a chateau in Melun. A-W-E-S-O-M-E is the work. A long Saturday or my introversion didn't prevent me from getting into the social circles and meeting a few fantastic people. Got home at 4:00 in the morning and slept until this afternoon.

Playing tennis regularly. Losing so many sets sucks. But it is good exercise.

The Funny Prof.

There is a Prof. who has started the classes for us. He is a guy with interests in Strategy. He gave us an "introduction to General Management".

Confused?

All the confusion was perhaps due to lack of sleep and my own conspiracy theories. The place is beautiful, people are awesome, the parties are great and there is a lot of work to do. Lets just leave it there ;-).

2005-09-02T17:53:00.000+02:00

Another Mean Email

So many boys!! They're all so cute too, especially when they get dressed up in their little suits. I knew this would be a fun year, but I didn't know it would be THIS much fun.

I have only one complaint. The january guys are clearly more suave, more charming, more fliratious. I have my eye on a few of the Septs (you know who you are), but I just wish they knew how to talk to a girl. Hopefully they'll wise up - and QUICKLY! I'll be looking forward to seeing what you've got at the party saturday night...

That obviously came from a lady's email address.

2005-09-01T18:10:00.000+02:00

First Party last night

After a long long time I got to party and the party was organized by a Friend in a very very beautiful house. I am still having a tough time socializing. I am still probably one of the few people who walks around alone most of the time. My housemates are great. They are very very nice. Yesterday I borrowed everything to cook.

Too Competitive?

I have actually been confused. The clubs here are cut-throat competitive and are very less tolerant with each other. There have been massmails all day with petty fights. Its a shame. I guess this is what happens when you have 450 A-Players in one place. Chaos. Diversity has its price.

I had my first group interaction today. This week is just "Trial". The administration is outstanding. Very efficient and open at communicating its ideas.

I think I had a bad day.

2005-08-31T19:30:00.000+02:00

Seen on Email

I got a mass email today that sounded a little crazy. In the true spirit of keeping you updated on the INSIDE story here is the email received unedited:

"Well, I am not quite sure who I am or what I am doing here but one thing is for certain: I love you all, yeah, all of you. I love you so much. Please vote on the above voting buttons on how much I love you.

One more thing is for certain: I clearly forgot to log off……"

2005-08-31T18:16:00.000+02:00

The INSEAD French Test

Among all the crap I write, this one ought to be a "gift" (or so I hope) especially to INSEAD admits hoping to take French test before starting the program. I just came back from the French test. I am not going to do what the "certain language websites" do with the GMAT but then am going to give my experience with the test.

1. Practice the SAMPLE TEST, there definitely is some repeat. (3-4 points might eventually make a big difference).

2. Learn simple, regular verbs well before you actually move on to other things.

3. Conjugate, conjugate, conjugate (you are half way to level 3) atleast as per INSEAD.

4. Learn little phrases you might say in situations, slangs and others.

5. Translate and keep your INSEAD essays (atleast experience, goals and why INSEAD?) in simple French and you could actually get a lot of points with that ;-).

6. Time yourself well...you need 90 minutes to finish at a reasonable pace and thats all you have. I know a few people who never got to writing the essay or even getting to 50-60% over-analysing the multiple-choice questions.

Life is fabulous. I did the test, I think I did reasonably well. But getting a certification right on day 1 might need a miracle. I think I might need classes in the middle of the year for a month perhaps. But better than expected.

I got my first breather today. I have about a couple of hours break today. Or is it more like 4 hours (before I head to a fellow students party). Well the MBA dean officially kicked off the program (there are about 10 here I think and all of them are called deans). Guy with a good sense of humor.

Met with my buddy today (an "official" friend to help from the previous class). He is fabulous. He actually said he got inspired by willy nilly's blog and found the school to be a good fit. (I knew then that blogging was not a waste of time)...hi hi hi.

Personal note to people taking the entry test in january...leave a comment with a question and I will try to answer it before my memory fades. I also hope to come back and look at my own notes here to remember what I need to do before the next test (if I fail).

