The Christmas Party at Sir Paul Judge's house

We had a bash of a Christmas party at Sir Paul Judge's house in London. It was a great place (a penthouse overlooking the Thames river). Almost everyone from the MBA class was there for the party.

A few pictures from that event.

Leadership seminar with Lord Swaraj Paul

Lord Swaraj Paul did a talk about Leadership and Innovation at JBS on the 5th of December. He was more of an old style speaker and read most of his speech. However, it was a very punchy and influential talk. It was about the lessons he learnt on his journey establishing a company that has a revenue of over £600 million. He started his first company in Cambridge with a sum of £5,000, which he had borrowed.

One of the important things he did (and the best in his 16 years in his business career) was the de-listing of his company from the stock-exchanges. His view is that once the company is listed, it becomes essential to please the city and the short-term goals of the business takes priority. It is much easier to borrow money from the banks and the borrowing also ensures that you get a free consultant on board who gives free advice and ensures that money is efficiently spent. His company is going gaga about India and China and are setting up a number of plants in both countries.

The Christmas Party

We had our Christmas Party at the Business School hosted by Cisco. It was a lot of fun. Yours truly was the Santa Claus. In the afternoon there was a special event for kids and partners.

Leadership Seminar by John Fraser

On the 26th of November we had a Leadership Seminar by John Faser (Chairman and CEO of UBS Global Asset Management).

He talked about financial markets, the weak dollar, asset management business, sovereign funds and leadership.

It was a plain straight and frank talk. It was very useful for me to understand the way the asset management business worked.

The key take-away was that the dollar might not see much of a down-side now and might appreciate in the future.

For more information check this out
http://www.jbs.cam.ac.uk/news/spotlight/2007/0712_speaker_fraser.html

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.

Enterprise Tuesday 2 (Lifestyle or Global Business" by Eric Baker)

The talk about "Lifestyle or Global Business" by Eric Baker founder and CEO of Viagogo and StarHub was an inspiring one. It was a frank talk about Entrepreneurial aspirations, markets and global business.

The key factors for a successful entrepreneur according to Eric were
1) Independent Thinker
2) Deal well with uncertainty and risk
3) Willing to take responsibility
4) Tenacious and persistent
5) Passionate - enjoying the journey
6) Ability to communicate and lead

Above all "You cannot succeed if you do not try".

I was really moved by his passion and ability to communicate so well.

For more information, please link on to http://www.cfel.jbs.cam.ac.uk/programmes/enterprise/timetable.html

Enterprise Tuesday 1 (Motivation - Why we do it? )

Cambridge offers great opportunities for people aspiring to be entrepreneurs. Judge Business Schools Centre for Entrepreneurial Learning orchestrates the entrepreneurial interest through various programmes. One of the key programme is the "Enterprise Tuesday", where in entrepreneurs, venture capitalists and angles take about enterpreneur-ship.

This Tuesday (23rd Oct), we had a talk by Alex van Somersen and Dr. Nicko van Somersen about their motivation to be entrepreneurs. They are founders of nCipher (http://www.ncipher.com/) and ANT (http://www.antlimited.com/), which are listed on the London Stock Exchange. They spoke about their passion and the motivating factors that led to establishing their companies.

The key mantras to take away from their talk were
1) Idea
2) Team
3) Investors - They got their investor by accident at a Hotel lobby in the US
4) Market
5) Customers
6) Advisors
7) Luck

It was a real cool session and I enjoyed it as well. Looking forward to next session by Eric Baker (who sold his company to eBay for US$307m) about "Lifestyle or Global Business" on the 30th of Oct.

For more information, please link on to http://www.cfel.jbs.cam.ac.uk/programmes/enterprise/timetable.html

The first month

A few pictures to highlight the fun and excitement of the MBA.

Wow !!! We just completed one month of our MBA programme. It's been a real quick month. We have our first exam in a couple of weeks. The MBA is an intense program and teaches the importance of prioritization.

Its been a good week for me. I started attending some of the career events. I attended presentations by Delloite, Morgan Stanley, BCG and Diamond Consultants. Next week I plan to attend a session by the Barclay's Retail arm.

