Now that eight months have already elapsed in one more calendar year, and one full academic year at Kellogg went in a fast-forward mode, may be it is time to pause, reflect, and make another five-year plan for life. Hmmm....but then....may be it is not. Why the worry and what's the hurry? It seems I have all the time in the world. No, I mean literally.....
A few weeks ago, an astrologer foretold that I will live for 92 years! Yes, ninety two, the six did not get inverted. The first time I heard it, I almost had my heart in my mouth and was scared to death! I thought, what the heck am I going to do for that long (a quick thought was to go get a law degree in my 40s and a medical degree in 50s, to balance an engineering PhD in my 20s and MBA in 30s).
I had to endure that mental agony for one full week, until the same astrologer came back and predicted that Neelima will live for 93 years! Hurray.....that was a big respite!! Knowing that there will be someone to bear my eccentrities to the last is a great relief (there will always be someone to listen to my babble, but if that some one is the same one throughout, it makes it less painful for both!). It is also a joy to know that she too will get to spend at least three years without me...she always wanted to have sometime of her own after I am gone (you can understand how painful it is to be married to me!). No wonder, Chris Shields, my good friend at Kellogg, could not resist saying, "WHO married you dude???", to my face in one of our recent case discussion meetings. And a few weeks later when I introduced Neelima and told Chris that "SHE married me", I could read the deep sympathy for her written all over his face!
By the way, we have not yet discussed the span of our lives with Vedant and Aadya. We do not want to scare them yet.....it will be too much pressure too early on Vedant for him to plan and include the eccentric parents in his retirement fund.......(Aadya will precisely be 60 years plus 1 day when Neelima departs, and so no worries there...but, yeah.....no escape for the brother....)
On second thought, may be we will tell them; Aadya seems to be borrowing the words of Robert (from Everybody Loves Raymond) and already conveying in her own sign language to the big brother, "If dad goes first, mom will be fine; if mom leaves dad behind, God save us all!" So, it will at least be a silver lining in the clouds for them to know that I have the shorter span of the two!
When I told my mom about the astrologer's "deadly" prediction, her first reaction was, "Thank God, you will certainly be there to perfom my last rites and read the eulogy"! I always had an inkling that she had her own concerns - someone told her a long time ago that she will live for 83 years - and I am glad that I put them to rest. Now, it is an impossible feat (putting the mother's concerns to rest without raising the wife's concerns) and I too failed at it....or rather God failed me in this test.
Whenever Latha, my sister and my best friend, tells me about the milestones she is achieving in her fitness levels (and of course, I can see that more and more she is looking like an elder sister of her own kids), I feel guilty of not making any efforts in that domain. Ha...now I don't have to worry yet; I have a very long time ahead to plan and work on it. For now, it is time again to start eating ice creams, my favorite food that I gave up a few years ago, all thanks to that astrologer.
Tuesday, August 31, 2010
Tuesday, July 27, 2010
Finance-101: The Early Start Advantage
From our personal experiences and from what I read so far, there are two key things to realize and follow to grow rich (of course, honestly!): start early and invest smartly.
While the second part seems obvious (but then, the challenge is in knowing how and where to invest smartly), most often the first essential thing to success - gaining early start advantage - is ignored. Analysis shows that if you start investing at age 22, say $500 each month, and get an annual return of 12%, you will make around $4.6 Million by the time you are sixty (click on chart for larger view). Compare that to the final amount of $3.25 Million if you start at age 25; and, the paltry sum of $1.82 Million if you start at age 30.
It is also seen that, while it takes a staggering 25 years time after the start to reach the first million, it takes only six more years after that for the second million, and then just a little over three years to get the third million, and then less than two years for the fourth, and so on.
So, if you start late it is true that you are missing the initial years of aggregation; but most importantly you are missing the crucial last few years of significant acceleration. Most people, when started late, often think that they are behind by just $50,000 or so and can somehow make it up. But the wisdom lies in starting early to give enough time at the end, and let the aggregated money do the work for you rather than you working hard for the money.
If at all you have a question what difference it makes if you have $4 Million or $5 Million and why even make efforts to aggregate larger sums of money, I am sure the 99 others will not find it hard to convince you with their own valid arguments. Inflation is just one of my many views on it. Even with just 3% annual inflation rate, the $4.6 Million nominal amount accumulated by the time you are sixty is worth only $1.49 Million of real money (i.e., today's money) (see the chart). With 5% annual inflation rate, the nominal amount will be only $0.72 Million of real money. You don't want to end up living through the old age with a small amount of real money, after working hard the entire life, just because the inflation sucked the value out.
So, hurry up. Start now and beat the inflation. Of course, you can always beat the inflation by getting higher rate of returns (may be 14% or 15% or even higher) with smarter investing strategies. But, the higher returns are never guaranteed, involve higher risks, and are often not in your hands (remember, recent market collapse). The one thing that you can control is your start time, and so earlier the better.
There are many other early start advantages - some tangible and others not. For example, when investing it is necessary to experiment with small amounts at the begin and learn from the experience. An early start will give enough time to learn the tricks before it is too late. Also, any risks taken and losses incurred in early stages can be recovered with enough time later.
Also, it gets harder and harder to invest later in life as responsibilities grow. It is easier to save money and invest when you are young; you will be surprised how much money you will spend just on diapers later on!! And, even if you miss investing for a few years in second half of the period, it will not hurt as much as it does if the initial investments were missed.
For example, if you do not add any amount to your portfolio for five years during the age 46-50, you will still make $4.46 Million instead of the $4.6 Million; if not add during age 36-40 you will make $4.18 Million, and if not add during age 22-26 (that is start at 27) you will make $2.58 Million. The reason for such stark difference is that, as a critical mass of money is already aggregated and it is compounding itself, the smaller amounts you add to it in later years will make only a small difference. On the other hand, the money you add during the early years is a significant chunk of small sums in the portfolio.
Some points to note. Above numbers are for illustration of relative performance only. You can extrapolate that to any amounts you are capable of saving and investing. So, do your math for your own settings; the relation and inferences stay the same. Also, the above arguments need to be taken purely in a financial context; an argument for early start in saving and investing should not be construed as an argument against pursuing advanced degrees or other ventures. The above is only to argue for starting sooner than later. In fact the returns on investment in education, human relations, and the society tend to be highly valuable, and money is an essential component to make those other investments possible.
The above is not taught in any school or in any class -- somethings are realized just from analysis of one's own experiences as well as that of others. Next time, more on the power of higher rates of return, and how to catch those elusive higher returns while minimizing the risk through portfolio diversification (things that are taught at B-School).
While the second part seems obvious (but then, the challenge is in knowing how and where to invest smartly), most often the first essential thing to success - gaining early start advantage - is ignored. Analysis shows that if you start investing at age 22, say $500 each month, and get an annual return of 12%, you will make around $4.6 Million by the time you are sixty (click on chart for larger view). Compare that to the final amount of $3.25 Million if you start at age 25; and, the paltry sum of $1.82 Million if you start at age 30.
The advantage of starting early appears even more striking when observing that to finally catchup with age-22 start, you need to save and invest $1260 each month for the entire duration instead of just $500 if the start is made at age 30 (or $708 each month for the entire duration if start at 27).
It is also seen that, while it takes a staggering 25 years time after the start to reach the first million, it takes only six more years after that for the second million, and then just a little over three years to get the third million, and then less than two years for the fourth, and so on.
So, if you start late it is true that you are missing the initial years of aggregation; but most importantly you are missing the crucial last few years of significant acceleration. Most people, when started late, often think that they are behind by just $50,000 or so and can somehow make it up. But the wisdom lies in starting early to give enough time at the end, and let the aggregated money do the work for you rather than you working hard for the money.
If at all you have a question what difference it makes if you have $4 Million or $5 Million and why even make efforts to aggregate larger sums of money, I am sure the 99 others will not find it hard to convince you with their own valid arguments. Inflation is just one of my many views on it. Even with just 3% annual inflation rate, the $4.6 Million nominal amount accumulated by the time you are sixty is worth only $1.49 Million of real money (i.e., today's money) (see the chart). With 5% annual inflation rate, the nominal amount will be only $0.72 Million of real money. You don't want to end up living through the old age with a small amount of real money, after working hard the entire life, just because the inflation sucked the value out.
So, hurry up. Start now and beat the inflation. Of course, you can always beat the inflation by getting higher rate of returns (may be 14% or 15% or even higher) with smarter investing strategies. But, the higher returns are never guaranteed, involve higher risks, and are often not in your hands (remember, recent market collapse). The one thing that you can control is your start time, and so earlier the better.
There are many other early start advantages - some tangible and others not. For example, when investing it is necessary to experiment with small amounts at the begin and learn from the experience. An early start will give enough time to learn the tricks before it is too late. Also, any risks taken and losses incurred in early stages can be recovered with enough time later.
Also, it gets harder and harder to invest later in life as responsibilities grow. It is easier to save money and invest when you are young; you will be surprised how much money you will spend just on diapers later on!! And, even if you miss investing for a few years in second half of the period, it will not hurt as much as it does if the initial investments were missed.
For example, if you do not add any amount to your portfolio for five years during the age 46-50, you will still make $4.46 Million instead of the $4.6 Million; if not add during age 36-40 you will make $4.18 Million, and if not add during age 22-26 (that is start at 27) you will make $2.58 Million. The reason for such stark difference is that, as a critical mass of money is already aggregated and it is compounding itself, the smaller amounts you add to it in later years will make only a small difference. On the other hand, the money you add during the early years is a significant chunk of small sums in the portfolio.
Some points to note. Above numbers are for illustration of relative performance only. You can extrapolate that to any amounts you are capable of saving and investing. So, do your math for your own settings; the relation and inferences stay the same. Also, the above arguments need to be taken purely in a financial context; an argument for early start in saving and investing should not be construed as an argument against pursuing advanced degrees or other ventures. The above is only to argue for starting sooner than later. In fact the returns on investment in education, human relations, and the society tend to be highly valuable, and money is an essential component to make those other investments possible.
The above is not taught in any school or in any class -- somethings are realized just from analysis of one's own experiences as well as that of others. Next time, more on the power of higher rates of return, and how to catch those elusive higher returns while minimizing the risk through portfolio diversification (things that are taught at B-School).
Monday, July 12, 2010
Born or made?
The stepping stone across the door at the temple entrance complained to the idol inside,"What sins have I committed that the visitors always trample upon me and cause pain, and what great deeds have you done that they apply scent and flowers to you? Is it not that we both were born just the same and of same color?"
The idol inside the temple replied, "well, it is not by fortune of birth that I am here; in fact, it was you who was first chosen to be seated in my place. When the sculptor placed his chisel on you to carve you into a beautiful idol, you were reluctant to bear the pain and screamed. You felt that why should it be you who should suffer while others were not caused any pain. The sculptor got scared with all sorts of strange noises from the stone and abandoned you. Instead, he then started working on me. I endured silently the great pain from the constant chiseling. I believed that the suffering was only temporary and that it had some greater purpose. My enduring of that suffering with courage and patience now led me here".