2005-08-30T10:47:00.000+02:00

Offline Blog comes live

I have arrived at INSEAD and am finally connected. Am currently in the middle of meeting a lot of people and being introverted is not helping too much. It has been great so far. All my room-mates have made a positive impression so far. My house is in a adorable location. I am paranoid about hitting a deer or a boar (yes you heard that absolutely right) on my drive home.

Lot of interesting introductions. Very well organized orientation program (a lot of it could have been done online though instead of doing the paperbased French way). Well I shouldn't be saying it because I prefer scribbling on paper. Already have a bank account (finalement is more like it). Am undecided on the mobile plan. Yet to meet my group (but it is all assigned). So more soon. Meanwhile enjoy my offline blogs from the last 5 weeks.

Scene 1: 5:15 Pm, Home

“Where did you go, you have half hour to get to the airport now?” my father protested. He was right if I had to be at the airport 3 hours prior to the flight (as my agent wanted me to). I did tell him the truth – “I was shopping”. He was obviously not too happy about it but then he couldn’t show it to a son who was leaving for a year. He just smiled and said “ok, lets get going”. After a few hugs and kisses, (so we could save some public display later ;-)), we left for the airport. Got there a good half hour before the check-in process started.

Scene 2: Check-in Queue.

“Eeeks They are manually writing down seat numbers in a bunch of boarding cards” I said to a fellow passenger waiting in the queue. Apparently due to bad weather, all airport systems were down and they were going to do everything manually. It was scary and everyone who could afford did not want to check-in any bags. I was standing there with about 46 Kgs (thanks to the last minute shopping) to check-in and stealthily take in some unknown quantity. My conversation with my fellow passenger grew and he was also connecting later to Paris. But lady luck started smiling on me when this very kind person told me he was not checking in any bags and seeing my bags sympathetically said “we can check-in together if you want so you will not be billed excess baggage”. I obviously grabbed the offer. As we checked in the check-in clerk actually said I couldn’t carry the “heavy looking” cabin-suitcase (which ended up being 14.5 kgs when measured) and I had to check that in as well. So a total of 60.5 Kgs went to Paris FREE !!!! How lucky can I get. I thanked the fellow who helped me so many times, he chose to change his seat in the second leg of the travel. Lol. Actually, he changed his seat because he wanted to be in a window seat for the 12 hour flight or so he claimed. He was traveling to France for 15 days to attend a wedding and have a brief vacation. Lucky me. I was not all that Jetlagged at the end of the flight thanks to the sleep on the flight. My German neighbor was silent for the most part. I was reading about 150 pages of Thomas Friedman’s “The world is Flat” for about 2-3 hours. Book is a 3 Star so far. I browsed through the rest of the book, if at all I change the rating it would only go down.

Scene 3: Europcar.

Arrived in Paris in beautiful weather (some websites said it would be raining - have they ever got it right?). The sun was out, most convertibles had their tops down. 25 Degree C is all I would give. I saw the Kangoo and I got even more worried. Lol. I had only 2 large suitcases and one small one + the laptop and the small backpack. I said I could do with a smaller car and Europcar gave me a Clio. I also rented a mobile for merely Euro 8 / day (I think they make up the margins in the call rates) in the same place and started driving south of CDG.

Scene 4: Driving in France.

It was a beautiful day and my windshield wiper switched on by itself. It took me 15 minutes and some 2000 knob turnings before I could figure out how to switch it off. By now, the front windshield already had marks on it. Sigh, I miss my Toyota already. It was about 12:30 Pm on a Friday and the Peripherique (excuse spelling) was full of cars. I was moving at an average of about 15 Kms / hour for about an hour. All Stereotypes about French working hours are true. They seem to all be out of work early (yes, noon) on Fridays with their boats, motorcycles, bicycles, and a few weird equipments I didn’t really recognize. It was fun browsing the FM channels (there were atleast 20 of them). Once I got off the peripherique, I moved like breeze. The roads are all green and the transformation from a “City highway” to a “Grassland” to a “Forest” is all way too sudden to take in. That was another 50 Kms of driving before I got to Fontainebleau. Its green all around, the drivers are disciplined and the roads are clear. Sorry, before I passed Fontainebleau. There was a sign called “Fontainebleau” and I said “Right, I am home” and then in another 85 seconds there was a sign that said “Avon” which meant I had crossed Fontainebleau. No INSEAD, no Chateau and I had crossed the town. Before I could pull over I was at the edge of Avon getting into some other village. The towns here are super-duper tiny. Its cute.