I started playing baseketball again. It's been a while since I entered the court. Enjoyed playing with some of the good players from my college (Darwin). I plan to play at least once a week.

Term-1 : Week-3 (Quick Turns)

Living in Cambridge has great advantages (don't worry too much about the weather:) ). We get a chance to meet a lot of people (academicians/entrepreneurs) who are experts in their fields. The college season has just started and the town is bustling with student activities.

Oh !! Yes !! I have started to do things I have never done before. My friends and I went to the Wolfson college for our first Salsa session, and it was real cool. I enjoyed it so much that I plan to take Salsa lessons whilst in Cambridge.

We now have a our first MBA project called the Cambridge Venture Project (CVP) and it is the first real project we do as part of the MBA. There are two more big ones coming down the lane. We are a team of 5 people working on the CVP and being in a great amount of varied experience to the project. Our team comprises of

Dr. Abel (Spaniard/French who has been working in UK as a Genome research expert at EBML-EBI)
Jaison (Brit who has been working in the mining industry in Argentina and owns a company as well)
Marisa (Malaysian who has been working in the UK for Texas Instruments)
Tao (Chinese guy who has been working in China for a Telecommunications firm)
and finally your truly :)

We have started lesson on Accounting, Corporate Finance, Management Science and Management Practice. Some of these sessions have been real eye-openers and inspiring as well.

We have tons of pre-reading, assignments, career (ad)ventures and events to attend. MBA is slowly teaching me to prioritize things. Its a great adrenaline rush with so many things happening all around me.

The most important thing is that I'm enjoying every moment of my MBA; with so many new friends and new things I'm learning each day.

Week-2

It's just been two weeks and it seems as if we have been together as a group for a very long time. It's cool as we get to know everybody even better at school. So many parties, pub nights and get-together. I'm slowly fitting back into the vibrant college mode.

This week started with a session with Kevin Roberts (CEO, Satchi and Satchi), wherein he highlighted the importance of doing things differently, rather than just falling into the eternal follow-the-leader mentality.

We finished our course on Economics (wow!!! that fast). We even started working on our CVs and case interviews.

I guess the highlight of the week has been the large number of pub-nights and celebration of the Chinese Full-Moon festival.

The first week

The first week is now over and I enjoyed every bit of it. It was a slow start with introductions and a few classes. Most of the time was spent in interacting with class-mates and knowing each other better. Even though I cannot remember the names of 149 of my class-mates yet; I can remember something (e.g., name, country, industry or background) about each of my class-mates.

The three most inspiring and cool session during this week has been

1) Team building - Complex High Performance Teams with Mark de Rond (JBS Staff who worked closely with Cambridge's rowing team): A wonderful insight into teams and performing in very difficult situations.
2) Branding a City through Olympics with Lois Jacobs (President International Operations - Jack Morton) - An inspiring talk about how Jack Morton managed the opening and closing ceremonies of the 2004 Athens Olympics with about 4.5 million people watching the event.
3) Simulating Innovation for a More Competitive Europe by Prof. Around de Meyer (JBS Director) - The presentation had some very interesting numbers about outsourcing and how Innovation is viewed from the European perspective (Even though I don't concur to some of the finer details presented:)

The first two weeks will be a bit slow, but after that it going to get really busy starting October.

We had an Alumni meet on Saturday (22nd) and it was a Black-Tie event (The first black-tie event of my life). I chipped in £48 to attend this dinner. At first I was a bit sceptical about the huge amount (especially when you are student) for a single dinner. However, after attending the dinner and meeting the people at the dinner, I realized that it is not about the food. It was more about networking and getting one-self acquainted with formal dinner events. There were about 30 odd people from my batch who had attended, and it was real cool to see everybody dressed so wonderfully. I will post some pictures of the event at a later point of time.

Next week we have a few Case Study boot-camps conducted by the Career Services team.

Overall, I'm quite happy with how things have transpired so far. So much fun and what a wonderful batch of new friends.

MBA: Term-1: First Day at School

My first day at school (today) was real fun. We got to meet the entire batch and get a brief introduction about the whole programme.

