Academies, Curriculum, Round Tables and Kelley Code

I am here at Kelley. The school, thats giving me the exposure or experience that I have never thought of. I am happy. It is motivating me to put the extra hours. From Monday starts the Kelley Core. It is one of the most rigorous time that I am going to go through in these 2 years. I have to study 8 subjects. I am excited to face it though I know that its going to overwhelm me.

The one specialty that makes Kelley stand out from other business schools is its Academies. Academies give you the training and the contacts in your interest area. I am interested in consulting and so there is no problem deciding on that count. But, If you are open, you can see so many academies each trying to propel you into the direction you want to go to.

For example, McKinsey does not come to recruit on campus at Kelley. But, thanks to the director of our Consulting Academy, the second years are going to McKinsey for a week long experience on one of their live projects. MBA is all about networking and you will get lots of opportunities to network with the top guys in whatever function you want to get into. Thats why Academies are so special about.

The other specialty about Kelley Curriculum is that you need not specialize in any one Major (Ex: Marketing, Finance..) and you can design your own courses. It is called design major. Kelley offers so many courses to customize your curriculum that you can take courses from the wide breadths.

Coming to the networking part, It starts well ahead of what you think. Today we went to meet recruiters. Yes. Today and you are right that we have not started our classes yet. Classes commence from next monday. We had an informal chat yesterday evening and a formal session today with the recruiters where we discuss about their companies and the positions that they offer.

Kelley is very strict about its code as most business schools do. You have to abide b the high standards of integrity. It means that you may not do the 100% work, but you need to be genuine.

All in all it is exciting. It is like knowing that you are going to e hit hard, but, You want to experience the victory once you come over that. Go Hoosiers..!

Orientation.. Case competition..

What a week it has been. The most hectic it has been in my life. We have attended social events and there was a case competition for the new first year students. It was really amazing. We have to analyze the case for 2 full days and present it to a team of 3 second years.

Our team worked a long 18 hours yesterday (8 AM to 2 AM) and when I went to bed yesterday it was 4:30 AM. I woke up by 8 AM as we have to present the case recommendations at 9:30 AM. We were not able to win the competition. But, there are alot of learnings from this.

1. Case should definitely show the financial implications of a particular recommendation. We missed on this part. Though we have got some estimates, we did not really incorporate them into presentation. The judges felt that it is very important to show numbers to back up recommendations.

2. The presentation should be more visual than we think it has to be. We have put lots of information into slides and I felt that it is not a god way. We have to put numbers and graphs into the presentation and explain them in the presentation rather than reading out the content from slides.

But, the financial estimate we did was really thoughtful. It made us think like if Apple introduces a new product, what will be the market for that?. To answer these type of questions, we need to make some assumptions based on the existing data and not just take some number rapidly.

I am looking forward to more learning as we proceed. There is one more social event tonight. Will have to attend that. I am afraid whether I can maintain the frequency of my posts on my blog. I will try to..

Jump start, IU, International Orientation and The weekend party..

The jump start ended finally on yesterday. It was truly amazing. We had jump start in Excel, Finance and Accounting. Man, the professors are really amazing.

The accounting professor is so energetic that you can not get away from participation in the class. We did a little exercise on Accounting statements and it gave us a taste of real accounting.

The Financial professor is cool. He explained the time value of money neatly and threw good examples to make us understand.

The Excel professor was the coolest of all. He shown us how his dog plays and he has shown us the trailers of Dogs carving for beer.

Don't think that it is all fun. We were on our toes in every class to answer the professor's questions or understand the things they convey. They are so energetic that you can ask them any stupid question and they will answer to the most satisfactory point.

They are the professors who are going to teach us the core classes. I am looking forward to them with eagerness.

Coming to Indiana University, what shall I say. It is one of the best places that I have seen. The university is so big that, where ever you walk down, you see a IU department over there. School of arts, music, journalism, and what ever you can imagine.

We had the international students orientation today and We met a lot of international students. Many of them are from Asia and Japan. The Japanese are really humorous and made us laugh. The experiences vary from working in police department to working for stock exchanges to working for Auditing firms and of course IT. I am looking forward to the rich experience that I can relish in the coming days.