Scene 5: Going around Fonty.

“You are refused, too powerful a car for a first time driver” she said in fluent French and for some odd reason, I knew exactly what she was saying. I said “Well, three countries have given me drivers licenses and I have been driving for about 10 years now”. That did not help. She however gave me a competitors name, number, and a map of the location to contact. That was kind. Am I so unsafe that they want to doom a competitor? I wasn’t sure. I got to AXA and they were more than happy to insure me nevertheless at a huge premium. An interesting conversation.

Agent: Euro 493 s’il vous plait?
Me: 493?
Agent: Oui.
Me: But the earlier owner paid much lesser.
Agent: Women pay lesser for insurance.

Can you believe that ??????????????? Should it not be the other way round?

A French speaking person from my undergrad college, works at INSEAD in the IT department. I knew him through a common friend of a common friend of a common friend. He also was taking care of my car until I arrived. He helped me out with seeing this tiny town and get around. We had some beer and dinner together and I crashed a good 10 hours.

Expenses so far:

Rental Car: Euro 78.
Acco in Fonty (B&B) Euro 120.
Dinner Euro 33
Insurance Euro 493
Rental mobile Euro 40 (approx considering all the calls I have been making)

Scene 6: Drive to Tours

First, I need to complain about the Toll. I had to pay about Euro 20 for a 250 Km drive. But in a way it was worth it because I could test my old Bimmer’s limits. I hit 180 Kms / Hour and phew, my gas pedal had not hit the bottom. But then I didn’t have the courage to do any further testing, thanks to the Euro 1500 penalty for breaking speed rules by > 50 Kms. (the fine for > 10 to <50 is about Euro 135)

Scene 7: Dinner with Host Family

Wow, Seven people in the dinner table, five speak fluent French and nothing else and one more speaks Fluent French but then after thinking a couple of minutes. There is one soul who seems to have no clue what is going on. Yours truly is overwhelmed by the 2 hour welcome dinner that lasted about 2 hours that felt like eternity. Things noticed: Very empathetic and nice host lady. Generally nice family

Day 25. Wow, Blogging at all time low.

Looking back at the 25 days I have spent here, they were easily the most eventful 25 days in 2005 (so far). Yet I have blogged the least. Now to make it up I have to write. This is offline again. So once in INSEAD after getting this computer on the network you are going to read all of this (Something tells me it is less than a week away and all I need to do is manage some time). I am broadly dividing my blog into two categories per week. The week and the weekend.

Week 1: Aug 1 to Aug 5

Life is great. I love the host family and have started making my first conversation in Francais. I am actually connected to the internet but then changing languages in these French computers seem to be an irritating affair. By no means am I learning why the French put the Q key where the A Key belongs. Lets assume the English (more likely the Americans) put the keys in the wrong place. The French had no right to correct it.

The week was rather eventful. I feel “proudest” about my own capabilities of grasping a language at 28. I have started speaking a few lines “Pazzez d’eau s’il vous plait” kind of stuff. It is fun. The family again is extremely helpful. The lady consistently goes out of the way to feed me the kind of food I can eat (restrictive diet).

Class mates (there are 6 more with me). There are 2 people in my class who have already been here for about a month and they are way better than I am. But to my aid there are a couple of students who are at my level and the teacher seems determined to make us speak the language. The week passes seamlessly. I went on a little “walk around” tour.

Weekend : Begins Friday 12:45 Pm

Being the hopeless romantic, I decide to drive about 16 hours this weekend to meet Ms. Love. Everything is well planned. I leave school at 12:45 and am on the highway at 12:50. Talk about efficiency. The drive is about 850 Kms and I take the village roads (Exagerration of course: these are national highways but pass through the villages) to save the toll. That lasted like 100 Kms and then I took the tollway as much as possible. The drive was beautiful. The weather was fabulous and I saw more of French Country side than I ever did in my life. As if to “get me off the scenary”, I got stuck in terrible traffic (at about 15 Km/h) for about 2 hours in Bordeaux. After a little search at the city of my destination, I managed to reach at 12:00 Midnight. Ms. Fiancee and her friends had plans to party until 4 in the morning (Surprise !!!). But I had a lot of fun with these people who made me feel ooold.