The day started at 8.30 AM with registration and formalities. It then moved on to introductions and welcome notes. The whole day was spent pretty much in introductions, getting to know my fellow class-mates and collecting course-ware. We even had a few students from the previous batch come over and provide us a few practical tips.

Our batch consists of 149 students from 45 countries. We have people from very varied and different industries (from Plastic Surgeons to Investment Bankers).

I found it a bit too difficult to remember the names of all my class-mates in just one day. It is so much fun and a great learning experience to be amindst such a talented and diverse group.

Aidah (my wife), had also come for the tea session, where in partners were also invited. Some of my friends had even got their kids for the tea session. The kids were all over the place and having a good time as well.

At the end of the day(6.30 PM), we were quite exhausted and a few of us headed to the pub near the school.

I now look forward to head back to school tomorrow and get into our first session on Economics.

MBA-Prep (Settling down in Cambridge)

Aidah and I reached Cambridge on the 4th of September. Since then we have been busy settling in to our new environment.

Cambridge is a wonderful city. A wonderful place to relax and study. It took us about a week to get an Internet connection. On my visit to HSBC Bank today, they completed the paper work for the student loan in 30 minutes (that was very fast by Cambridge standards).

Our one-bedroom house is on the 3rd floor. Nothing fancy, nothing great......but just a nice house to spend a year in Cambridge. It is about 1.5 miles from the business school, and there is a beautiful bi-cycle/pedestrian path leading towards the school/city.

Please find below the list of things we did to make our lives a bit more comfortable (in no particular order)

1) Took the National Express from Heathrow to Cambridge (with a lot of luggage -the direct bus was very comfortable)
2) Signed the tenancy agreement for the house/flat
3) Purchased a bi-cycle
4) Got a pay-as-you-go mobile connection from T-mobile (got myself a new phone as well)
5) Got the Internet connection (Virgin media - took us a week to get this)
6) Got ourselves registered with the GP (medical doctor/surgery service)
7) Purchased a lot of house-hold items (e.g., microwave, utensils etc.) - mostly moving sales
8) Had a wonderful lunch out with 25+ of my future classmates and their families (a great occasion to know each other)
9) Made a trip to Sheffiled to meet friends
10) Got a JUSTVOIP.COM id to make cheap phone calls to friends and family across the globe


Class begins on Monday (17th Sept) and I'm now going to do some pre-reading that was recommended earlier.

MBA-Prep (Last Day at work)

Today is my last day at work. I have been part of a great organization (HSBC - Global Technology Centre) for 4 years and 4 months now. It was a pleasure managing and leading a number of challenging projects during this period.

What makes organizations really work is the people. I was fortunate to have talented and motivated folks on my teams. My managers were "cool" mentors as well.

The curtains are coming down on a wonderful and satisfying period on my life; as I look forward to newer and more challenging adventures in the future.

MBA-Prep (Chronology of events)

We are now all set to join the JBS MBA Class of 2007-2008. It's been a long journey of about 9 months from writing the GMAT to booking the flight tickets. Please find below a chronological listing the key events on this journey. I hope this will provide a bit of a overview about the whole process for prospective students.


** 30th Nov - GMAT test at Mumbai

**December - Started working on the essays and the application

**4th Jan - Query about official transcripts (wanted to know if I could send copies of the official transcripts, attested by a notary)

**5th Jan - Reply to my query about transcripts (Yes, copies attested by a notary will do)

**8th Jan - Couriered the completed application along with the copy of transcripts

**10th Jan - Received email from Admission Office confirming the receipt of application form and all documents (except the reference letters)

**17th Jan - First Referee emailed the reference letter to the admission office

**18th Jan - Couriered the application for the Gates and Cambridge Trust Scholarships

**22nd Jan - Second Referee emailed the reference letter to the admission office

**30th Jan - Reference letter sent out by the Second Referee

**30th Jan - Email from the Admission Office stating that they have received all my documents

**9th Feb - Email from Admission Office with an Interview Invite (for the 12th of March)

**13th Feb - Confirmed to take the interview at Cambridge on the 12th of March

**12th March - Interview at Cambridge

**13th March - Email confirming admit and initial scholarship of GBP 5000

**16th March - Received a package (by post) containing the conditional admit letter, financial guarantee form, acceptance form and a whole load of information about Cambridge and JBS