I read this small story in Chandamama when I was a kid, and it somehow remained with me forever.
The idol inside the temple replied, "well, it is not by fortune of birth that I am here; in fact, it was you who was first chosen to be seated in my place. When the sculptor placed his chisel on you to carve you into a beautiful idol, you were reluctant to bear the pain and screamed. You felt that why should it be you who should suffer while others were not caused any pain. The sculptor got scared with all sorts of strange noises from the stone and abandoned you. Instead, he then started working on me. I endured silently the great pain from the constant chiseling. I believed that the suffering was only temporary and that it had some greater purpose. My enduring of that suffering with courage and patience now led me here".
I read this small story in Chandamama when I was a kid, and it somehow remained with me forever.
Friday, June 18, 2010
My Son Reveals My Father in Me
It was 20 years ago; but, I still remember vividly. It was the first day of my Class 10th Board exams. My father came to drop me at the examination center on his scooter. But then, I was surprised when he started walking with me into the examination room; and then, more than being surprised, I felt shy and embarrassed when he walked all the way to my desk, sat on the chair, and checked if the desk and chair were comfortable enough for me to write the exam!! Imagine the situation of a 16-year old boy, being stared at him and his father by all his teen aged friends and peers for the unusual action of a concerned father just before an important exam.
Until recently, whenever I remembered that incident I told myself that I will never get over-excited or do "funny things" when it comes to my kids and put them in awkward situations!! But, now what do I do when in this week we took Vedant to write the Kumon evaluation test (perhaps, the first of a very long series of exams in his life!)?
As I went home from work to pick up the family and go to the Kumon center, Vedant was yet to get ready. We had to push him a bit to get ready quickly, but then I was trying not to "annoy" or "disturb" his mood before going for his "big exam"!! As I was driving, he fell asleep in the car and I was trying frantically to keep him awake so that he will be "fresh" for the test!! As we were a bit delayed, and as we missed the right exit that Austin being a new place for all of us, I was getting more anxious to reach the test center in time.
When he and other kids were taken to another room for the test, I could not stop myself from going and sitting next to him (I just had to make up some excuse that he is too young and may feel scared!!). During the test, when Vedant was finding it difficult to understand a question because of the way it was asked, I was thinking to myself (we were not allowed to speak) "why is the teacher repeating the question the same way; if the kid did not understand it the first few times, why can't she rephrase it in a different way? c'mon lady, he knows the answer, just that he is not understanding the way you asked it!!!"
At the end, I was not happy with the score he got; No, I was not unhappy with Vedant, I was unhappy with the teacher!! Because, I felt he knows the stuff, just that the test was not administered properly!!! All through the process, Neelima and her cousin Sushmith (my best-match-on-humor-levels buddy, visiting us this week from Dallas) were amused at my fatherly anxiety and had a field day teasing me.
Whenever I narrated that incident with my father, Neelima always supported his perspective saying that he was sweet and "innocently concerned", and that not many fathers can do that. I was not agreeing much with her on that. But now, after observing myself recently with the way I do things around Vedant, may be I am not that different. And in fact, may be I want to be like my father in being "innocently concerned" and unmindful of the people and surroundings when it comes to the success of my son. May be Vedant will feel a bit awkward in front of his friends with my actions sometimes; but may be 20 years later he will be glad that I was like that, the same way I feel about my father now.
Until recently, whenever I remembered that incident I told myself that I will never get over-excited or do "funny things" when it comes to my kids and put them in awkward situations!! But, now what do I do when in this week we took Vedant to write the Kumon evaluation test (perhaps, the first of a very long series of exams in his life!)?
As I went home from work to pick up the family and go to the Kumon center, Vedant was yet to get ready. We had to push him a bit to get ready quickly, but then I was trying not to "annoy" or "disturb" his mood before going for his "big exam"!! As I was driving, he fell asleep in the car and I was trying frantically to keep him awake so that he will be "fresh" for the test!! As we were a bit delayed, and as we missed the right exit that Austin being a new place for all of us, I was getting more anxious to reach the test center in time.
When he and other kids were taken to another room for the test, I could not stop myself from going and sitting next to him (I just had to make up some excuse that he is too young and may feel scared!!). During the test, when Vedant was finding it difficult to understand a question because of the way it was asked, I was thinking to myself (we were not allowed to speak) "why is the teacher repeating the question the same way; if the kid did not understand it the first few times, why can't she rephrase it in a different way? c'mon lady, he knows the answer, just that he is not understanding the way you asked it!!!"
At the end, I was not happy with the score he got; No, I was not unhappy with Vedant, I was unhappy with the teacher!! Because, I felt he knows the stuff, just that the test was not administered properly!!! All through the process, Neelima and her cousin Sushmith (my best-match-on-humor-levels buddy, visiting us this week from Dallas) were amused at my fatherly anxiety and had a field day teasing me.
Whenever I narrated that incident with my father, Neelima always supported his perspective saying that he was sweet and "innocently concerned", and that not many fathers can do that. I was not agreeing much with her on that. But now, after observing myself recently with the way I do things around Vedant, may be I am not that different. And in fact, may be I want to be like my father in being "innocently concerned" and unmindful of the people and surroundings when it comes to the success of my son. May be Vedant will feel a bit awkward in front of his friends with my actions sometimes; but may be 20 years later he will be glad that I was like that, the same way I feel about my father now.
Friday, June 11, 2010
The (2) Million Dollar Legacy
When I was leaving my job as a professor at UT-Dallas, I was pretty happy that I gave my best in research and teaching. The usual question asked in interviews is about the legacy you left behind in your last job. Well, I was not asked about that in my recent conversations, but two recent instances greatly excited me to share with the readers. Particularly, as the events unfolded with my contributions playing a significant role even almost an year after I left the job, made me feel even more proud.
In Spring 2005, the initial years I was trying to build my contacts in the industry, I gave a talk at Texas Instruments on my research in special purpose architectures for multimedia computing. At the end of the talk, a gentleman from the audience walked up to me and asked, "so, what do you want to do with your research now?" As I was thoughtful for a moment in search of an answer, he continued, "would you like to work with us on developing technologies for our application in video surveillance?" He was the co-founder and CTO of AgileMesh, a startup company in the Dallas area, and wanted me to take a look at what they were doing.
In subsequent years, as the collaboration built up, I worked hard, involved my research students in some discussions, and eventually put together a proposal in Fall 2008 and Spring 2009 for raising funds for the company and the university from the Texas Emerging Technology Fund (TETF). In late Spring 2009 (I had a glimpse then of possibility of my leaving, but was not sure) we submitted the final proposal and I brought two other professors on board as the project expanded and required the expertise in other related areas. But then, I left the job in July as the proposal was still in review.
Recently in May 2010, I was greatly elated when I heard from my ex-colleague that the proposal was funded to the tune of $2 Million (pheww!!!!!) to be shared by the company and the university to conduct research in relevant areas. I am glad that my hard work and immense efforts paid-off, and that the significantly large grant will fund the other researchers in their work to add to the scientific knowledge.
In response to my students' who felt bad that I am not there at the university to celebrate the success, here is what I wrote to them, "I have no regrets. Given a choice to stay back at UT-Dallas and celebrate that AgileMesh-TETF success or be at Kellogg to enjoy the current successes as well as look forward for bigger successes in future, I will choose the current status any given day."
The other incident that made me feel proud about my contributions in teaching is when a past student wrote to me recently, "Dear Professor, I got an internship at Intel. I wanted to thank you having been a wonderful teacher. The interview with Intel was over 1.5 to 2 hrs and was mostly on Computer Architecture and system programming. I had gone through a lot of cache stuff but forgot to study cache coherence... I was questioned quite a bit on cache coherence and I was just recollecting what you had done in class (Fall 2008) and I was able to answer most of it... Thank you sir. If I am able to remember a concept for 1.5 years that means I might never forget it and kudos to you for imbibing it into us."
Well, I am glad I did my part to the best of my abilities and helped others in whatever small way I can in achieving success. I moved on from the past in search of brighter horizons, and hope to eventually leave behind a greater legacy of clock-building, not just time-telling (from "Built to Last").
In Spring 2005, the initial years I was trying to build my contacts in the industry, I gave a talk at Texas Instruments on my research in special purpose architectures for multimedia computing. At the end of the talk, a gentleman from the audience walked up to me and asked, "so, what do you want to do with your research now?" As I was thoughtful for a moment in search of an answer, he continued, "would you like to work with us on developing technologies for our application in video surveillance?" He was the co-founder and CTO of AgileMesh, a startup company in the Dallas area, and wanted me to take a look at what they were doing.
In subsequent years, as the collaboration built up, I worked hard, involved my research students in some discussions, and eventually put together a proposal in Fall 2008 and Spring 2009 for raising funds for the company and the university from the Texas Emerging Technology Fund (TETF). In late Spring 2009 (I had a glimpse then of possibility of my leaving, but was not sure) we submitted the final proposal and I brought two other professors on board as the project expanded and required the expertise in other related areas. But then, I left the job in July as the proposal was still in review.
Recently in May 2010, I was greatly elated when I heard from my ex-colleague that the proposal was funded to the tune of $2 Million (pheww!!!!!) to be shared by the company and the university to conduct research in relevant areas. I am glad that my hard work and immense efforts paid-off, and that the significantly large grant will fund the other researchers in their work to add to the scientific knowledge.
In response to my students' who felt bad that I am not there at the university to celebrate the success, here is what I wrote to them, "I have no regrets. Given a choice to stay back at UT-Dallas and celebrate that AgileMesh-TETF success or be at Kellogg to enjoy the current successes as well as look forward for bigger successes in future, I will choose the current status any given day."
The other incident that made me feel proud about my contributions in teaching is when a past student wrote to me recently, "Dear Professor, I got an internship at Intel. I wanted to thank you having been a wonderful teacher. The interview with Intel was over 1.5 to 2 hrs and was mostly on Computer Architecture and system programming. I had gone through a lot of cache stuff but forgot to study cache coherence... I was questioned quite a bit on cache coherence and I was just recollecting what you had done in class (Fall 2008) and I was able to answer most of it... Thank you sir. If I am able to remember a concept for 1.5 years that means I might never forget it and kudos to you for imbibing it into us."
Well, I am glad I did my part to the best of my abilities and helped others in whatever small way I can in achieving success. I moved on from the past in search of brighter horizons, and hope to eventually leave behind a greater legacy of clock-building, not just time-telling (from "Built to Last").
Friday, April 16, 2010
Spring & Sustainability
Was I crazy or what, to register for five courses for the spring term? Was my mind frozen in the winter when I was registering for the spring? These were the thoughts that overcame me as I landed back in Chicago after a great but short (only 2.5 weeks) and hectic trip to India, and had to hit the ground running immediately to catch up on the material, as I already missed one week of classes.