Saturday, there were plans from 8 in the morning. But no complaints because I got quality 1 on 1 time. We spent time catching up on “all the long distance things you never do on messenger and phone”. We didn’t see any places in particular. It was more hanging out together and doing the same things you would do everyday if you were in the same town. Sunday wasn’t very different but I had to leave at like 12:00 noon so I could reach back by 8 pm. After all the mushiness, I managed to leave at 2:00 Pm. Drive back was much easier.

Week 2: Aug 8 to Aug 12

Second week of French begins. The learning curve has reached its maturity, I have already started “forgetting” the devoir (homework). That should be normality restored. There is a lot of enthusiasm in the week partly because there is a long weekend coming and this time the lady is coming down to France. Life is paradise. Life goes on. I make a couple of good friends in class. The English lady and I get bonded totally thanks to our hopeless French. I do some accounting and find out I do not have enough money to pay my rent for next month. I don’t think my bank will be efficient enough to open my bank account in a mere 3 weeks (that’s expecting too much from the system). The week flows by without trouble. Rather uneventful and awaiting the weekend.

Weekend 2: Aug 13 to Aug 15 and later extended upto 12:00 Midnight on Aug 18.

I sleep all Aug 12 afternoon and night to conserve energy to wake up at 4 am on a Saturday (yes you absolutely heard that right). The train pulled into the station exactly on time (thankfully) at 4:58 Am and the lady appeared very sleepy but happy. After searching for Gas for about an hour (for all those planning to come to this beau country, it’s a bad idea to search for a gas station at 5 in the morning without a French Credit or Debit card, meaning for 3 months after you arrive), we drove down to Ile de Re (a nice Island on the Atlantic about 3 hours from Tours). We stopped at Marais Poitivan (I still haven’t understood how to say it to the French right) for a beautiful hour and half. Trekked a little. Its like a forest area with a lot of little rivers coming together. Then drove on to Ile De re. Spent a quality couple of hours on a very nice beach. Both of us were freezing. But the rest of France was in Bikinis (a couple of them topless too eeeeek) and shorts enjoying their freezing long weekend.
On our way back we stopped at Poitiers to see a chapel that someone had recommended. By the time we got to the hotel, we had already apologized 20 times for being late to the receptionist who was supposed to close at 10.

Sunday, we pretty much spent hanging around in the wonderful neighborhoods of Tours. Tours has an amazing Gothic Church and a ton of historic places besides being a beautiful little town. The best way to describe it is that after 5 days of life here, when I left for a town last weekend, I had actually started missing Tours. In the afternoon we visited two Chateaus (my guess is there are about a million of them around here) Langeis and Villandary. Reviews / comments if I see requests. Nice places. Tiring day. We meet up with the couple who will be in Fontainebleau later this year. I already know these people a little and like them. Knowing my girl, I knew this meeting would click and it does. Everyone has fun. The world is wonderful.

Monday – Take it easy day, One Chateau, a very popular one. Loved the IPOD tour. Chennonceau is the name. The lady had extended her stay in Tours by a couple of days and guess who is the happiest man in the world. We are invited for dinner at my host family. She has her first “French Family” dinner. Very nice experience. We are reinvited for dinner Tuesday J.

Tuesday – I have French classes in the afternoon. I seek permission to have an extra attendant in the class. The professor is nice. At break the Fiancee is intolerant of all the French and excuses herself. I get home in a couple of hours. Life is paradise.

Wednesday – I am supposed to have all day classes, but I excuse myself as the girl has a train to catch at 3. When I return, I hear “I have lost my ticket from Irun and guess what? The train is fully booked”. I am partying inside but then I can’t say it to the poor girl. I drive her back to the station and we put her on a 12:00 midnight train with seats available on all connections. We suddenly have another 9 hours extra together. I could actually go back to class. French or Fiancee, what would you pick? Right.