And after the orientation, 7 of us got together and had a party. I am writing this at 2:08 AM. It is like, you never know how time passes by. But it is truly exciting..

Jump Start started..

We have a weekly course called jump start, where in you will learn the basics of Finance, Accounting and Quantitative Methods using Excel. Today is the first of these classes and I have attended the QM and Finance classes. The professors are the ones who wrote famous books in their respective fields.

It is exciting to learn many new things in using Excel 2007. Also the finance class was interesting with the examples given by the professor to high light the time value of money.

I got up early at 6:30 as the classes start at 8 AM. I need to run in the last minute to get the bus at 7:38 AM. I need to be more organized to be able to do the things in a little time.

I have got a book on Corporate Finance from Library. I need to have a look at it. Also, the excel prof gave some examples to work out. I have not attempted them today as I slept after returning from the classes.

Update on setup at Kelley..

Here goes the full fledged update from me.

I and my future roommate booked the ticket together. We boarded Kingfisher Airlines at Hyderabad on 30-July at 5:40 PM and there started my journey to U.S. We got to Mumbai at 6:45 PM and got through the clearances and checking by 10:30 PM. Here I have to leave out 5 packs of 7'o clock blades and a small scissors. We took some rest before getting into the Delta flight to NY at 12:20 AM. We traveled nonstop to NY for 16 hours and reached NY at 7 AM. The food in the flight is good but not great. Again we got through the clearances and I have to leave out my Vaseline and Shampoo at the security check as they are prohibited and I forgot to put them into the check in baggage. We got into the Indianapolis flight at 10:30 AM and reached Indianapolis at 1:00 PM on July-31. Here we met another guy, who is joining Kelley and we took a limo service to Bloomington. Our journey took an hour and the driver took us around the university for free before dropping us at the apartments.

We forgot the apartment number of the friend, whose room we are going to use for the next couple of days as our apartment lease going to start only on August-2. Finally we were able to figure it out and joined him. We were there for 2 days and he was very courteous. We shifted to our apartment on August-2 and are still settling the things up. The funniest thing is the sun does not settle down till 9 PM as it is summer here.

Meanwhile, one of my uncles, who is in US came to see me on August-1 and we went roaming around the city in his car. We want to cell phone providers, supermarkets and many other place. He gave a laptop for me and when I want to pay for it, he did not accept the money. He told that he want to resent it to me. Also he asked me to check up with the University guys about the Cosigner loan. I felt so glad for that.

We got our student Id and its free to travel in buses with the id. Also, we went to look up the library, school and book store. All in all it is going great. We have got a lot of people here and having fun. We have started cooking for ourselves and I dont think it is going t be a problem for me as I can adjust to any type of food. We got some food stuff from near by stores and are using that for tha past 2 days.

We have not got any furniture till now and we have to look into that. We are sleeping on the carpet with a blanket and its not that bad. So..The journey has started. I am not running like I do every time when I start something. I am composed and want to start it slowly and steadily. Thats it for now.

Hurray..Things are getting into shape..

Many of things fell into place. Importantly, the finance has been arranged. My rescuer is the one, who came to my rescue many times before. She is my Aunt. After I got to know that my friend can not arrange the funds, I spoke to her and told the case.

She spoke with uncle and he called me up and asked how much I want. I told that I need 2 Lakhs (USD 5,000). he told immediately that 'OK'. Come and take the amount.

I went to Tirupathi (A holy place in India) along with my parents and sister and from there I alone went to my uncle's home in Bangalore and took the money. Also we exchanged it for dollars. Also I did some shopping and bought a suit, a pair of shoes and a trolley for cabin baggage.

My uncle in US told that his friend has got a new DELL laptop recently and he is going for an upgraded machine and just want to sell it off. My uncle asked him to hold it so that I can take it. So the laptop is ready in Indianapolis. I can pick it up once I reach Bloomington. Also, I am going for the insurance from School so that I don’t have to take any risks. Also, one of my friends in Champaign told that he can give a $1000 and it won't be a problem. I will think over it once I land there.