Even as I tried to recover from the jet lag and handle the ton of course work in that week, the time for the case competition by the Aspen Institute arrived, and then there was no time to even rest for a moment.
As the competition opened on Friday morning, we had mixed feelings as we read the case assigned. It was on the Tata Group from India which provided me a little familiarity, while the expected solution to the case seemed to be very open-ended and challenging. We were asked to recommend a ten-year sustainability strategy for the Tata Group taking into consideration its corporate social responsibility (CSR) activities in the past 100 years and the now changing global business conditions and social & economic trends.
It was a great brain-storming activity for more than two days, starting from understanding what exactly is sustainability and what our recommendations for the strategy must be that the Tata Group should adopt. It was also a great fun working on the team with people from diverse backgrounds. Before coming to Kellogg, Chris worked on the Capitol Hill as Press Secretary to a US Congresswoman, Jose Ochoa worked at Chicago Hope Academy, Rajiv had a semiconductor technology industry background, and I came with academic research credentials.
Well, what is sustainability? As we learnt many things ourselves the first time, the term was used by the Brundtland Commission which coined what has become the most often-quoted definition of sustainable development "as development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs."
As the case expected us to read through a ton of material and dig through several video, printed, and online resources on CSR, and what the Tata Group has specifically been trying to achieve in the past several decades, it was one enlightening weekend.
I will post later more on the strategy we proposed and the recommended implementation process for the next ten years. While the 1st round at Kellogg is done in this week, the final round (if we are selected, will be end of this month); so can't reveal much until then.
Postscript: As I started writing this, we just got the email today that our team won the first place (out of 16 or so teams) at Kellogg !!!!!! That calls for a celebration.
Even as I tried to recover from the jet lag and handle the ton of course work in that week, the time for the case competition by the Aspen Institute arrived, and then there was no time to even rest for a moment.
As the competition opened on Friday morning, we had mixed feelings as we read the case assigned. It was on the Tata Group from India which provided me a little familiarity, while the expected solution to the case seemed to be very open-ended and challenging. We were asked to recommend a ten-year sustainability strategy for the Tata Group taking into consideration its corporate social responsibility (CSR) activities in the past 100 years and the now changing global business conditions and social & economic trends.
It was a great brain-storming activity for more than two days, starting from understanding what exactly is sustainability and what our recommendations for the strategy must be that the Tata Group should adopt. It was also a great fun working on the team with people from diverse backgrounds. Before coming to Kellogg, Chris worked on the Capitol Hill as Press Secretary to a US Congresswoman, Jose Ochoa worked at Chicago Hope Academy, Rajiv had a semiconductor technology industry background, and I came with academic research credentials.
Well, what is sustainability? As we learnt many things ourselves the first time, the term was used by the Brundtland Commission which coined what has become the most often-quoted definition of sustainable development "as development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs."
As the case expected us to read through a ton of material and dig through several video, printed, and online resources on CSR, and what the Tata Group has specifically been trying to achieve in the past several decades, it was one enlightening weekend.
I will post later more on the strategy we proposed and the recommended implementation process for the next ten years. While the 1st round at Kellogg is done in this week, the final round (if we are selected, will be end of this month); so can't reveal much until then.
Postscript: As I started writing this, we just got the email today that our team won the first place (out of 16 or so teams) at Kellogg !!!!!! That calls for a celebration.
Sunday, February 14, 2010
Slow Dance
The following poem was recently sent to me by one of our friends in Dallas after reading my earlier postings.
------------------------------------
Have you ever watched kids on a merry-go-round
Or listened to the rain slapping on the ground?
Ever followed a butterfly's erratic flight
Or gazed at the sun into the fading night?
You better slow down
Don't dance so fast
Time is short
The music won't last
Do you run through each day on the fly
When you ask "How are you?" do you hear the reply?
When the day is done, do you lie in your bed
With the next hundred chores running through your head?
You'd better slow down
Don't dance so fast
Time is short
The music won't last
Ever told your child, we'll do it tomorrow
And in your haste, not see his sorrow?
Ever lost touch, let a good friendship die
'Cause you never had time to call and say "Hi"?
You'd better slow down
Don't dance so fast
Time is short
The music won't last
When you run so fast to get somewhere
You miss half the fun of getting there.
When you worry and hurry through your day,
It is like an unopened gift....Thrown away...
Life is not a race.
Do take it slower
Hear the music
Before the song is over.
------------------------------------
Have you ever watched kids on a merry-go-round
Or listened to the rain slapping on the ground?
Ever followed a butterfly's erratic flight
Or gazed at the sun into the fading night?
You better slow down
Don't dance so fast
Time is short
The music won't last
Do you run through each day on the fly
When you ask "How are you?" do you hear the reply?
When the day is done, do you lie in your bed
With the next hundred chores running through your head?
You'd better slow down
Don't dance so fast
Time is short
The music won't last
Ever told your child, we'll do it tomorrow
And in your haste, not see his sorrow?
Ever lost touch, let a good friendship die
'Cause you never had time to call and say "Hi"?
You'd better slow down
Don't dance so fast
Time is short
The music won't last
When you run so fast to get somewhere
You miss half the fun of getting there.
When you worry and hurry through your day,
It is like an unopened gift....Thrown away...
Life is not a race.
Do take it slower
Hear the music
Before the song is over.
Thursday, February 11, 2010
Man of Action
KVACHIT PRITHVISHAYAH
KVACHIDAPI CHA PARYANKSHAINAHAH
KVACHIT CHHAKAAHAARAH
KVACHIDAPI CHA SHALYODANARUCHIH
KVACHIT KANTHAADHAARI
KVACHIDAPI CHA DIVYAAMBARADHARO
MANASVI KAARYAARTHI
NA GANAYATI DUKHAM NA CHA SUKHAM
On the way to achieving his goal, if the need arises a man of action is not deterred to sleep on bare floor as against a cozy bed, to eat raw vegetables and herbs as against delicious food, and to wear rags as against silken clothes. While pursuing the objective, he is neither deterred by the hardships nor distracted by the comforts.
From Bhartrihari Subhashita, this is one of my favorite slokas.
Monday, January 18, 2010
The Reward of Being at Kellogg
What has been your most rewarding experience at Kellogg? While looking through various potential questions as I started preparation for interviews with various firms in the next few weeks weeks, the above question made me pause and think.
While, there have been several gains and lifetime experiences for me in this short span of time at Kellogg (such as a peek into the world of Finance, a bunch of great friends, etc.), it made me wonder what can be that one great experience that might have had a significant impact on me.
Well, as it turns out I did step out of the box and took a step back and am now seeing better the bigger picture. All my life and career, I had been among engineers; I have been trained to think like one and view the world through an engineer's eyes. Not that it is bad (in fact, it is one of the most successful professions/perceptions out there in the world), but my realization that there are other dimensions to view helped me to better see the diversity and its purpose.
As an engineer, perhaps I was just focused on the working of the engine and its parts, and the relentless efforts have been to perfect it. But, when I stepped back I could see that while the engine is the heart, there is more to the automobile that we can find fascinating. I even see that a soft cushion added to the seat, though may not add any functionality to the automobile's working, still adds comfort to make the drive smooth and enjoyable.
At the business school, everyday I keep meeting and interacting with fascinating people from varied backgrounds and professions - not just banking, consulting, and engineering/tech industries, but also social service, community organizing, public/government service, law, military, non-profit, journalism, and so on.
I learnt to respect more the existence of all ways and professions, however small or big their contributions are to the smooth running of the world; everything that exists has a purpose - if there was none, it would not have even existed in the first place, isn't it?
And the respect multiplies when we see that there is always something new to learn from them, especially when the time at Kellogg is so limited.
While, there have been several gains and lifetime experiences for me in this short span of time at Kellogg (such as a peek into the world of Finance, a bunch of great friends, etc.), it made me wonder what can be that one great experience that might have had a significant impact on me.
Well, as it turns out I did step out of the box and took a step back and am now seeing better the bigger picture. All my life and career, I had been among engineers; I have been trained to think like one and view the world through an engineer's eyes. Not that it is bad (in fact, it is one of the most successful professions/perceptions out there in the world), but my realization that there are other dimensions to view helped me to better see the diversity and its purpose.
As an engineer, perhaps I was just focused on the working of the engine and its parts, and the relentless efforts have been to perfect it. But, when I stepped back I could see that while the engine is the heart, there is more to the automobile that we can find fascinating. I even see that a soft cushion added to the seat, though may not add any functionality to the automobile's working, still adds comfort to make the drive smooth and enjoyable.
At the business school, everyday I keep meeting and interacting with fascinating people from varied backgrounds and professions - not just banking, consulting, and engineering/tech industries, but also social service, community organizing, public/government service, law, military, non-profit, journalism, and so on.
I learnt to respect more the existence of all ways and professions, however small or big their contributions are to the smooth running of the world; everything that exists has a purpose - if there was none, it would not have even existed in the first place, isn't it?
And the respect multiplies when we see that there is always something new to learn from them, especially when the time at Kellogg is so limited.
Sunday, January 3, 2010
Hoping For A Perfect Ten
Wish you a very happy new year. May the year Twenty Ten bring you joy and success.
So, the Cowboys have made it into the playoffs with style, shutting out the Eagles all through the four quarters. Now, the hope is that the Cowboys do not repeat their playoff performance in recent years - losing the first playoff game itself!!
The second quarter at Kellogg is beginning on Monday. Most first year students hope to close the recruitment deal in this quarter. So, may all our hopes for this quarter be fulfilled.
I just returned from Portland, Oregon, which is my 32nd US state to visit in the past 12 years. I hope to travel to at least two more new states in 2010. All it requires is just some money (not so difficult) and find some time (not so easy).
As I walk 2.5 miles daily between my apartment and Kellogg, I only hope that the winter in Chicago this quarter will not be too harsh on us. And, the only positive side I see in walking in these egregious temperatures is the chance to burn fat at a faster rate!!
As we all begin the year 2010 with great hope, I want to share with you the quote (that I recently read in the book "Built to Last", and which I think captures to some extent my attitude in many things I do):
Far better to dare mighty things,
to win glorious triumphs, even though checkered by failure,
than to take rank with those poor spirits
who neither enjoy much nor suffer much, because they live in the
gray twilight that knows not victory, nor defeat.
-- Theodore Roosevelt, 1899
So, try even if the success seems doubtful; because, not even trying for the fear of defeat is a crime. Success can be stumbled upon only if we keep trying and moving.
So, the Cowboys have made it into the playoffs with style, shutting out the Eagles all through the four quarters. Now, the hope is that the Cowboys do not repeat their playoff performance in recent years - losing the first playoff game itself!!
The second quarter at Kellogg is beginning on Monday. Most first year students hope to close the recruitment deal in this quarter. So, may all our hopes for this quarter be fulfilled.
I just returned from Portland, Oregon, which is my 32nd US state to visit in the past 12 years. I hope to travel to at least two more new states in 2010. All it requires is just some money (not so difficult) and find some time (not so easy).