The afternoon and evening is spent in Tranquility. The holiday is coming to an end. And we don’t have a next meeting date. She is however going to spend a week in Fontainebleau (when you most certainly can expect me to push blogging to Priority 2, but atleast it will be ahead of the MBA which will be priority 3) (now I have the date) in the 3rd week of September.

Week 3: 18 Aug & 19 Aug

Gloominess sets in. I realize so many things. I have 3 Pre-reading books to finish. I am broke and I need to figure out what I am going to do with the French (it has already been 3 weeks). Back to French speaking, French dinner, French everything. (its bad only by comparison).

Week end 3: 20 Aug & 21 Aug

Life is fabulous. I really make up for all the partying by reading a ton (3 chapters of microeconomics and 3 lessons of accounting workbook).

Week 4:

Panic strikes again, I need to get back on track with French to make it in the test next week. Need a lot of luck for it.

2005-08-25T13:30:00.000+02:00

The Good and Bad things French.

Bonjour everyone. Today I am completing four full weeks in France and am getting ready to leave the first town I have lived in. I feel fully qualified to comment on my first encounter / "French Experience". It of course will remain the truely unadultered experience partly because I lived 4 weeks with a French Family. (exception:the weekend trips). So I am going to tell you what I think.

Stereotypes and my view
1. French people are not friendly.
The most untrue and unfair stereotype of all I think. I have lived for over a year in three countries and have spent over 2 weeks (enough time to verify stereotypes) in over half a dozen. The French easily fall in the top quartile (the top 25%) in friendliness. Of course the language barrier does make it difficult but then after attempting to learn this language I can already imagine how difficult it would be for them to learn the other "rough languages".

2. French love their Cheese and Wine.
This is true. They are great cooks. Love the way food LOOKS around here. I love this food. I only wish I didn't have a very restrictive diet or I would be in a total exploratory mood.

3. They are all artists
After four weeks if I walk into elementary school and asked a student in random "What do you want to become in life?" My first guess for an answer would be "Gardener". How else could they have so many well maintained gardens on the streets, in the house, in the castles, in the office, on the banks of rivers etc etc etc? all in full bloom and beautiful.

4. Business is laid-back / Too bureaucratic
Well well well, all people I have spoken to so far stick to a 35 hour work schedule (legally, spiritually, emotionally and physically). My bank hasn't moved on from 1985. For changing my Euro travellers cheques into currency notes, the post-office executive had to fill in atleast 2 forms (with atleast 4 copies of each). Judge for yourself.

5. They are socialists.
With the taxes at probably the highest levels in the world and most of it done to distribute to the "have nots" I think this is very true (and different from all countries I have seen so far). It is scary. One gets often motivated to NOT work because the perks are high.

Besides, they seem proud of history, much more aware of world affairs than the "Average" world citizen. In short I love it here. Mais, will I stay here for ever? Peut-etre non.

A Bientot.

2005-08-23T15:29:00.000+02:00

Spiral Returns?

Tomorrow is my first French test. I have spent some time on the INSEAD sample test and I am already cursing Finance Monkey for misleading me. I have put in 20 hours a week for 3 weeks and I still am struggling to actually figure this test out. It is certainly not seeming all that easy. I need to write an essay for 200 words and any essay for 200 words in French is not an easy affair. (It is not exactly blogging non-sense you see). Anyways, keep your fingers crossed for me because I have my first internal test (At CLE) tomorrow and that is going to be either a demoralizer (in all likelihood) or a motivator for the "real one" coming later next week. I worked on preparing for the test for about an hour just now. Thats as much time and energy I have "on my own" (without the babysitting of the professor) for French. I am going to go home take a nap (Celebrating Pre-INSEAD) and then work on my economics (why do I feel I am already in INSEAD?) after the 2 hour dinner with my wonderful hosts.

Quickly introducing you to my schedule
I go to INSEAD this saturday
Start INSEAD with orientation week, team building with MY GROUP, French test etc next week

From monday I think you should see me back in my usual form.