All in all, things are getting into shape. We are arranging a party to our relatives tomorrow. It is a small one. I don't want to have it, But, my mother insists that we should have it so that we can make all of them happy.

My trip to village..

I have been making small trips to my hometown and the village where I did my schooling. The people in my hometown were so happy and one of them told that I am looking like a guy from US. They just know that one can earn alot in US. So they are expecting me to earn a lot. :) .

Also I visited the village, where I did my schooling 10th standard. I had been in Telugu medium till 10th standard and went to a near city for 12th. I met some family friends over there and they too felt happy for me. Also I have visited two temples, where I used to go when I studied in the village.

On the loan front, my friend has submitted all the required documents and we are awaiting for the verification and approval.

My newly bought laptop has got infected with Virus and I have to sweat out for 2 hours to make it work again. We are planning to visit Tirupathi this weekend. :)

At home..arranging the things..

Finally, I left Bangalore permanently and reached home on Friday. I was not able to post in the last few days of my stay in Bangalore as I was busy buying the things that I have to carry to US and also I bought a Laptop that I want to keep at home so that my Sister and parents can use it. The state of internet connection in my town is worst and only today I was able to get connected through Laptop. Also we did some shopping for dresses in my hometown.

I have to order a laptop in US that can be delivered before we arrive in Bloomington. I need to do some research on that. We have finalized on Lenovo T61 and with a good configuration it will cost me $1450. On the loan front I will not able to avail an educational loan as the manager is skeptic that the total cost of $100,000 is too high and the loan amount $20000 he can provide is not sufficient. One of my childhood friends is suggesting that he will take a personal loan to the tune of INR 200,000 ($5,000) so that he can pay the EMI of INR 5,500 over a period of 4 years. I am glad that he is very interested to help me.

I will post more as I go on with my shopping and other arrangements.

Done with office..

I am done with the office. Friday, 06-July, was my last working day. My team lead gave a treat to the team and wished me luck for my dreams. The settlement process went on quite easy and I felt a little sad to give away the ID card that gave me the full power to roam anywhere in the office. I had taken a temporary badge on the last day and I have to be like a stranger in the office as security people look at me skeptically because of the temporary badge. I met some great people at work and they are simple and hard working. I learnt a lot from them.

Also. I feel sad to leave a distant cousin, whom I came to know just a week ago. Though we know each other for quite sometime, only recently we came to know that there is something common.

Finally, I have to give away the laptop, which was with me for the past one and half years and shared my feelings in the MBA application race. Thank you my dear laptop for your patience during my usage of you.

On the loan front, Dad says that the Manager is yielding and he agreed to give loan on the property that we have in the village. I will post more on this once I go home. I am leaving Bangalore permanently and am going to my home town this Thursday.

My trip to Home, loan and a friend's marriage..

I went to my hometown last Thursday. The purpose was two fold : 1. To have a chat with the Manager of a local branch of a nationalized bank. 2. To attend the marriage of the guy who is coming to Kelley with me and also my would be room mate.

My first interaction with the manager did not go quite well.
I went to him with all the documents including VISA and have shown them to him. After looking at them, he told that its good that I have studied at NIT Warangal. And at last he said that whatever it, as he told earlier to my father, I have to get a property in the town to mortgage. I told him that we don't have anything in the town but we have property in the near by village and we can mortgage that if required. He insisted on the urban property, which we don't have. I have shown him the printout that I took from the Bank's website and told that the rules say that I need not mortgage anything if the amount is less than INR 400,000. He told that the rules will be like that and they need to take the default situations in the branch to approve loans without mortgage and he can not do it. All this went on while I was just standing in front of him. He did not even offered a seat. He told that I can go and come with the things that I was told.
While going to my hometown I took a printout of the contact numbers of General Managers and other executives of the bank. After the above conversation, I called up one of the General Managers and told him the situation. He gave the contact of the Zonal Manager (ZM), under whom our branch manager works. I spoke to the Zonal Manager and explained him the situation. He asked me to go to the manager and give a call from there. So, I went to the manager and called the ZM and handed the phone over to the Manager. He said ok to whatever the ZM told on phone. Then he asked me why I have called up the ZM. I told him that I don’t see anyway that I could get a loan as I don’t' have any property as the manager told. He told that he will speak to my father on this. I told him that there is nothing my father can do and my father can just sign for surety. The manager asked me to go to Bangalore and come back and told that he will do the loan once I am back to my hometown. I thanked him ad got out.
After I returned home, the ZM called me up and told that the manager agreed to process the loan once I come back from Bangalore and asked me to call him if there is anymore problem. I thanked him and told that I will call him once I am back from Bangalore.