As I walk 2.5 miles daily between my apartment and Kellogg, I only hope that the winter in Chicago this quarter will not be too harsh on us. And, the only positive side I see in walking in these egregious temperatures is the chance to burn fat at a faster rate!!
As we all begin the year 2010 with great hope, I want to share with you the quote (that I recently read in the book "Built to Last", and which I think captures to some extent my attitude in many things I do):
Far better to dare mighty things,
to win glorious triumphs, even though checkered by failure,
than to take rank with those poor spirits
who neither enjoy much nor suffer much, because they live in the
gray twilight that knows not victory, nor defeat.
-- Theodore Roosevelt, 1899
So, try even if the success seems doubtful; because, not even trying for the fear of defeat is a crime. Success can be stumbled upon only if we keep trying and moving.
Friday, December 25, 2009
The Certainty of Life's Uncertainty
The only certain thing in life is the uncertainty of life.
Anirban Chakrabarti started his PhD program in Electrical & Computer Engineering at the same time as I did in August 1999. He graduated in December 2003, a few months after me. Soon after we started the program, we became good peer PhD students frequently engaging in discussions/debates on our research, sports, and other interesting topics. That both our advisers too worked closely with each other also often brought us together for joint seminars and collaborations.
He came with a B.Tech degree from Jadavpur University (one of the top engineering programs in India) and was a bright researcher. And more than for anything else, I always remembered him for his deeply sensitive heart filled to the brim with compassion. Perhaps, his poignant personal life and the brought-up made him so.
Anirban's father passed away even when he was very small. His mother and grandfather brought him up, and he was closely attached to them. He always used to say that he would go back to India right after his PhD and will take up the job there to stay close to the family. His grandfather passed away, I think in 2002, not long before we were due to complete our doctoral program. He was concerned that his mother was now lonely back in India and so became much more eager to get back to India right after the graduation.
After I graduated and moved onto my new job, we corresponded over emails occasionally. He graduated with a solid publication record and could have landed a lucrative job in USA for his well-recognized research in Networking and Grid Computing. However, he took up a job in the Infosys Research Labs, Bangalore, and was actively involved in the research conferences in India.
Later again we exchanged emails over the news of his wedding. And then, for over two years we were not in direct contact, but I was hearing about him occasionally from other friends.
In December 2008, it was the shock of of my life when I heard that he died tragically in September 2008 as he accidentally fell from his apartment in the top floor. It was heart wrenching to hear that he then had an 8-month old son, and that he fell down right in front of the eyes of his mother and wife.
What greater tragedy can there be for anyone than that seen by Anirban's mother, who lost her husband early in life, brought up her only child with hardships to see him succeed and do well but only for a short period, then lose him right in front of her eyes and see her daughter-in-law and grandson left with a similar agony for the rest of the life.
What a game the nature played, for Anirban did what all he could to alleviate his mother's agony, which only increased many folds because of the cruel fate.
Since I heard the news, almost every day I remember the family and say to myself that we do not have any right to complain for any small misfortunes we may face in our daily lives. There is no bigger loss than that and there is no bruise deeper. Any short lived loss or agony is not to be brooded over even for a moment.
The odyssey of Anirban's family and those great untold tragedies of many others constantly remind me that there is not a moment to lose over trivial troubles; there is so much to do, but there is only a little time left in the journey.
Because, the only certain thing in life is the uncertainty of life.
Here is the tribute to Anirban by the scientific community in India.
Postscript: I began writing this while waiting for my yesterday's evening flight from Dallas to Portland. The flight was constantly delayed and eventually cancelled, forcing me to spend the entire night in the Dallas airport. On the Christmas eve, today all the flights were over booked and the airline has routed me to Phoenix and then from there to Portland. Now, as I wait for my next flight in the Phoenix airport and am due to reach Portland 33 hours after my trip began (assuming the rest of the trip will go as per scheduled), I complete the writing.
Though the thought to write Anirban's story was only incidental, it again reminded me of my fortune and helped me to stay cheerful even as I am currently stuck in the airports for long hours far away from family and friends.
Monday, December 14, 2009
Decisions and Payoffs
The Fall 2009 quarter has finally come to an end with four exams in the last four days. The two math intensive courses - Finance-1 and "Decision Making Under Uncertainty" (mostly probability-based) - had relatively more intense exams this time, contrary to what we saw in the midterm. After a long time I saw a heavily mathematical and analytical challenge in the form of the Finance-1, and I am registered to study the Finance-2 (an elective) course in the winter quarter; just for Finance-2, if not for anything else, I am eagerly looking forward for the starting of the winter quarter in the first week of January.
Speaking of the course "Decision Making under Uncertainty", the subject was not that difficult. It is all about making informed decisions, when concrete information is unavailable, with the help of the probabilistic models. It is imperative for all managers (of people and/or situations) to face frequent challenges that require critical decisions but with not much information in hand. The decision trees and other concepts learned in the course do help one to better formulate the solutions to the challenges and help minimize the risk involved in the managerial decisions.
But then, what about the decision making under uncertainty in real life? As I look back and trace the every critical decision I made and each step I took since I graduated from NITW with my B.Tech degree, most decisions seemed to have paid off handsomely while some strayed me from the path. I am fortunate that those few wrong turns did not prove too costly for me, and more importantly I think I took right decisions when it really mattered the most.
Soon after I joined in a full-time job in Chennai, right after my B.Tech degree, I realized that my ambition lied in my higher education and I was not supposed to be working so early in life. That led me to decide to apply for graduate studies. But then, improper guidance and lack of Internet resources those days in India made me to apply to a few low-rated schools; I was also desperate to get some sort of financial aid due to the meagre financial situation back home - I entered US with just $800 in hand and without any upfront financial aid promise. A bit of a luck and more of perseverance helped as I staggered through my MS studies. At the end of it, all my efforts felt empty with no accomplishment to show on my record (except for a handsome credit-card debt), and I was gravely disappointed.
As I applied to the PhD program at a top school, almost all among family and friends were surprised and opposed the idea as if it were a trek to the top of the Mount Everest!! But, I was keen to prove myself (not to anyone but to my own self) at any cost - even the credit card debt and only a few dollars in the bank account did not deter me. All it required was a gentle nudge and encouraging words from Latha, the only one to believe in me, for the necessary thrust to take off. My determination (stemmed from my desperation and restlessness - plus my continuous self reminder that I only have a worse place to go if not this) and occasional financial help from Srinivas did see me through the first two years of the PhD program, the toughest years of my life so far (I think for most PhD students the first two will be the r(t)oughest during which majority quit).
Things did not help much as I could not pass the PhD qualifying exam in the first attempt. The desperation was so strong that not a moment was spared to even feel the anguish. And, the determination was so strong that I did not even blink before saying no to the lucrative full-time job offer from TI at the end of my summer internship after the first year in the PhD. I still remember the surprise look on the manager's face when I answered without even looking into the offer letter she handed to me saying that the terms were very attractive !!
It was tough winning the confidence of the PhD adviser; it was a long and hard journey, which seemed eternal through that dark passages to find the right research problem to work on while watching peer PhD students publishing and graduating one after the other. As the light at the end of that tunnel was seen in the middle of the third year, the confidence returned and with it the smile. I think the decisions made to enter and to continue in the PhD program, in spite of the stumbles and bruises, were so crucial that the attainment of the PhD degree transformed my personality entirely. The achievement of the PhD was the pinnacle and the Research Excellence Award was only an incing on the cake! I cannot even imagine myself existing at peace without such a milestone in my career, and I count each and every small and big decision in that process to be a crucial brick in the skyscraper I have been trying to build.
The walk through that fire also taught me the importance of a life partner who will only work to remove the last traces of self-doubt, and never deter or discourage or suck the time in lesser squabbles, and who can only augment the mental strength required to even pass through the hell if required. More than a few marriage alliances came to me (some with handsome financial "offers"!!) when I was about to graduate with my MS degree (assuming that I will take up a job) and then in the last stages of my PhD. But, the prospect of money and riches never excited me as much as the chance to be in the company of the smart and intelligent people did. The fortune of the continuous company of a well-read, deeply-aware, thoughtful, and intellectually-stimulating person is irreplaceable, at least for me.
When I first became acquainted with Neelima, I ensured several long conversations even before any preliminary decision was made. Neelima and my friends now make fun of me sometimes (in a lighter vein!!) that I quietly slipped in a puzzle in one of those long conversations for her to solve. The puzzle was, "say, you are given a rope with enough length to tightly bind around the earth at the equator; how much additional length of the rope has to be extended to you if you have to bind around the earth at the equator but now one foot above the ground throughout?" (I first heard this from my then peer PhD student Srini, who is now a professor at University of Arizona). I was delighted that Neelima solved it much faster than I did earlier; and my decision after that was only automatic!! Her awareness about the opportunities and challenges really showed me new paths to success, and her courage and support did allow me to take up the implausible adventures; without her the actions could have just been words and thoughts.
Marrying her was the last and the best crucial decision I made; once it was made, taking the rest of the turns was relatively easy as if the best GPS was guiding me!!
POSTSCRIPT: For those applying for MBA at top schools, remember that the admissions committee invariably looks to find in your essays, regarding your decisions, "why you did what you did" than just "what you did".
Speaking of the course "Decision Making under Uncertainty", the subject was not that difficult. It is all about making informed decisions, when concrete information is unavailable, with the help of the probabilistic models. It is imperative for all managers (of people and/or situations) to face frequent challenges that require critical decisions but with not much information in hand. The decision trees and other concepts learned in the course do help one to better formulate the solutions to the challenges and help minimize the risk involved in the managerial decisions.
But then, what about the decision making under uncertainty in real life? As I look back and trace the every critical decision I made and each step I took since I graduated from NITW with my B.Tech degree, most decisions seemed to have paid off handsomely while some strayed me from the path. I am fortunate that those few wrong turns did not prove too costly for me, and more importantly I think I took right decisions when it really mattered the most.
Soon after I joined in a full-time job in Chennai, right after my B.Tech degree, I realized that my ambition lied in my higher education and I was not supposed to be working so early in life. That led me to decide to apply for graduate studies. But then, improper guidance and lack of Internet resources those days in India made me to apply to a few low-rated schools; I was also desperate to get some sort of financial aid due to the meagre financial situation back home - I entered US with just $800 in hand and without any upfront financial aid promise. A bit of a luck and more of perseverance helped as I staggered through my MS studies. At the end of it, all my efforts felt empty with no accomplishment to show on my record (except for a handsome credit-card debt), and I was gravely disappointed.
As I applied to the PhD program at a top school, almost all among family and friends were surprised and opposed the idea as if it were a trek to the top of the Mount Everest!! But, I was keen to prove myself (not to anyone but to my own self) at any cost - even the credit card debt and only a few dollars in the bank account did not deter me. All it required was a gentle nudge and encouraging words from Latha, the only one to believe in me, for the necessary thrust to take off. My determination (stemmed from my desperation and restlessness - plus my continuous self reminder that I only have a worse place to go if not this) and occasional financial help from Srinivas did see me through the first two years of the PhD program, the toughest years of my life so far (I think for most PhD students the first two will be the r(t)oughest during which majority quit).