2005-08-20T11:13:00.000+02:00

The Spiral is spiralling with activities. I am typing this with a French keyboard so apologies if there are are any spelling mistakes (I corrected this today)

Tons qnd tons of activities and I am absolutely impatient with this keyboard. I am going to upload tons of offline stuff next week when I get to campus...(deleted a few comments)

Activies in brief in the last 10 days.
1 French class at great pace
2 Pre-reading progressing at great pace. I am particularly proud of the amount I have read in the last 3 days (but then only because I completely ignored the task all these years)
3 Fiancee visits Tours for long weekend - I think you can all blame her for me being away from the blog. (Detailed blog on the exploits later...I collected my champagne)
4 Host Family doing great. They have been very very nice. For all of you with stereotypes about the French I have seven words "Save it for the French Govt / Banks"
5 I hate french banks / Postal Service (the bank blames priority mail) for not opening my account in about 12 days.

2005-08-10T17:00:00.000+02:00

Why write GMAT? Why write Essays?

Aujourd hui, Je apprend beaucoup de Francais. Nous faisait beaucoup de chose. Nous apprendait des L'arbre genealogical et des pourquoi the "mother in law" dans Francais is "Belle Mere"

Ok for all you English readers (apologies all you French readers) that was only to assure myself I was getting something for my money. This blog, is, was and will be for the people of Angaletterae and Angalatterian colonies of some day. (now save all those infinite comments you can make on spelling). I think 8 hours of french is taking its toll on me. But then, I atleast know for certain when a wednesday passes, I am on the better side of the week (the longest day of the week is over and there is a loong weekend coming).

Today I got together with an IMD MBA (to be) and an INSEAD MBA (to be) for lunch. We talked about rational behind selecting a European MBA and I saw one common strand amongst all of us. Get done with the **** in a year ;-). I heard some surprising comments about perception of schools. (The IMD guy felt the opportunities at INSEAD were better). I think this whole assessment thing is way way over-rated. I can afford to say this here because atleast INSEAD has a better standing in the perceived value in the given situation. I would say if you are sure you want to be in the dairy industry, then University of Wisconsin at Whitewater might be a better school than anything else. But if we all knew what we wanted to do with life wouldn't we be rather doing it than write b-school essays and the GMAT and in my case learning French additionally ? ;-)

2005-08-09T14:08:00.000+02:00

One more day in France.

With about 10 days gone after arrival, France still seems beautiful to me. Thats new for a country I have visited. Things like laundary, Pre-reading etc have taken up their space in my life (healthy sign?). That ought to be good.

Let me start with answering my loyal reader Wannabe's question on First Impression about Fontainebleau.

I had a map to arrive at fontainebleau and a phone number of a "navigator" who was sitting in INSEAD just in case I got lost. I drove from CDG in my rental Clio (yes, I replaced my Kangoo to a Clio - details in the "offline post" that doesn't seem to go online until end of this month). My Clio after navigating through a painful Paris Peripherique traffic got into a very very scenic drive of farms for about 60 Kms. About 5 kms before I got to Fonty, it actually brightened up (with dense forests and trees). Then came the landmark my friend had mentioned to me (an obelise - excuse spelling). A board read fontainebleu. I started following the directions in the map and within 3 minutes I had arrived at AVON (and had passed through the entire town of Fontainebleau). The town is tres tres petite. Its very charming. Most people seemed rich. After about 10 minutes of phone conversation with my friend, I got to the campus. He showed me around. The place is deserted thanks to the summer vacations. I had seen the campus about 2 years back. The only difference is that INSEAD is actually building a couple of 4-5 storied buildings (in progress) and that seems to be the only change. I got to meet a few Phds but no MBAs.

I got to speak to a few people (mostly non-teaching staff) and they all seem to be bored because of the summer. Looks like life seems to be a little "off-beat" when the MBAs are away (considering its ONLY a b-school and not a university with a ton of other things happenning)

My first impression? Middle of nowhere - yet so close to Paris, charming, expensive, elegant, laid-back, and lifeless (without the MBAs around).

This is certain to change after I meet my classmates around so take it with a pinch of salt.

2005-08-08T13:05:00.000+02:00

Long Break?