**22nd March - Admission office arranges for a Current Student to act as my buddy, to help me through some of my queries

**2nd April - Mailed the 'Acceptance Form' (confirming my interest to be part of the JBS-2007/2008 MBA) and the HSBC Loan application

**5th April - Email from Admission Office confirming the receipt of the 'Acceptance Form' and the HSBC Loan application

**9th April - Mailed the 'Financial Guarantee Form' (a simple document that gives details as to how I plan to finance my study - including bank statements etc) ) and a cheque of GBP 2,800 (Initial Deposit)

**12th April - An online discussion forum formed for incoming students to discuss and get queries answered (This has helped me to know about by class-mates and get inputs on various topics from the current students)

**13th April - Email from Admission Office stating that my Loan Application has been forwarded to HSBC Bank

**13th April - Email from Admission Office confirming the receipt of the 'Financial Guarantee Form' and Initial Deposit

**5th May - Since I had not heard anything from the bank about my Loan Application I checked with the Admission Office in case they have heard anything. Yes, my loan is approved and the bank was to get in touch with me very soon.

**4th June - Received a letter from HSBC Bank - Loan approved

**15th June - Got a postal letter from Darwin College offering me a membership to the College

**22nd June - Got the final tuition fee invoice (it included the Mysis scholarship of GBP 5000 - thus taking the total scholarship to GBP 10000)

**10th July - Applied for the UK Visa

**13th July - Got our passports back with the Visa stamped

**17th July - Informed by Darwin College that the College will not be able to provide us accommodation

**17th July - Checked with the Accommodation Services about any accommodation options

**18th July - University Accommodation Services offered a furnished 1 bedroom University flat in West Cambridge at GBP 665 per month

**20th July - Booked the flight tickets to London (for the 4th of Sept)

It is now time for us (Aidah and I) to relax a bit, take a few vacations, visit family and friends, watch more movies and enjoy the Indian rain.

MBA Prep (Accommodation)

I have been offered a membership at Darwin College. However, I could not secure college accommodation (as the college has very limited accommodation for families/couples).

The next step in the process was to search for apartments/flats. The University's Accommodation Services team consists of a group of very helpful people who make every endeavour to help the students find a suitable place to live. They provide a list of accommodation options (University accommodation and private accommodation).

We (Aidah and I) were offered a one-bed room furnished flat in the West of Cambridge (about 2.6 miles from the school) at GBP 665 per month. It is a new flat (by Cambridge standards) that was constructed around 2004. One draw-back is the distance from the City Centre. We never got a chance to see the place before we signed the tenancy agreement (However, I got some pictures of the flat from the current students and it looks quite good).

The other option (especially for people who can go to Cambridge personally and view properties) is private accommodation. Many in my classmates have opted for this option and have found some pretty neat places in the city centre (with the help of estate agents in some cases).

If I were to list an order of preference (a personal choice) it will be
1) College accommodation - some colleges might not have enough flats/rooms to accommodate every student (especially families/couples) and in some cases students might want more privacy and might not opt for college accommodation.
2) University Accommodation - a good option for families/couples. These are a bit more expensive than college accommodation and could be far from the City Centre.
3) Private Accommodation - need to be careful on this one (in terms of finding a good landlady or reputed real estate agent) but could be a good alternative.

MBA-Prep (Visa Application)

Aidah and I finally stacked all the documents and filed for the Visa at the VFS office in Pune today (10th July). We should hopefully get our Visa by Friday (13th July).

Divya (my future class-mate) from Bangalore was a great help. She had given me a brief about the documents required for the Visa application. She also had warned me that the VFS office may be crowded (as she found out in Bangalore) and suggested that I go a bit early in the morning to beat the crowd.


I reached the VFS office at 8.00 AM. The place was almost deserted and I was the only applicant at the centre. The staff at VFS were very professional and helpful. They collected the application form, passport, supporting document and the visa fees.