Things did not help much as I could not pass the PhD qualifying exam in the first attempt. The desperation was so strong that not a moment was spared to even feel the anguish. And, the determination was so strong that I did not even blink before saying no to the lucrative full-time job offer from TI at the end of my summer internship after the first year in the PhD. I still remember the surprise look on the manager's face when I answered without even looking into the offer letter she handed to me saying that the terms were very attractive !!
It was tough winning the confidence of the PhD adviser; it was a long and hard journey, which seemed eternal through that dark passages to find the right research problem to work on while watching peer PhD students publishing and graduating one after the other. As the light at the end of that tunnel was seen in the middle of the third year, the confidence returned and with it the smile. I think the decisions made to enter and to continue in the PhD program, in spite of the stumbles and bruises, were so crucial that the attainment of the PhD degree transformed my personality entirely. The achievement of the PhD was the pinnacle and the Research Excellence Award was only an incing on the cake! I cannot even imagine myself existing at peace without such a milestone in my career, and I count each and every small and big decision in that process to be a crucial brick in the skyscraper I have been trying to build.
The walk through that fire also taught me the importance of a life partner who will only work to remove the last traces of self-doubt, and never deter or discourage or suck the time in lesser squabbles, and who can only augment the mental strength required to even pass through the hell if required. More than a few marriage alliances came to me (some with handsome financial "offers"!!) when I was about to graduate with my MS degree (assuming that I will take up a job) and then in the last stages of my PhD. But, the prospect of money and riches never excited me as much as the chance to be in the company of the smart and intelligent people did. The fortune of the continuous company of a well-read, deeply-aware, thoughtful, and intellectually-stimulating person is irreplaceable, at least for me.
When I first became acquainted with Neelima, I ensured several long conversations even before any preliminary decision was made. Neelima and my friends now make fun of me sometimes (in a lighter vein!!) that I quietly slipped in a puzzle in one of those long conversations for her to solve. The puzzle was, "say, you are given a rope with enough length to tightly bind around the earth at the equator; how much additional length of the rope has to be extended to you if you have to bind around the earth at the equator but now one foot above the ground throughout?" (I first heard this from my then peer PhD student Srini, who is now a professor at University of Arizona). I was delighted that Neelima solved it much faster than I did earlier; and my decision after that was only automatic!! Her awareness about the opportunities and challenges really showed me new paths to success, and her courage and support did allow me to take up the implausible adventures; without her the actions could have just been words and thoughts.
Marrying her was the last and the best crucial decision I made; once it was made, taking the rest of the turns was relatively easy as if the best GPS was guiding me!!
POSTSCRIPT: For those applying for MBA at top schools, remember that the admissions committee invariably looks to find in your essays, regarding your decisions, "why you did what you did" than just "what you did".
Tuesday, November 17, 2009
At Kellogg so far
It is now almost three months that my MBA program at Kellogg has begun. So far, things have been very exciting with so much gained. In the midterm exams I scored 100% in two courses (Finance and "Decision Making under Uncertainty") and 90% in the other two courses (Business Strategy and Accounting); but then, it is no big deal - about 50% students in the class score more than 90% in the subject !! So, my performance itself did not excite me much; but, the new concepts I learned and the distinct perspectives and insights I gained in these subjects did enthrall me.
Particularly, the concepts in Finance instantaneously appealed to the natural quantitative and analytical person inside me, and did increase my appetite for more advanced Finance. As I sat through the Finance-1 course and discussed/debated many concepts with the professor, the question that continuously recurred in my mind was "why did I not take up this fascinating subject of Finance earlier?". And, no wonder the Career-Leader assessment (which I took as part of the requirement before the program started at Kellogg) came up with the "Corporate Finance Analysis" as one of the highly recommended post-MBA career paths for me!!
Perhaps, the "Finance guy" was always in me - albeit in a more informal away; as Neelima and I assessed numerous times the finance involved when buying our home - later refinancing the mortgage - and eventually selling the home, when diversifying our investment portfolios in stocks, real estate, and in other resources, when buying or selling our cars, an so on, it was me who raised the capital and did the budgeting while Neelima identified and picked suitable portfolios to invest !!
I won my first three rounds of tennis matches in the Kellogg Tennis club ladder tournament and am due to play the fourth round soon. More than winning, it is always fun playing and meeting new people and making friends as part of this tennis club; I am thrilled to be one in the student community at Kellogg that is ever enthusiastic and ever ready to be part of something that is fun and competitive.
I got elected as my section's academic representative to the Kellogg Student Association (KSA). The secret ballot election did get me majority of votes over my good friend Orlando after a competitive campaigning. While the work as the representative consumes time, I am deeply excited to be part of the body that can make a significant contribution to the academics at Kellogg. While I tried, I did not get selected to positions in the Finance club and one other group. And anyway, my non-selection was a blessing in disguise as I eventually saw the course work and recruiting activities amassed and also found myself somewhat occupied with Aadya's birth and the sale of our home in October.
In a few weeks time, the Fall quarter is coming to an end with our final exams scheduled a week after the Thanksgiving break. I am gearing up to deal with the final exams (I am at the receiving end now, after until more recently being on the other side of the aisle!).
As I travel to Dallas right after the last exam on December 10th, I will have only four days to spend with Vedant before Neelima and kids go to India on 14th to stay there for a while. The thought that I will not be seeing them again until at least March is a bit daunting to me. And it is even more dejecting that the Chicago's insanely egregious temperatures in winter will freeze the time as well!! I only hope that the intense recruiting months of January and February at Kellogg will melt the time faster.
Particularly, the concepts in Finance instantaneously appealed to the natural quantitative and analytical person inside me, and did increase my appetite for more advanced Finance. As I sat through the Finance-1 course and discussed/debated many concepts with the professor, the question that continuously recurred in my mind was "why did I not take up this fascinating subject of Finance earlier?". And, no wonder the Career-Leader assessment (which I took as part of the requirement before the program started at Kellogg) came up with the "Corporate Finance Analysis" as one of the highly recommended post-MBA career paths for me!!
Perhaps, the "Finance guy" was always in me - albeit in a more informal away; as Neelima and I assessed numerous times the finance involved when buying our home - later refinancing the mortgage - and eventually selling the home, when diversifying our investment portfolios in stocks, real estate, and in other resources, when buying or selling our cars, an so on, it was me who raised the capital and did the budgeting while Neelima identified and picked suitable portfolios to invest !!
I won my first three rounds of tennis matches in the Kellogg Tennis club ladder tournament and am due to play the fourth round soon. More than winning, it is always fun playing and meeting new people and making friends as part of this tennis club; I am thrilled to be one in the student community at Kellogg that is ever enthusiastic and ever ready to be part of something that is fun and competitive.
I got elected as my section's academic representative to the Kellogg Student Association (KSA). The secret ballot election did get me majority of votes over my good friend Orlando after a competitive campaigning. While the work as the representative consumes time, I am deeply excited to be part of the body that can make a significant contribution to the academics at Kellogg. While I tried, I did not get selected to positions in the Finance club and one other group. And anyway, my non-selection was a blessing in disguise as I eventually saw the course work and recruiting activities amassed and also found myself somewhat occupied with Aadya's birth and the sale of our home in October.
In a few weeks time, the Fall quarter is coming to an end with our final exams scheduled a week after the Thanksgiving break. I am gearing up to deal with the final exams (I am at the receiving end now, after until more recently being on the other side of the aisle!).
As I travel to Dallas right after the last exam on December 10th, I will have only four days to spend with Vedant before Neelima and kids go to India on 14th to stay there for a while. The thought that I will not be seeing them again until at least March is a bit daunting to me. And it is even more dejecting that the Chicago's insanely egregious temperatures in winter will freeze the time as well!! I only hope that the intense recruiting months of January and February at Kellogg will melt the time faster.
Sunday, November 8, 2009
Who Says Elephants Can't Dance?
Rarely do we find good friends who make a significant difference in our lives and careers. Even rare are bright friends who give us great books, which can deeply enrich our knowledge and thinking. I am fortunate to find both categories of friends at various stages in my life so far. Most recently Durga Prasad, Mangesh, and Nag gave me three good books to read as I left Dallas and embarked on my journey at Kellogg. The first book I read was "Who Says Elephants Can't Dance?" by Louis V. Gerstner.
Lou Gerstner was the Chairman and CEO of IBM from 1993 to 2002, and led its turnaround from the brink of insolvency to the leader in the IT business. Gerstner starts the book with the discussion on how he came about to be chosen as the CEO to lead in the spring of 1993 when most business pundits had written off IBM as one of those fading giants whose time has long passed in the business world. He then discusses a series of critical management and fiscal decisions he had to make to first stem the decline of IBM and then how he had to strategize IBM's revival.
The book provides wonderful insights into the leadership challenges and hard resistance one encounters when trying to transform the culture and thinking and to shift the direction of an institution. Especially, since IBM was perceived to be that huge elephant moving slowly in the technology business world, where the likes of Microsoft, Intel, and other companies were fast changing the rules of the game.
One of the profound questions that the book addresses was, "when the culture at IBM was responsible for its immense growth and unchallenged leadership position in the decades of 50s, 60s, 70s, and in the early 80s, why was the same culture and management style leading to its recent decline?". The book extensively discusses how IBM was founded and built by the legendary Thomas J. Watson Sr., and how his equally legendary son Thomas J. Watson Jr. propelled IBM to the top through the making of mainframe computers. The success of the mainframes made IBM the technology company without a competitor and brought the major share of its revenue. The technological contribution of IBM to the growth of America (and also the world) made people recognize it as a "national treasure". How many non-governmental and/or for-profit institutions can really find themselves being called the pride and treasure of a nation?
But then what happened? Why did IBM start to decline even while it was unarguably still the leading supplier of the mainframes and other technology products. The book provides an astute analysis on how the perception, thinking, and the approach on the customer needs did not adapt to the changes in the market conditions and competitive forces; how the school of thought "build the technologies and the customers will come", which worked during the no-alternative era of mainframes, was continued to be believed at IBM even after the advent of vigorous campaign by Microsoft and Intel (jointly called Wintel!!) that the future is all about desktop computing. While CTOs and technologists at the most of the customer companies of IBM at that time understood and believed that the campaign about desktop computing is not completely true and that the backend computing has much more to offer in the future, IBM's lackadaisical approach to counter the Wintel's campaign did not help things much and eroded its customer base.
Gerstner talks about how he set out to transform the culture to make it more customer centric and orient the thinking to "understand what the customer needs and then build the technologies"; the book provides a detailed account of all the external challenges and internal resistance he faced in trying to bring this change - this is a must read for all of us who know that the most difficult thing for a leader is to bring change in people and in their thinking (but mostly don't know how to achieve that).
