School.. ahem

I am back to school.

Before I write about my first two days at school let me speak something about my travel experience. It was good, it was bad and in the end it was a mixed. I started from my home on Saturday morning 8 a.m. India time and reached Lancaster on Sunday 9 p.m. UK time. I spent 10 hours in the train while I reached Delhi (I was scheduled to spend only 8 but the train was delayed by 2 hours and my palpitation increased every minute until I deboarded and reached the airport), another 10 at Helsinki airport and all put togather I was in air and on land for more than 37 hours. Phew.. what a journey.

The arrival was good but reaching so late meant that I missed the Sunday's party that was planned for future classmates and I had to rely on the free food (comprising of boiled meshed vegetable that tasted awful and a small piece of bread) and the beer that I bought. I met one of my future classmate from Nigeria who also landed the same day and relied on the same food but I really had a very good conversation to set the tone for rest of the year. I ended up spending 2.5 hours late that evening with him and I enjoyed every bit of it.

Now the school.

It is impressive. Had to hunt a little before I got to meet many of the students. Facilities seem impressive. The director of the program and the staff seem friendly. Moreover the fellow classmates are interesting with backgrounds as diverse as Marine Engineering to Finance to Manufacturing to IT. The nationalities are 22 in number.

I am impressed by the program conducted so far and the interesting discussion on credit crunch situation in the world economy by Prof. Balasubramaniam provided an interesting insight into the problem and the role India and China are playing in it. Overall, till now it has seemed that the year will be exciting and at the same it will be stressful.

Stay tuned for more information. Will post as soon as I get my laptop from the university on Thursday.

Fatherhood and MBA

September 16, 2008, I am blessed with my second child, a baby boy.

It has been a hectic fortnight after my departure from Bangalore. I visited quite a few relatives, spend days without Internet connection apart from spending some quality time with the family. Days of planning went in for the D-day and when the day arrived lot of anxiety prevailed before the nurse broke the news. I was hoping since very long time that before I depart to Lancaster, I should be able to spend some moments with the new one. I thank God for listening my prayers and granting me my wish.

Right now I am very busy and I have not yet started planning for the departure (a basic preparation was done long ago). Right now trips between the hospital and home and also managing my elder one are sapping up all my energy. I was planning to read through the pre-reading material before starting for the class but never found some free time (classical excuse), now I think I will read in the room at the Graduate College in the University before the classes actually begin.

In the meantime lot of activity is going on among future classmates and all seem to be worried about the placements. I am also worried but haven't really thought about it yet. I am impressed by the ideas floating around and would like to contribute actively to make placements a success at Lancaster. This will happen only when I reach there and till then I wish to enjoy some blissfull moments with my kids.

I am very busy these days..

I am going to be very busy over next couple of days and I just can't imagine how will my life be without Internet and Phone.

I left my employment last Friday and since then busy packing and doing various household errands.

I am relocating from Bangalore to Bhopal on Sunday (Aug-31) before I move to Lancaster in late September and I will not have internet connectivity from Wednesday, phone from Friday, car (hopefully) from Saturday and my accommodation from Sunday. Post Sunday, I have to look for a good hospital for new arrival in the family. I hope the baby doesn't play a prank with me by arriving after I depart. I wish he/she comes before I leave. How wishful ;) I am.

I am just hopeful if everything sticks to the plan and goes accordingly. Presently keeping my fingers crossed about my life without Internet.

Lights, camera... ACTION

The picture is very clear now.

Rather, the picture is transparent. My new classmates are fun loving, are from as diverse background as they can be, have varied experience (highest age being 46 and lowest being 23), have visited world over, play variety of sports and are game for almost anything. Barring few, who are local to a city or town none have met each other but all have begun cracking jokes and pulling each other's leg. I can just imagine how the orientation is going to be and how the rest of the year would be.

My classmates will be from

1. Australia
2. China
3. Denmark
4. Egypt
5. Estonia
6. Germany
7. HongKong
8. India
9. Iran
10. Japan
11. Korea
12. Namibia
13. Qatar
14. Russia
15. Syria
16. Taiwan
17. Uganda
18. UK
19. UnitedStates
20. Venezuela

On a serious note, pre-reading for the classes has begun. It is definitely not fun all the way through as one may think. The pre-reading's suggested material itself is an indicator. This is a two year program crammed into one year timeframe and hence it is not going to be rosy all the way through but it is designed with the needs of business world. New electives have been designed for this year's class that talks about making the manager not only a number wizard but a manager with a practical skills that stay right throughout one's career.

The experience so far has provided everything (excitement, satisfaction, networking potential, etc.) that a top-ranked MBA should.

It is definitely exciting.

Post MBA strategy

What should be the post MBA strategy?

I have been thinking a lot, about the fields that I should focus on while doing MBA. I have always wanted to do MBA as it will equip me with knowledge about general management tools and strategy, but the reason to do MBA is different.

I think every ambitious individual aspires to make big on the global arena or locally where he is known, respected and admired for the achievements. In this regard I am no different. If I were to talk to my friends and other knowledgeable friends in the Bangalore's entrepreneurial ecosystem, many may dis-approve the need for an MBA to be successful as detailed above, but I see that as a stepping stone in my career. My previous experience with entrepreneurship was not great. But it was an experience altogether. I have no regrets about the failure because then only I realised that I need to do something different to become just another guy.

Having said so, the big question is how to leverage the MBA that I will earn towards later part of next year. What should be the game plan post MBA. Get a job and reunite with family and kids or become an entreprenuer and explore something new. In either case, the need to specialize in a particular field is of paramount importance. What should that field be? I think of strategy and finance and leverage them with the technology background to enter into consulting. This is just a thought process that I am undertaking.

Any inputs?