Learning in and outside the class-room

Cambridge provides a safe environment to learn and experiment new things. One thing I really enjoyed learning during this term was Cuban Salsa. This has been a unique experience for me as I had never before tried any form of dance. Every Tuesday at Darwin we have a Salsa session and it is really cool.

In the class-room I learn as much from my fellow class-mates as I do from the lecturers. For example when we were talking of Japanese Business Culture, our Japanese friends were a greater source of information than any text-book written on the subject.

Outside the class-room, we have so many guest lectures and leaders from the industry providing insights. Most of them are inspirational and practical in nature. A few of them turned out to be a bit boring. However, it is a good practice to attend these sessions as there is always some information that is interesting in all these session.

Moving on to the teaching quality in JBS. The quality and the involvement of the lecturers/professors has been great. They are quite open to ideas and spend a lot of time to get the basics right. During this term we had 11 lecturers teaching us.
In terms of the quality of the lecturers/professors, I would like to classify them in the following categories
1) Excellent - 20% (I would love to attend any class on any subject conducted by these folks)
2) Good - 20% (Subject Matter experts who can give good practical examples and capture the audience)
3) Meet Expectation - 55% (Real cool folks who have great knowledge and can teach in a very systematic and nice way. They are folks who are great teachers and meet my expectations).
4) Below Expectation - 5% (Folks who are subject matter experts but cannot entice their audience for a long time)
5) Poor - 0% (Have not come across anybody who fall in this category)

This opinion and classification is purely based on my observations and may be different from the opinion of my other class-mates.

On-line social networking - what does this mean for big businesses (Jeff Patmore)

The Business Technology Special Interest Group organized a talk by Jeff Patmore (Head of Strategic University Research at BT) about Online Social Networking and its impact on big businesses.

It was a very delightful and insightful talk about Web 2.0. I learnt more about the latest trends and fashions in the networked world. Jeff brings along a lot of enthusiasm and experience in his interaction and I should say it was contagious.

Please find below a few links that I found very useful.

1) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6gmP4nk0EOE (Web 2.0 ... The Machine is US/ing US)

2) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dGCJ46vyR9o (A vision of students today)
3) http://www.rocketboom.com/vlog/ (The most successful online daily news capsule)

The world is changing all around and it is very essential to learn and collaborate in the Web 2.0 world.

Silicon Valley Connect comes to Cambridge

From the 15th through the 17th of November, we had the Silicon Valley Connects comes to Cambridge program at the Business School. It was a great event and an opportunity to know as to what was the buzz on the other side of the Atlantic Ocean (or should I say Pacific Ocean).

There were quite a lot events (including debates, panel discussion and networking events). I attend a few of them and found it very insightful. The events I attended are listed below

1) The teams behind the "Hi-Tech" companies....How do we do it now? Who do we need now? - A panel discussion with Megan Smith (Google :VP - New Business Development) and Reid Hoffman (Founder LinkedIn).

2) Enterprise 2.0: How big companies use lessons from customer Internet so they survive? - A panel discussion with Ellen Levy (Founder of Silicon Connect), Allen Morgan (Managing Director of Mayfield Funds), Ted Shelton (Managing Partner -The Conversation Group) and Julie Farris (Founder of Scalix)

3) Working for a big company versus a start-up. Why Choose? - A panel discussion with Megan Smith (Google), Julie Farris (Sclaix) and James Slavet (General Partner, Greylock)

4) Hot trends in the valley - A panel discussion with Chris Coffman (Library House), Brett Bullington (Angel Investor), Hans Peter Brondmo (Plum), Kara Swisher (AllthingsD) and Ted Shelton (TCG)

Quite a great time to learn about the new things that are driving businesses.

Creation of Indian Multinational Corporation (Alan Rosling)

Today we got a chance to listen to the views of Alan Rosling about the creation of an Indian Multinational Corporation (Tata). Alan is the Executive Director of Tata Sons (one of the largest conglomerates in India with a revenue of about US$ 22 billion). His presentation was based on facts and numbers and was very useful. In terms of the long-term, he believed India is definitely a place to invest and grow the business in. Indian companies have been very active in the merger and acquisition space. Indian companies are now providing quality service/goods (there are three times the number of SEI-CMM level 5 companies in India in comparison to the rest of the world).

On a one-to-one comparison with China, India is way behind in attracting foreign investments and providing infrastructure. However, India has a good knowledge base and can build up on its Intellectual Property. Alan sounded like a firm believer in the Indian story and I really appreciate his grasp on numbers related to India and Indian businesses.

I believe that India is at the threshold of a great opportunity and should effectively use its strengths to foster international trade and build great companies.

Leading in times of Change by Jerry Rao

Jerry Rao is a well know figure in the IT industry. He sold the comapany (MphasiS) he had founded to EDS. His still continues as Chairman of MphasiS.

It was nice to hear Jerry talk about the 'Integration' of MphasiS in to EDS and the way the merger went about. Quite an insightful and frank talk. Surprisingly, he even talked about the hard part of being in business and firing people when the personal goals are not in alignment with the companies goals. He meticulously stressed that leaders are not born but made. There are leaders who can outperform under specific circumstances and are not fit to be a leader during other times. A good example he quoted was that of Moses. The God of the Hebrews choose Moses to liberate the Jews from Egypt; but later gave the leadership to Joshua to lead the Jews out of the desert. The followers also have a great role to play in making a successful leader.

I quite liked the frank straight talk offered by Jerry. One of the biggest advantages of being in Cambridge is the chance to listen to talks and interact with folks who have made a difference in their professional and personal lives.