Personally, I could also make a connection with the above discussion in the book with my chronic belief that to attain success it is imperative to adapt to one's continuously evolving surroundings and be prepared for any sudden and significant shift in one's situation (in fact, this is the theme of the other book "Who Moved My Cheese" that I recently read on Neelima's behest).
The book also discusses how IBM came about coining the term "e-business", and talks in detail about the future of the e-business. "Who Says Elephants Can't Dance?" is a must read for all the technologists as well as the managers. And, no wonder I found it very engaging and enriching as it appealed to both the technologist and the MBA candidate in me.
Lou Gerstner was the Chairman and CEO of IBM from 1993 to 2002, and led its turnaround from the brink of insolvency to the leader in the IT business. Gerstner starts the book with the discussion on how he came about to be chosen as the CEO to lead in the spring of 1993 when most business pundits had written off IBM as one of those fading giants whose time has long passed in the business world. He then discusses a series of critical management and fiscal decisions he had to make to first stem the decline of IBM and then how he had to strategize IBM's revival.
The book provides wonderful insights into the leadership challenges and hard resistance one encounters when trying to transform the culture and thinking and to shift the direction of an institution. Especially, since IBM was perceived to be that huge elephant moving slowly in the technology business world, where the likes of Microsoft, Intel, and other companies were fast changing the rules of the game.
One of the profound questions that the book addresses was, "when the culture at IBM was responsible for its immense growth and unchallenged leadership position in the decades of 50s, 60s, 70s, and in the early 80s, why was the same culture and management style leading to its recent decline?". The book extensively discusses how IBM was founded and built by the legendary Thomas J. Watson Sr., and how his equally legendary son Thomas J. Watson Jr. propelled IBM to the top through the making of mainframe computers. The success of the mainframes made IBM the technology company without a competitor and brought the major share of its revenue. The technological contribution of IBM to the growth of America (and also the world) made people recognize it as a "national treasure". How many non-governmental and/or for-profit institutions can really find themselves being called the pride and treasure of a nation?
But then what happened? Why did IBM start to decline even while it was unarguably still the leading supplier of the mainframes and other technology products. The book provides an astute analysis on how the perception, thinking, and the approach on the customer needs did not adapt to the changes in the market conditions and competitive forces; how the school of thought "build the technologies and the customers will come", which worked during the no-alternative era of mainframes, was continued to be believed at IBM even after the advent of vigorous campaign by Microsoft and Intel (jointly called Wintel!!) that the future is all about desktop computing. While CTOs and technologists at the most of the customer companies of IBM at that time understood and believed that the campaign about desktop computing is not completely true and that the backend computing has much more to offer in the future, IBM's lackadaisical approach to counter the Wintel's campaign did not help things much and eroded its customer base.
Gerstner talks about how he set out to transform the culture to make it more customer centric and orient the thinking to "understand what the customer needs and then build the technologies"; the book provides a detailed account of all the external challenges and internal resistance he faced in trying to bring this change - this is a must read for all of us who know that the most difficult thing for a leader is to bring change in people and in their thinking (but mostly don't know how to achieve that).
Personally, I could also make a connection with the above discussion in the book with my chronic belief that to attain success it is imperative to adapt to one's continuously evolving surroundings and be prepared for any sudden and significant shift in one's situation (in fact, this is the theme of the other book "Who Moved My Cheese" that I recently read on Neelima's behest).
The book also discusses how IBM came about coining the term "e-business", and talks in detail about the future of the e-business. "Who Says Elephants Can't Dance?" is a must read for all the technologists as well as the managers. And, no wonder I found it very engaging and enriching as it appealed to both the technologist and the MBA candidate in me.
Friday, October 23, 2009
Arrival of Aadya
Our daughter Aadya (means "Unprecedented" in Sanskrit) arrived on October 9th (Friday), bringing us a bundle of joy. Apparently she brought us some luck too. We had our home in Dallas on market for sale for more than a few months, and slowly we were getting disheartened as no acceptable offers were seen. All of a sudden, the same day Aadya was born and when we all were absorbed in that special episode of life, our real estate agent called me and forwarded a decent offer from a buyer. I had to quickly put things together to negotiate, finalize, and clinch the deal. Fortunately, I could find time to conclude and sign the contract before I left Dallas on Monday.
In September, as the expected due date of 9th October for our daughter's arrival was nearing, I was getting a bit nervous hoping that the baby will wait until October. While it was more convenient for me to plan my travel to Dallas in October than in September because of my tight schedule at Kellogg, the more compelling reason for my hope was different and perhaps a bit romantic !!
Here is the picture of Vedant with Aadya on the day she was born. Many of our friends and relatives have appreciated the names to be very beautiful and charming. In fact many have asked us if (and some even assumed) it was me who came up with the names because of my reading and interest in Sanskrit and Telugu literature. So, how did we arrive at these names? It was simple for me while surprising for many. It was Neelima who first thought of the names. I just accepted them as I could not think of any other names more beautiful !!
In September, as the expected due date of 9th October for our daughter's arrival was nearing, I was getting a bit nervous hoping that the baby will wait until October. While it was more convenient for me to plan my travel to Dallas in October than in September because of my tight schedule at Kellogg, the more compelling reason for my hope was different and perhaps a bit romantic !!
Our son Vedant (means "Scholar" in Sanskrit) and both Neelima and myself were all October-born, and no prizes for guessing that we wanted our daughter too to be born in October. Of course, now we see that people do not believe us when we say that it was not a deliberate plan and the "October family" just happened. By the way, Shwetha (Neelima's younger sister) too is an October-born and we certainly want both our kids to get her intelligence, focus, and determination and follow her in her accomplishments.
Here is the picture of Vedant with Aadya on the day she was born. Many of our friends and relatives have appreciated the names to be very beautiful and charming. In fact many have asked us if (and some even assumed) it was me who came up with the names because of my reading and interest in Sanskrit and Telugu literature. So, how did we arrive at these names? It was simple for me while surprising for many. It was Neelima who first thought of the names. I just accepted them as I could not think of any other names more beautiful !!Three years ago, within the three minutes Vedant was born he was placed in my hands. It was such a peerless joy that I could see the minutes melting away quickly, transforming into hours and then days and then months and years as he grew up fast by the time Aadya arrived. Every moment of my thrill of seeing him crawl the first time, and then walk and speak,and then run and eventually play football with me has been preserved. But, now while I miss him a lot I also feel doubly sad to miss all those special moments with my daughter. These days Neelima and I talk about this a lot and then just feel better that our hard work and sacrifices will certainly create even more larger opportunities for them.
And, what else better can we give to our kids than a solid foundation of our cumulative experience, knowledge, and wisdom, over which they can build greater things for the world to benefit.
Monday, October 19, 2009
An unprecedented honor
It was around 10.30 in the night and I was working seriously on my course assignments. The phone rang and it was my mother from India. I could immediately sense the tremble in her voice due to some surprise or shock, and became concerned. But then, after what I heard form her, it was my turn to be surprised. She said my picture with a profile was just published in the local newspaper that morning (it was morning there in India when she called). My mind went blank for a split second; then it quickly ran through all the wildest possible reasons how in the world
that could happen !!! The funniest thought that came to my mind was whether someone made some mistake in advertising about the missing persons !!!! But then I thought who will even try to publish about me as missing, when everyone in my family knows where and how to reach me in two seconds in this age of technology!! It sometimes fascinates me how fast the brain can process numerous permutations and combinations of information within a split second.
It turned out, my alma mater National Institute of Technology - Warangal (NITW - formerly Regional Engineering College or RECW) ran an article in the newspaper on the distinguished alumni of the institution and they profiled me among the twenty or so such graduates in the last 50 years. NITW is celebrating its Golden Jubilee this year and ran the article with the title "Apoorva Medhavulu" which means "Unprecedented Laureates" (see below the article).
I could not but contain my thrill for a moment on such a rarest of rare honor. I could realize that if I felt that way, how much my parents must be on the top of the clouds. My mother told me that she cried out of joy when my father first noticed and showed the article to her. Next day, as I flew to Dallas just in time for the arrival of our baby, Neelima and her mother looked up the publication on the Internet and were very excited. And, what a thrill as this happened just the day before our daughter Aadya (means "Unprecedented" in Sanskrit) was born. In the past week, as things settled down and I returned to Chicago, I wrote to the Dean of NITW how much I was elated and equally humbled at the honor. I feel I do not yet deserve such a distinction to be placed among stalwarts, as I have so much more to accomplish. Every institution and gathering that I went so far to explore, I always found great minds and inspiring personalities; compared to them I am just a midget.
But, now that the words have been spoken and the recognition has inadvertently been granted, it has become my responsibility to live up to the expectations and show the path to the future
alumni. It is such a heavy burden to carry and its weight can be felt by only those who earn it!!!
that could happen !!! The funniest thought that came to my mind was whether someone made some mistake in advertising about the missing persons !!!! But then I thought who will even try to publish about me as missing, when everyone in my family knows where and how to reach me in two seconds in this age of technology!! It sometimes fascinates me how fast the brain can process numerous permutations and combinations of information within a split second.
It turned out, my alma mater National Institute of Technology - Warangal (NITW - formerly Regional Engineering College or RECW) ran an article in the newspaper on the distinguished alumni of the institution and they profiled me among the twenty or so such graduates in the last 50 years. NITW is celebrating its Golden Jubilee this year and ran the article with the title "Apoorva Medhavulu" which means "Unprecedented Laureates" (see below the article).
I could not but contain my thrill for a moment on such a rarest of rare honor. I could realize that if I felt that way, how much my parents must be on the top of the clouds. My mother told me that she cried out of joy when my father first noticed and showed the article to her. Next day, as I flew to Dallas just in time for the arrival of our baby, Neelima and her mother looked up the publication on the Internet and were very excited. And, what a thrill as this happened just the day before our daughter Aadya (means "Unprecedented" in Sanskrit) was born. In the past week, as things settled down and I returned to Chicago, I wrote to the Dean of NITW how much I was elated and equally humbled at the honor. I feel I do not yet deserve such a distinction to be placed among stalwarts, as I have so much more to accomplish. Every institution and gathering that I went so far to explore, I always found great minds and inspiring personalities; compared to them I am just a midget.
But, now that the words have been spoken and the recognition has inadvertently been granted, it has become my responsibility to live up to the expectations and show the path to the future
alumni. It is such a heavy burden to carry and its weight can be felt by only those who earn it!!!
Sunday, October 4, 2009
Want to be a professor or a student?
How does it feel to be a student after being a professor? How does it feel to do homeworks, assignments, and projects after being a professor? These were the kind of questions, in different variations, I face these days.
My response surprises majority of my questioners. It is much harder and more challenging to be a professor than to be a student. And it is much more fun to be a student !! Of course, my current fun filled experience as a student is certainly augmented by an extraordinary student life environment created at Kellogg.