The disappearance was justified and the ones in loong distance relationships will absolutely understand. I was planning and executing the visit to Zaragoza (spain) where Ms. Fiancee lives. I left immediately after class on Friday and arrived back late last night.

Except for really bad traffic to navigate through in Bordeaux, the 2 days were fabulous (with a total of 17 hours in car solo). Spain is soooooo different from France even 10 Kms into the border. Its amazing how diverse this continent is.

French is coming along but there is some "make up" for the 2 days of ZERO FRENCH.

Life is moving on. Nothing particular to report.

2005-08-02T14:25:00.000+02:00

First Day of Class.

I was cursed for being arrogant yesterday. After a few lessons through the CD and some hopeless formal education (10 years back in high school), I expressed superiority over my poor arab friends who had no clue about the language. God gave his verdict by making me the WORST performer in the class I am in now. Everyone already seems to know all French they need to know (then what are they doing in my class?. Today I was taught, Past tense, Future tense and abnormalities with not more than 3 words in English totally spoken in about 4 hours of class ! That means they won't touch alphabet, colors, words, and all the beautiful things that normal children (hi hi hi, I know that word is out there with a purpose) start their langugage learning adventure with.

Jokes apart, I guess the school has a goal to stretch the students to their limits and they have shown it on day 1. Homework seems to be an integral part of learning french and I have atleast an hour of work to do today. But the thing is I can do all the written work to deceive even the best people in the French language faculty. But when it comes to speaking and listening, its a completely different story.

2005-08-01T16:41:00.000+02:00

Missing Blogging.

Hey fellas, I am missing this place so much that I have been blogging "off-line" for days now. I wish I had been a little bit more tech-savvy and had figured the ipod thing before I got here. Its a little late now. The day I can "sync" my laptop to a network, I guess I will be flooding you folks. The good news is that I am atleast connected now (Thanks to my French school at Tours) and I am also blogging irrespective of whether you can see it or not. So hang in there and keep checking this link and you won't be disappointed. Here is an abstract of what has happenned so far.

1. Divine Intervention: Did not pay any excess baggaged even when I had about 60.5 Kgs. How? Fellow passenger with NO BAGGAGE was super-nice. Flights were ontime and cozy.

2. First Rental / Driving Experience in France: Is just great. Weather is awesome. On the second leg - I could touch upto 130 Kmph legally and 180 Kmph as I was willing to pay a 135 Euro fine. Beyond 180 the fine is > 1000 Euros. I couldn't floor the gas on my bimmer with such trivial limits but did get to Tours (250 Kms) in about 2 hours 15 minutes. Btw, I bought myself an old 3 series and am not at all disappointed :-).

3. Got to Tours yesterday, Today was day 1 in language school. Language test (to test level to put in the right class) was embarasssing. I did better than all 6 others in my test taking class. Tours is prettier than Fontainebleau in certain ways. Also the F:M ratio is greater than 1 in French classes :-). (So unlike the INSEAD MBA)

4. Host french family knows almost no English. Probability of them learning English currently seems higher than me learning le langue francaise. Progress updates soon. They are extremely nice.

Plenty of time on hand now. Just have trouble with network. Once that is sorted out. I am back to entertain you.

Today I also got an embarassing mass mail to say "you are not good enough to be an INSEAD journal writer" ;-). So I guess if you keep searching out there, you might get a better version.

2005-07-30T21:01:00.000+02:00

Am in Fonty. Loooooving it here (the weather et al). Detailed post to replace this in a couple of days when I get an access to an internet connection.

2005-07-27T17:45:00.000+02:00

Keeping the Promises

There are some emotions in the air. I am indeed leaving. Family has got all goody with me. They are packing for me, buying toothpaste for me, & printing out maps for me.

I ended up finishing the packing. I have about 40 Kgs in the 2 large suitcases, I have one cabin size suitcase (12 Kgs) and the laptop and a "schoolboy" backpack. If I do get away with one cabin suitcase and the laptop with the backpack hanging, I might closely shave the unstated 35 Kg limit for check-in. I am glad I have organized myself a lot better than I did on my previous journey. I certainly will not pay a ridiculous sum. The weighing machine did breakeven or should I wait for the verdict from the airline before commenting?