Please find below the list of documents I had submitted


1) Visa Application form
2) Passports
3) Student Additional Questionnaire
4) Admission letter(s) from Cambridge University (Original)
5) Fee Invoice from University (Original)
6) Certified copy of marriage certificate
7) Master (MS) and Bachelor (B.Sc) Degree Marks Cards and Certificates (Original)
8) GMAT Score Report (Print out)
9) Appointment Letter from my current employer (Original)
10) Employment/experience letter from Current and Previous employer (Original)
11) Loan approval letter from HSBC Bank, UK (Original)
12) Bank Statements and Savings Proof (Original/Signed)
13) Salary slips for last 6 months (Original/Signed)
14) Income Tax Returns (Form-16) for 3 years (Copy)
15) Title deeds for property in India (Copy)
16) Brief Resume
17) Email exchange regarding the Interview at Cambridge
18) Visa application fee of INR 8450 (Approx GBP 100) for each application

A few useful links
1) VFS - UK VISA (India)
2) The required documents (British High Commission)
3) Student Visa Guidance (INF 5)

MBA-Prep (Scholarship)

I'm back, after a long absence from this space. I'm now back in India enjoying the monsoon rain. Have a ton of things to do before I reach Cambridge in September. Have already started winding up things at work and my last date at work is the 17th of Aug.

Moving on to scholarships, JBS provides a lot of different scholarships and it is really cool. Most of the folks I know have got scholarships in one form or the other. I have till date got scholarships worth GBP 10,000. Hope I get a bit more in the coming days :)

Please check the link below for the details of the scholarship provided at JBS
http://www.jbs.cam.ac.uk/mba/finance/scholarships.html

From the finance perspective, I'm almost set. The HSBC Loan and the scholarships have helped in a big way to get things moving.

I now plan to apply for my VISA sometime early next month.

Life lessons by Narayan Murthy (Chief Mentor of Infosys)

Narayan Murthy is an icon in India's IT arena. He and his team created Infosys in 1981 with an investment of $ 250. Infosys is now a debt free company with revenue of over $ 3 billion, profit-after-tax of over $800 million and market capitalization of about $ 28 billion . Infosys has also created wealth for its shareholders, employees (70000+) and the community as a whole.

Narayan Murthy had recently delivered a pre-commencement lecture at the Stern Business School. I found this lecture a good read.

Please find below the link to the lecture. Hope you find this interesting as well

http://www.rediff.com/money/2007/may/28bspec.htm

MBA-Prep (Loan Approved)

JBS has an arrangement with HSBC to help students finance their MBA. The current interest rate on this loan stands at 8.25%. Even international students can apply for this loan and there is no need of a co-signer. The other alternative I had was to borrow from a bank in India @ 13.75% (with a co-signer).

I received a postal mail today from HSBC stating that my loan application has been approved. The whole process of the loan application and approval was quite easy and simple. Let me outline the process I had gone through

1) I completed the Loan Application Form and submitted it to the Admissions office. Information required on the form include listing of Assets, Liablities, (monthly) Income and (monthly) Expenditure. It took me just over 10 minutes to complete the form. I also had to provide my latest bank statements.

2) The admission office, then forwarded my Loan Application to the bank (HSBC). Not sure if the admission office added any additional documents (e.g., covering letter, resume) before forwarding it to the bank.

3) The bank then got back to me stating that my Loan has been approved. I now need to go to the HSBC branch in Cambridge (in September), to complete the paper work.

There were no interviews or anything of that nature. The whole process (from application to approval), was completed in about a month's time.

I'm quite pleased with the school's admissions office for establishing a tie-up with the bank and HSBC for providing a wonderful (and affordable) service.

Our weekend in London

Last weekend, my wife and I had gone to London to meet my friend Mahesh (who had recently completed his MBA from Warwick University). We went around to different restaurants and enjoyed the weather.

We went to a few places in Central London and the main business district. The area around Canary Wharf has changed dramatically over the past 5 years (new high-rises and lot more pubs/coffee houses).

These pictures were taken at Trafalgar Square.

MBA-Prep (The Interview Day)

The interview event at JBS is a full day affair. It is also an opportunity to meet the current students and interact with the faculty. My wife and I reached the school by 8.45 AM and there were prospective students (about 15 to 20 of us) from far and near. We were given the welcome package and schedule by Jo from the admissions office.