But in general, what is so difficult about being a professor? After all, teaching is not that hard. In the past five years, whenever I tell people that I am (was) a professor, more than 80% of the time they ask me, "what do (did) you teach?". Only the awared ones, rather rarely, would ask me, "what is (was) your research subject?". People often tend to attribute the job of a professor to only teaching classes. There were several occasions when my own friends, relatives, and acquaintances said, "what a cool job you have with no pressures and hassles...you just have to teach classes and spend rest of the time with the family....you get so much vacation including the summer...and so on". And, in fact majority of students think the same about the professor. I think the opinion is formed as they see only the frontend - what the professor does in class in front of hundreds, while they are not aware of the backend role - what the professor and the team does in his/her research lab. In my career as a professor, I saw that I was spending 75% of my time and efforts on my research program, 20% on teaching, and 5% in administrative activities and service to the scientific community. Many do not realize that a research lab run/led by a professor is like a start-up company. While young faculty are given some seed money to start the research lab, they are responsible to raise money through grant writing and industry collaborations to build and financially sustain their research programs. I am only understating the challenge when I say that only 1 out of 10 grant proposals are funded by the federal funding agencies (NSF, DARPA, NIH, etc) or the industry research consortiums (SRC). And all researchers - young & experienced, from top tier institutions & not so great schools, alone & collaborative teams - have to compete for the grant money. That makes the money raising part of the research program most challenging and that consumed a significant portion of my time and efforts.
As the inputs (finances) will not flow unless until a credible research program is built through valuable outputs (quality publications and innovations), it becomes imperative to find good problems, solve them, and publish the work. This in turn requires the assistance of quality graduate research students (PhD and MS students), which is always a kind of gamble. I have never come across a professor who has not burnt his/her hands in recruiting a PhD student. When a prospective PhD student is smart and intelligent, we often find the student wavering or undependable or lackadaisical. And, if the student is enthusiastic about research and is determined and hard working, we often find the student lacking the required intellectual capabilities. Even if we find someone with the desired attributes, we often find them lacking good soft skills (communication and writing skills) making it hard for the professor to walk the student through the research quagmire.
Rarely do we find an ideal student, and when we find, it is a great pleasure to advise and lead such students. Among the dozen or so students I advised in their theses/dissertations I was unlucky to get only a few great students. A world renowned researcher once told me that it is much more worse to have a bad PhD student than to not have a PhD student at all. I learnt the
lesson only the hard way. A few bad research students costed me much more than they could ever realize. And, perhaps my soft nature in hiring and firing did contribute to the cost.
There are many more ingrained challenges in a professor's job that is hard to explain in this space. For example, how to find a good research problem/project that can be acceptable to the scientific community and that can further enrich the ever growing body of knowledge? (no one tells you what to pursue and more importantly what not to - you have to make the call). Who are the right people, across the world in academia and industry, with whom one can build successful collaborations or partnerships? These are but only a few of the several challenges that many times we find overwhelming to handle.
Having experienced the above, I find it a bit relaxing to get into the role of a student. Of course, one cannot stay as a formal student forever and is eventually required to take up a job (perhaps for the simple reason that one has to feed the family and pay the bills !!!). I indeed look forward to taking up a much more challenging career after my MBA and continue to be an informal student, as I believe that every profession demands one to be a constant student of the knowledge and the surroundings.
My response surprises majority of my questioners. It is much harder and more challenging to be a professor than to be a student. And it is much more fun to be a student !! Of course, my current fun filled experience as a student is certainly augmented by an extraordinary student life environment created at Kellogg.
But in general, what is so difficult about being a professor? After all, teaching is not that hard. In the past five years, whenever I tell people that I am (was) a professor, more than 80% of the time they ask me, "what do (did) you teach?". Only the awared ones, rather rarely, would ask me, "what is (was) your research subject?". People often tend to attribute the job of a professor to only teaching classes. There were several occasions when my own friends, relatives, and acquaintances said, "what a cool job you have with no pressures and hassles...you just have to teach classes and spend rest of the time with the family....you get so much vacation including the summer...and so on". And, in fact majority of students think the same about the professor. I think the opinion is formed as they see only the frontend - what the professor does in class in front of hundreds, while they are not aware of the backend role - what the professor and the team does in his/her research lab. In my career as a professor, I saw that I was spending 75% of my time and efforts on my research program, 20% on teaching, and 5% in administrative activities and service to the scientific community. Many do not realize that a research lab run/led by a professor is like a start-up company. While young faculty are given some seed money to start the research lab, they are responsible to raise money through grant writing and industry collaborations to build and financially sustain their research programs. I am only understating the challenge when I say that only 1 out of 10 grant proposals are funded by the federal funding agencies (NSF, DARPA, NIH, etc) or the industry research consortiums (SRC). And all researchers - young & experienced, from top tier institutions & not so great schools, alone & collaborative teams - have to compete for the grant money. That makes the money raising part of the research program most challenging and that consumed a significant portion of my time and efforts.
As the inputs (finances) will not flow unless until a credible research program is built through valuable outputs (quality publications and innovations), it becomes imperative to find good problems, solve them, and publish the work. This in turn requires the assistance of quality graduate research students (PhD and MS students), which is always a kind of gamble. I have never come across a professor who has not burnt his/her hands in recruiting a PhD student. When a prospective PhD student is smart and intelligent, we often find the student wavering or undependable or lackadaisical. And, if the student is enthusiastic about research and is determined and hard working, we often find the student lacking the required intellectual capabilities. Even if we find someone with the desired attributes, we often find them lacking good soft skills (communication and writing skills) making it hard for the professor to walk the student through the research quagmire.
Rarely do we find an ideal student, and when we find, it is a great pleasure to advise and lead such students. Among the dozen or so students I advised in their theses/dissertations I was unlucky to get only a few great students. A world renowned researcher once told me that it is much more worse to have a bad PhD student than to not have a PhD student at all. I learnt the
lesson only the hard way. A few bad research students costed me much more than they could ever realize. And, perhaps my soft nature in hiring and firing did contribute to the cost.
There are many more ingrained challenges in a professor's job that is hard to explain in this space. For example, how to find a good research problem/project that can be acceptable to the scientific community and that can further enrich the ever growing body of knowledge? (no one tells you what to pursue and more importantly what not to - you have to make the call). Who are the right people, across the world in academia and industry, with whom one can build successful collaborations or partnerships? These are but only a few of the several challenges that many times we find overwhelming to handle.
Having experienced the above, I find it a bit relaxing to get into the role of a student. Of course, one cannot stay as a formal student forever and is eventually required to take up a job (perhaps for the simple reason that one has to feed the family and pay the bills !!!). I indeed look forward to taking up a much more challenging career after my MBA and continue to be an informal student, as I believe that every profession demands one to be a constant student of the knowledge and the surroundings.
Sunday, September 27, 2009
Leadership and Perception
During one of the events in the CIM, the 77 MBA candidates in our section were surveyed with questions on leadership and self-assessment. Q1: How do you rank yourself in terms of leadership ability? (it was left open for our interpretation as to the base population for comparison). Only when every one of us had written down our response we were presented the next question. Q2: Now, how do you rank your leadership ability, compared to everyone in this classroom? As I placed myself in the top 25% category for Q1 and in the average category for Q2, I was curious how my classmates perceived themselves.
Here are the results gathered from the survey:
While I could see that the majority of my fellow MBA candidates responded to successive questions the same way I did, the results surprised me in several aspects. There is no doubt that every one who was admitted into Kellogg exhibited strong leadership qualities at some time or the other and are usually considered to be the top candidates in the world. Then, what made the majority of candidates place themselves in top 25% or in the average categories instead of in the top 10% category?
One of the main sociological concepts we are being taught here are the biases (due to the Availability heuristics) that impede the ability to make sound decisions. In short, the availability bias clouds the judgement as the mind quickly recalls only recent experiences or any information strongly imprinted in the memory and tends to ignore more valid and wider information, and also tends to be insensitive to the base comparison rates. For our leadership experiences, we tend to recollect any personal experiences we had at work or in other activities, and relate them to the outcomes. Most likely, these individual experiences would have involved either a team of competent people with strong views or a complex task and/or a situation assigned by superiors based on the individual's perceived capabilities. And at least for me, my failures have made a far more significant impact on my mind than my successes. As we tend to judge ourselves based on the outcomes from those challenging situations, we may be rating our leadership abilities a bit conservatively.
Here are the results gathered from the survey:
While I could see that the majority of my fellow MBA candidates responded to successive questions the same way I did, the results surprised me in several aspects. There is no doubt that every one who was admitted into Kellogg exhibited strong leadership qualities at some time or the other and are usually considered to be the top candidates in the world. Then, what made the majority of candidates place themselves in top 25% or in the average categories instead of in the top 10% category?
One of the main sociological concepts we are being taught here are the biases (due to the Availability heuristics) that impede the ability to make sound decisions. In short, the availability bias clouds the judgement as the mind quickly recalls only recent experiences or any information strongly imprinted in the memory and tends to ignore more valid and wider information, and also tends to be insensitive to the base comparison rates. For our leadership experiences, we tend to recollect any personal experiences we had at work or in other activities, and relate them to the outcomes. Most likely, these individual experiences would have involved either a team of competent people with strong views or a complex task and/or a situation assigned by superiors based on the individual's perceived capabilities. And at least for me, my failures have made a far more significant impact on my mind than my successes. As we tend to judge ourselves based on the outcomes from those challenging situations, we may be rating our leadership abilities a bit conservatively.
But then as I write this, an even more fundamental question is pricking my mind. Is there one and only definition for leadership? Was it not possible that the 77 people perceived the question of leadership in 77 different ways? For example, one might have unwittingly provided leadership at work or at personal activities or in dealing with social responsibilities. One might have consciously made efforts to overcome a personal tragedy or might have helped others to overcome their losses, without realizing that all these efforts constitute one or other form of leadership. The experiences can be either deeply personal involving only self or clearly plural involving multiple entities. While each one of us certainly has a large number of experiences constantly accumulated and stored in our mind as a large mass, we tend to throw only a smaller mass for others to catch.
It is always almost impossible to convey our experiences to others in the exact form as we see them (of course, if I can do that then they no longer will be "my own experiences" but rather will be "everybody's experiences" !!!). Besides, we tend to make minimal efforts in conveying our abilities and experiences, as we overestimate (because of the Illusion of Transparency) the extent to which our thoughts are understood by others. And, undoubtedly the predominant usage of many modes of asynchronous communication (such as emails, blogs, voice mails, text messages, etc.) instead of the synchronous modes of communication (such as face-to-face, direct telephone, etc.) is exacerbating this illusion.
Sunday, September 20, 2009
Complete Immersion in Management
The CIM has finally come to an end. These past three weeks have been extraordinary. I cannot imagine there is any other better way to start the intensive two-year program at the Kellogg School.