I even let go a lot of heavy clothing and packed "intelligently".

I kept a promise to a friend on a get-together. Guy is doing very well for himself since we last met (about 2.5 years back), married and happy :-) and able to take 3 hour lunch breaks (even more at times he claims). He is self-employed (pretty much).

Next Post to come from Fontainebleau or Tours.

Wannabe - IPod? I insist I am so not into these things.

2005-07-25T19:22:00.000+02:00

Big day.

Woke up at 9:00 Am. Was on the streets from 9:40 Am until about 8:50 Pm. Finished every little bit of shopping. Lets see all that I bought today....
1. Started off by an impulse buy - Reebok Tracksuits / shorts in a 50% off deal.
2. Formal Black Shoes - My dad who was going around with me was oddly pushing me to keep something formal. (wise advice I do think)
3. A checked casual shirt. (too expensive I think)
4. A black and a navy blue trouser ! (that you can wear and wear and wear with practically all shirts)

I also called about 8 insurance agents browsed a few websites for "cheap insurance" in Europe for Students. They are too cheap with high deductibles, now I wish they were a little more expensive.

I gooffed up on 2 mini "Get togethers" on the sameday. I was late. Managing my way in this city's traffic has been difficult. Lot of missed calls from friends. Will catch up tomorrow.

PS: Ms. Fiancee confirmed that it was she who posted that anonymous comment but underplayed Poirot's achievement by saying "of course you had to crack it". Death Spiral turning into an emotional spiral ;-).

2005-07-24T20:49:00.000+02:00

Countdown at 100 Hours

Blogging is like any other "conversation". One starts off very focussed and gets into the unimportant detail and remains in the unimportant detail the whole time.

I have hardly talked about my plans. In the next 100 hours or less, I will be leaving home for a year. A YEAR. I will be off vacation partially and will spend about one month is a small town in France (Tours) to learn French. Yes. After the month, I am told, "You almost certainly will speak French". Lets see. What I couldn't do with a bunch of dictionaries, verb conjugation books, phrase books and state of the art multimedia CDs this 20 hours / week, 4 week course promises to do, nevertheless at a big premium. Verdict on the program in the end of August. I am also going to spend the 4 weeks with a french family. That is exciting. I will leave for fontainebleau after I finish the course to INSEAD about 2 days prior to start of orientation. So that is going to be tight. But working 20 hours only on language for 4 weeks should be something for an adult. I don't understand how they will keep my (and my classmates) attention, but we will see.

Still to do before I leave home
1. Shoe Shopping / Casual shirt shopping
2. Temporary Insurance (until I buy insurance locally in France next month through INSEAD)
3. Meet up with Old colleagues, New INSEADers from this town and Ex roomie to say goodbye. (Poor order I know)
4. Reorganize packing with excess baggage estimates.
5. Get the maps and contacts printed out.

2005-07-23T18:15:00.000+02:00

Winner of Champagne : Death Spiral !!!

Obviously because no one has claimed the prize, I keep the champagne as per the original deal
:-). Whoever #100 was. I even noticed someone has deleted a comment on the previous post. That certainly is against "Freedom of listening".

Today was a very eventless day. I started shopping (to add to my 42 kgs). I have been wearing formals all my work life. There is an urgent need to add casuals / business casuals (like polo shirts) . Got some good deals. Might also do some shoe shopping etc tomorrow.

My task list looks pretty much the same as the task list in every other blog around in the MBA league, so I "stole content shamelessly" (like Welch's Steal Ideas Shamelessly) and pasted it here: (of course this is an assortment hence no acknowledgements)
Pack up(almost)
Paid tuition fees that is due (done)
Rent / Deposit / Contract (done)
Preliminary budget (done)
Selling the car (done)
Buying a car (done)
Pre-reading (in progress, need to organize myself better to finish on time)
Shopping (in progress)
French Lessons (All August)
Bank account (later)
Currency conversions (done).
Excess baggage strategy (Ref: Weighing machine, done)
Rental Car (done)
Printout of maps / directions / contact numbers etc.