Let me outline as to how the entire day progressed

1) 9.00 to 9.45 - Introductory talk
Prof Arnoud de Meyer (Dean, JBS)
Dr Richard Barker (MBA Director)
Dr Simon Learmont (MBA Deputy Director)
Cathy Butler (Careers Advisor)
Rachael Barker (Alumni Officer)

2) 10.00 to 11.00 - Opportunity to sit through an actual class session
Kevin Roberts (CEO, Saatchi & Saatchi), made an inspiring talk/presentation about Leadership and Business (more on the lines of Marketing and Advertising)

3) 11.00 to 11.30 - Meeting with Dr Simon Learmont

4) 11.30 to 12.00 - Tour of the JBS Building with Luisa Marrone

5) 12.00 to 12.45 - Interview with two members of the faculty

6) 13.00 to 14.00 - Lunch and discussion with the current students. This was a fabulous opportunity to talk to students and faculty about the area I was interested in. My wife also had an opportunity to ask a lot of questions.

7) 14.00 to 16.30 - Walking Tour of Cambridge (It was wonderful to get a fully guided tour of Cambridge and the Colleges. Very helpful to know about 'Living in Cambridge')

My wife and I enjoyed the entire experience. The admission office had put in a lot of effort to make this happen and had given us a good opportunity to experience the JBS MBA. This organized and professional approach was one of the reasons that made me decide to join JBS.

Hope this gives a good idea about the JBS Interview day. The pictures were taken during the walking tour of Cambridge for the interview candidates.

MBA-Prep (Finance)

Financing the MBA can turn out to be a pretty daunting task. Especially, if the student is coming from a developing country like India, China or Brazil. The MBA at JBS this year will cost about GBP 39,500 (USD 79,000) . In anybody is planning to stay with their partner/family, they need to pitch in a bit more.

While applying to the schools, I made sure that I apply only to those schools that had some sort of arrangement with banks to help students finance their education. International students at JBS can apply for the HSBC loan. The interest rate as of today is 8.25% (which is 2.75% above the Bank of England Base Rate). One can only dream about a Japanese Yen loan (with a Base Rate of 0.75%).

JBS also has some generous scholarships. I will make a separate post about scholarships; once I collate more information from fellow (future) classmates.

I will also post (at a later point of time) my experience with the JBS-HSBC Loan application/approval process.

MBA-Prep (The Interview)

The interviews are a very crucial part in the selection process (both for the school and the prospective students). It is good to go prepared for the interview. My interview experience at JBS was a very nice one. I was interviewed by two members of the faculty. It started off with an introduction, a few questions about my work experience and projects. The discussion then moved on to community activities I was involved in, short-term plans, long-term plans. In the end I had a few questions about teaching methodology, global consulting project/summer internship and interest groups.

A few things that may be of help for you

1) Ensure that you review everything that you had mentioned in the application (Be sure to remember what you had written in the application :) )
2) Learn more about the school (from their web-site or current students)
3) If you have any questions, feel free to ask the admission office
4) If possible, take the interview at the school (as this gives you a lot of opportunity to network and show as to how keen you are about the whole program)
5) You might want to ask one of your friends/family member to run you through a mock interview (in case you have not been interviewed for a very long time)

Some online sites that may be helpful
1) Ivy League Admission MBA Interview Tips
2) Some common interview questions
3) Podcast information
4) PagalGuy MBA Forum

MBA-Prep (Selecting the school)

Even before I took the GMAT test, I started researching about schools. The key factors I was looking for were
1) One year or one and half year programs
2) Location (in terms of being near technology centers)
3) Diversity
4) Career Service
5) Reputation
6) Return on Investment
7) Scholarships
8) Loan (even for international students, without requiring co-signers)
9) General Management (with electives in Strategy, Technology Consultation et al.)
10) Firms recruiting at the school
11) Ranking

Based on these factors I shortlisted Cambridge University's Judge Business School (JBS), Oxford University's Said Business School (SBS), IMD (Switzerland), London Business School, National University of Singapore (NUS), Nanyang Business School Singapore (NBS), MIT Sloan, Warwick Business School, HEC Montreal and HULT Business School.