We had a great deal of fun......each of of us were made to memorize the names of the rest of the 76 members in our section (Jive Turkeys) within the first week through namegame and other activities. We did paint our faces and wore the turkey attires and competed with the other seven sections in the cheering competition !! It was like being in a football stadium cheering at the peak of the voice.....the instructions were clear...if you do not lose your voice by the end of the day, you did not stretch your lungs enough !!!!!!!!
And then came the Amazing Race competition. I volunteered to be part of the Evanston team, which is responsible to run all over the city from one clue station to the other as fast as it can. Perhaps, I was overenthusiastic and overestimated my abilities to run long distances at a faster pace. I could have chosen to be on the Northwestern team (which has to run all over the university campus chasing the clues). Though I usually run a lot, I was amazed to see the speed of the other team members and found it hard to keep up with them after the 5th or 6th station. In the race, at each station the team could get the next clue only after all the team members reach the station and are accounted for. And, it felt bad as I was slowing down the team. But then the surprising thing happened. Marcelo, for all his agility and speed could have easily stayed ahead of the team. Instead he slowed down and stayed behind me through the rest of the race and kept encouraging me to run without stopping. At the end of it, I could not help but admire the team spirit among the members who didn't even know each other a couple of days earlier. The Amazing Race truly turned out to be an amazing experience for me.
The Section Showcase and the CIM Olympics were great fun in preparing, strategizing, and executing each and every bit of the competition as one team of 77 members.
In the midst of all this, the Leadership in Organizations course started with daily 3-hour classes for two weeks. With its demand for extensive reading and case studies, people were just waiting for the course to come to an end. But, it was a great learning experience with deep insights into building and leading effective teams, biases and flaws in decision making processes, influence tactics, negotiation strategies, and strategy for implementing changes in organizations. The legoman exercise was truly an experiential learning. Our team did well in using all the 40 minutes allocated for developing the strategy and in division of labor, and finally used only 2 minutes and 3 secs for executing the strategy. The important lesson the class learnt from the experiences of all the teams was that the execution time is inversely proportional to the planning time, and with the execution time being much more expensive than the planning time in the real world, it is absolutely imperative to plan well before the actual implementation starts.
That our section won the overall CIM championship was a nice icing on the cake. Is winning a habit? Because, the Turkeys section have won the championship four times in the last five years, and they came 2nd the only time they lost. Some say, it is not about winning or losing but more importantly about learning. But, we learn from winning as much as we do from losing, if we pay attention and not get lost in the euphoria. Winning presents the chance to build further and improvise the strategy and gives the confidence to execute the strategy.
I am here to learn and also win by reaching my objective. The new quarter begins on Monday, and I am all set to explore the arts of accounting, finance, business strategy, and management decisions. It is going to be twice the excitement for me with the expected arrival of our daughter in the next few weeks !!!!!!
We had a great deal of fun......each of of us were made to memorize the names of the rest of the 76 members in our section (Jive Turkeys) within the first week through namegame and other activities. We did paint our faces and wore the turkey attires and competed with the other seven sections in the cheering competition !! It was like being in a football stadium cheering at the peak of the voice.....the instructions were clear...if you do not lose your voice by the end of the day, you did not stretch your lungs enough !!!!!!!!
And then came the Amazing Race competition. I volunteered to be part of the Evanston team, which is responsible to run all over the city from one clue station to the other as fast as it can. Perhaps, I was overenthusiastic and overestimated my abilities to run long distances at a faster pace. I could have chosen to be on the Northwestern team (which has to run all over the university campus chasing the clues). Though I usually run a lot, I was amazed to see the speed of the other team members and found it hard to keep up with them after the 5th or 6th station. In the race, at each station the team could get the next clue only after all the team members reach the station and are accounted for. And, it felt bad as I was slowing down the team. But then the surprising thing happened. Marcelo, for all his agility and speed could have easily stayed ahead of the team. Instead he slowed down and stayed behind me through the rest of the race and kept encouraging me to run without stopping. At the end of it, I could not help but admire the team spirit among the members who didn't even know each other a couple of days earlier. The Amazing Race truly turned out to be an amazing experience for me.
The Section Showcase and the CIM Olympics were great fun in preparing, strategizing, and executing each and every bit of the competition as one team of 77 members.
In the midst of all this, the Leadership in Organizations course started with daily 3-hour classes for two weeks. With its demand for extensive reading and case studies, people were just waiting for the course to come to an end. But, it was a great learning experience with deep insights into building and leading effective teams, biases and flaws in decision making processes, influence tactics, negotiation strategies, and strategy for implementing changes in organizations. The legoman exercise was truly an experiential learning. Our team did well in using all the 40 minutes allocated for developing the strategy and in division of labor, and finally used only 2 minutes and 3 secs for executing the strategy. The important lesson the class learnt from the experiences of all the teams was that the execution time is inversely proportional to the planning time, and with the execution time being much more expensive than the planning time in the real world, it is absolutely imperative to plan well before the actual implementation starts.
That our section won the overall CIM championship was a nice icing on the cake. Is winning a habit? Because, the Turkeys section have won the championship four times in the last five years, and they came 2nd the only time they lost. Some say, it is not about winning or losing but more importantly about learning. But, we learn from winning as much as we do from losing, if we pay attention and not get lost in the euphoria. Winning presents the chance to build further and improvise the strategy and gives the confidence to execute the strategy.
I am here to learn and also win by reaching my objective. The new quarter begins on Monday, and I am all set to explore the arts of accounting, finance, business strategy, and management decisions. It is going to be twice the excitement for me with the expected arrival of our daughter in the next few weeks !!!!!!
Monday, September 7, 2009
Opportunity and timing
Neelima and I felt ecstatic at the first moment we received the admission confirmation from the Kellogg School of management. And then the very next moment we sensed a strange sweet and sour feeling; may be it was the nervousness trying to abate the excitement. The reason...we were pregnant and our second kid is due in October !!
We knew we worked so hard for over an year for admission into the Kellogg School and we knew how much we wanted it, and that we will not miss the opportunity at any cost. But, there were so many questions; how will we take care of Vedant and handle the arrival of new baby? Will the move to the Chicago area make things easy or difficult for us and the kids? What will we do about Neelima's job in Dallas that she likes so much? How do we take care of selling the home and cars? What about finances? If I move alone, are we ready to make sacrifices in living apart for two years? If so, can Neelima handle both kids while I am slogging it out at school?
Perhaps, it would have been a lot easier to sort out things, had we been not on the way for our second kid. But, could we have afforded to wait for a longer time for our second kid and get pregnant only after the admissions process was decided either way? Perhaps not.
One thing I had learnt early in my highly-strenuous academic career (of course, I was lucky to get an excellent mentor who explicitly advised me in this regard) was to not postpone any personal happenings that bring joy for the sake of something in career that is not guaranteed. In the research career, the percentage of rejections or failures is disproportionately higher than the success rate, and possessing an anchor in personal life undoubtedly helps to remain sane !!! I have seen someone not getting married or not having kids at all while working hard to get either tenure or promotion or something else. I believed that if I fail in worst case to accomplish whatever I set out to get, at least I should have some beautiful things left with me to not feel devastated.........and, only Neelima and I know how much correct it proved out to be in our life !!
Often people are shocked when I tell them that eleven years ago when I had to choose between the girl I liked (and intended to marry) and the ambition to pursue an advanced degree (PhD), I was clear in making the decision. I was sensing that the personal relation was putting up a roadblock in what I wanted to pursue and so did not hesitate to let it go.
Did I repeat the same thing again now when I left behind my family in Dallas and moved to Evanston alone? In fact, this time I was very hesitant and concerned to leave Neelima and Vedant in Dallas. But for the strength and determination of Neelima and the unflinching support of her parents and her sister, I could not have done it so easily. More than me, Neelima was particular that I should take up this opportunity and that we should make things work out in our favor. I was lucky to have the family that understands the importance of this transition. All the credit goes to my in-laws for alleviating the troubles in our transition.
The point is, opportunity rarely shows up when the time is right for you. You have to make the time and things work out for you when the opportunity is at the door. Because, the possibility of the opportunity returning to you the second time is as rare as the lightning striking twice at the same place. I believe that one has to decide (on one's own) what is most important and puruse it with focus, quickly securing the things that one cannot live without and leaving behind the rest.
As we made this transition, Neelima and I are still looking to answer some of the questions we faced months ago. But in this process of transition, we certainly evolved stronger and wiser, and are better prepared to face the upcoming challenges.
We knew we worked so hard for over an year for admission into the Kellogg School and we knew how much we wanted it, and that we will not miss the opportunity at any cost. But, there were so many questions; how will we take care of Vedant and handle the arrival of new baby? Will the move to the Chicago area make things easy or difficult for us and the kids? What will we do about Neelima's job in Dallas that she likes so much? How do we take care of selling the home and cars? What about finances? If I move alone, are we ready to make sacrifices in living apart for two years? If so, can Neelima handle both kids while I am slogging it out at school?
Perhaps, it would have been a lot easier to sort out things, had we been not on the way for our second kid. But, could we have afforded to wait for a longer time for our second kid and get pregnant only after the admissions process was decided either way? Perhaps not.
One thing I had learnt early in my highly-strenuous academic career (of course, I was lucky to get an excellent mentor who explicitly advised me in this regard) was to not postpone any personal happenings that bring joy for the sake of something in career that is not guaranteed. In the research career, the percentage of rejections or failures is disproportionately higher than the success rate, and possessing an anchor in personal life undoubtedly helps to remain sane !!! I have seen someone not getting married or not having kids at all while working hard to get either tenure or promotion or something else. I believed that if I fail in worst case to accomplish whatever I set out to get, at least I should have some beautiful things left with me to not feel devastated.........and, only Neelima and I know how much correct it proved out to be in our life !!
Often people are shocked when I tell them that eleven years ago when I had to choose between the girl I liked (and intended to marry) and the ambition to pursue an advanced degree (PhD), I was clear in making the decision. I was sensing that the personal relation was putting up a roadblock in what I wanted to pursue and so did not hesitate to let it go.
Did I repeat the same thing again now when I left behind my family in Dallas and moved to Evanston alone? In fact, this time I was very hesitant and concerned to leave Neelima and Vedant in Dallas. But for the strength and determination of Neelima and the unflinching support of her parents and her sister, I could not have done it so easily. More than me, Neelima was particular that I should take up this opportunity and that we should make things work out in our favor. I was lucky to have the family that understands the importance of this transition. All the credit goes to my in-laws for alleviating the troubles in our transition.
The point is, opportunity rarely shows up when the time is right for you. You have to make the time and things work out for you when the opportunity is at the door. Because, the possibility of the opportunity returning to you the second time is as rare as the lightning striking twice at the same place. I believe that one has to decide (on one's own) what is most important and puruse it with focus, quickly securing the things that one cannot live without and leaving behind the rest.
As we made this transition, Neelima and I are still looking to answer some of the questions we faced months ago. But in this process of transition, we certainly evolved stronger and wiser, and are better prepared to face the upcoming challenges.
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