On the other note, I have attended the marriage of the guy, who is going to be my roommate at Kelley. The wedding was marvelous and I wished them the best for their new life. The silver lining is that the surname of the bride and my surname are same. So my new roommate is my Brother-In-Law.
I am back to Bangalore today morning and I have lots of things to do. :) .

Visa..Got it..

Finally I am done with the last and the important part of the process. I got the visa to travel to USA.

It went like this:

VO: Good morning sir.
Me: Good morning sir.
VO: You r going for an MBA?
Me: Yes.
VO: Show me ur UG certificates.
Me: Here they are.
VO: Any backlogs?
Me: No
VO: What was ur favourite subject?
Me: Mathematics
VO: Which one in maths?
Me: Calculas
VO: Why?
Me: [:o] It can prove many physics theorems [:P].
VO: Ok. Show me ur GMAT score report.
Me: here it is.
VO: What is ur father?
Me: Asst Manager.
VO: When will u come back?
Me: Immediately after MBA [:P].
VO: Ok Sir, I am granting you a visa.
Me: Thank you sir.

I went in at around 7:30 AM and was out by 8:30 AM. It went really cool and fast.

Thanx to one and all who gave their support and suggestions for Visa.

Love,
IA.

Going for Visa Interview..

Hello friends,

I am going for visa interview to Chennai. I will be there this Wednesday and Thursday. For the past two days I have looked after the required documents and got everything into place. I will post my experience after my return.

Good to Great..What a book it is..

I read the book Good to Great. It was prescribed to me by one of the Professors at Kelley when I sent a mail to her. And it turned out to be an amazing book. Many of the myths I had were shattered by the facts stated in the book. This book is the result of a 5 year research by Jim Collins and his team.

Here were the 3 main myths that I had:

1. CEOs of the best companies are larger than life personalities:
Ans: CEOs of some of the best turnarounds in the history are not charismatic people. They are demanding and they work as a fellow man to get the things done and they don’t want to have a 13th floor office to show the status.

2. We have to motivate people to get the things done:
Ans: If we have the right people at right positions, we need not motivate them. They will be motivated by the determination of the leader. They believe in him if the goals set are realistic and achievable. One need not blabber the motivational talk to get them aligned.

3. Strategy is the important part than people:
Ans: Totally wrong. Many turnarounds were made possible by hiring the best people and having a strategy for turnaround. So, the first thing in a business should be who to hire and not what and how. The who can decide what and how and when.

Anshu from NUS has got an interesting review on this. check it here.

There are many great points like these. So grab a copy of it if you want to go through all of them. I hope you guys will enjoy it alot.

My problems to get an Educational loan from India

I went to a manager of a Public sector bank yesterday along with my uncle. My uncle knows some of the key contacts in that bank. We went there and after showing up all the documents the manager told that they are not giving loans that actively these days.

We have shown my B.Tech Degree certificate from NIT Warangal, I-20 and loan approval letter from Kelley. He asked about the kelley loan and told that it may be difficult to get a loan because I already have a loan from Kelley and it is going to be burden some on me to repay. He is skeptical that betting on me is a huge risk as I have to repay around 40 lakhs in loan (Kelley loan + this loan). He told that he will speak to the regional office and will let us know. I understood that this is going to be a fruitless task. Let us see what happens. I am fighting tooth and nail with the little contacts I have to connect to some of the bank managers and convince them for loan. We know a bank manager in Hyderabad but we don’t have any assets to show as surety. So the problems continue..