I applied to 5 schools, was interviewed by 4 schools and got an admit from 3 of them. I visited the schools, spoke to a few faculty members and current students.

All the schools were equally good. Each one had its own strengths. I finally selected JBS, as it was a good fit for what I was looking for.

A few tips based on my experience
1) Start early - Prepare early and apply early
2) Prepare the essays/cover-letter with care - Take your time and double check everything
3) If possible, visit the schools - This will help to find more about the school
4) Talk to faculty and current students - They can give you a lot of information that will help you make the right decision
5) Ranking is important, but should not be the only thing driving your decision
6) Check with your friends and family - I got a lot of help and inputs from my friend Mahesh, who had recently completed his MBA

MBA-Prep (GMAT)

After deciding to pursue an MBA, I set out preparing in September 2006 for the GMAT. The first thing I did was to buy the following books

1) KPLAN GMAT
2) Official Guide for GMAT 11th Edition

I prepared for about 2 hours on a working day and about 6 to 8 hours on the weekends. I found the mornings the best time to prepare, as my energy levels took a dip in the evenings(I'm more of a morning person:) ). After working for nearly 10 years, it was a little tricky to recall and learn school Math and English. However, it was an enjoyable experience (especially the Math part). I did a few practice tests from the books, and it helped me to time myself and prepare a strategy for the D-Day. I also used the Free GMATPrep Test Preparation Software.

I then booked a date for the test --- November 30th 2006.

There was no test center in Pune (my work place). Hence, I had to travel to Mumbai (about 3.5 hours drive) to reach the test center. I completed the test on time (both the Quantitative and Verbal part) and got a score of 690. I was not pleased with my performance as my target was to score at least 700 (the verbal part pulled me down, as I did not prepare well).

A few tips for test takers
1) Relax - GMAT is not a difficult test.
2) Three months of preparation should be good enough to get a good score
3) The Official Guide will give you a good flavor of questions
4) Undertake a lot of Practice tests and build up your stamina (so that you will last till the very end of the test). This is very very essential.
5) There is a bounty of material available online, feel free to use those as well for your preparation
6) Balance the preparation (between the Math and Verbal parts), both are equally important (This was my biggest mistake during preparation)
7) Make sure that you time yourself. In case you get a difficult question that you are not able to answer, move on to the next question quickly.
8) Relax and enjoy your test.

Wishing the BEST to all future test takers !!!!

A few useful links (Please note the links might change and if there are any broken links, please feel free to GOOGLE to pick the right link)

1) GMAT Official Site
2) The official - Free PowerPrep Software
3) Free Princeton Review practice test
4) Free KPLAN Material
5) Free Peterson's Tests
6) Manhattan GMAT (some free stuff as well)
7) 800 Score (with some free stuff)
8) GMATScore tests

MBA-Prep (WHY MBA?)

Starting September 2007, I will be pursuing an MBA from Cambridge University's Judge Business School. I will briefly outline my journey so far, in terms of gaining an admit. I will start with the reason as to why I decided to do an MBA.

I started my career as a trainee/programmer and currently work as a Project Manager at the Global Technology Center of a large international bank. Working for clients in various industries (Mutual Fund, Medical Systems, Utilities and Banking)and living in India, UK, US and France has helped me gain a good understanding of the software industry.

As the next step in my career, I would like to move on to provide business technology consultation (especially to large project/programs). In the long run I would like to start my own business technology consultation practice.

An MBA will help me gain a holistic management education (aspects like finance, strategy, human resource, marketing, entrepreneurship etc.,). In addition, an MBA will help me network and work with a diverse group, which in turn will help me learn from others experience. There are a lot of other reasons as well and the list is quite long, but the gist of it hangs on two points 1) Holistic management education 2) Networking and learning from peers and experts.

With this in mind, I set out to go back to school and do an MBA.

Welcome to Alvin's world

Hello, Welcome to my space in the Blog World. This blog is intended to enable a free flow of information and thoughts that might help others or spark a fruitful debate/thought.

Cheers,
Alvin.