On the job front, I have decided to put my papers in the first week of June. My current manager is very friendly he doesn’t know about my MBA. He is involving me in each and every task and am happy for that. But it may get difficult for him to do the things with a new resource if I go very late. So, don't want to bother him. I will tell early so that he can make his plans.

Consulting and Case Interviews

Consulting is all about asking the right questions. Its the evolution of thought process from the problem to possible solutions.

1. Understand the business problem : This is the first and important step. Lets take an example. We are asked to address the issue of declining profits of a large retailer. So, understand what really is the problem. Declining profits and not the revenues or something else.

2. Analyze the problem: The most important of all - The analytical skills come into picture here. Profits are declining only for client or his competitors also? Is there any increase in Costs? Is there any decrease in Revenue? What is the market trend? What is the trend in Clients profits? Are there any changes in the market through innovative selling?

3. Analyze the options : What are the options available to increase the profits? This is the next step to the above (step 2). From the analysis in step 2 we will come to know what is the main reason for declining profits is. We will decide the best possible options to increase the profits.

4. Execution of the options : How can we execute the ideas that we have got to increase the profits? Do we have the required resources? Should we put in more resources or buy? What is the rate of return for the new investment? How does this investment reflect in long term strategy?

By this time, you must have realized that case interviews and consulting jobs are all about asking and answering the right questions. It should evolve as a thought process and the practice of lots of cases makes the candidate's thought process more evolved. I have not yet started my B-School studies. I can post more on this once I get started. After all solving cases does not require an MBA. It requires commonsense and logic.

The Ranking Myth..

There are many rankings available and the applicants first look at BW rankings or US News rankings to decide on the schools that they want to apply than to speak to people at schools or alumni. This is the BIGGEST Flaw in the application process.

There were many cases when people went to great schools and suffered because they cant really get what they want. SO just dont depend on the rankings. Think it this way..Harvard, Wharton and Chicago churn out around more than 4000 students per year. If these guys are going to take up the juicy jobs every where there will not be anything left out for anybody else. SO, not that everyone going to those will land in a best job..OK..Let me come to the point here.

As far as I understood..There are two categories of schools

Category A: Harvard, Stanford, Wharton, Chicago, Columbia, Tuck, MIT, Kellogg.

Category B: The rest..

Its not that Category A is the only thing we should go..But they can get you a chance to interview with the high-fly recruiters. At the category B schools its going to be same for most of the candidates. The High-fly recruiters take very less number of candidates from these schools and prefer people with relevant experience. So its very difficult.

Just a caution: Set your priorities before coming to school. And know what can you expect from school. Frankly, I am not expecting Kelley School to show me an opportunity to interview with McKinsey or for that matter any Big consulting firm. I will be very much satisfied if I can make a career switch to consulting in Corporate Finance, Operations and Strategy. Thats it..And I believe that Kelley will be able to show that path to me..

I remember an instruction from My teacher in +2. Go to one of the top engineering schools, take any branch of engineering and work hard over there. You will be on top. I forgot this when I was in Engineering and faced some problems. Now I dont want to do that..

Its not easy for Desis in US..for Internships..

Its not easy for Desis to get good internships in US. The fight for Internships is fiercer than for Post MBA jobs..Many companies like to offer full time jobs than internships. The fight for internships thru campus recruitment can be crazy. So many less spots and so many people with good profiles..Especially the Desis with the similar experience in IT. The key is differentiation. It pays to differentiate by industry(Telecom, Insurance..) or function(Finance, Human resource..) than just say Technology...Many recruiters prefer past work-ex in the industry or domain as the internship period is at the max 2 months and there is no point in learning to do the things at that time..

Whatever, the fight will be fierce and we have to get ready for this fight even before coming to the school. We should get some introduction to the courses that we are going to take up..(Finance, Economics, Accounting..) especially the desi techies..Many recruiters prefer people with local knowledge so the fight for the rest of the spots is huge..We have to hit the ground running when we land in School..I have come across a great struggle for intership by the famous Simba, the Pagal Girl..Read her blog for more..