A brief reflection :)

I have been wondering of late about the frequency of my post on this place. Not that I am too busy, the thought of communicating through this channel has been overbearing. The sense of guilt and the thought that I should be communicating more often has often kept me away from writing here. Today, I take a pledge to write on a regular basis. I hope to honor that commitment.

The past few weeks have been a good experience. I visited home during the Easter vacation and there I was trying to network among older contacts for opportunities. After coming back to Lancaster, the case exam and the assignment submission of the last term consumed entire energy.

Spring has gradually settled in here and as spring sets in I have moved into the electives term. The year so far has moved so quickly that it is unfathomable that MBA started in Sept/Oct last year. It has been an intense journey so far and has thrown open many new options for me. I have decided to concentrate on Strategy and International Business to major in. I never thought strategy would be an option for me before MBA but now I am very confident that strategy is the 'the' thing for me. I am quite hopeful to get an opportunity in that area.  As of now I am looking for projects/internship for the last term, which is due in another 2 months.

As of now, wish me luck.

a quick reflection

I was looking to find some free time today and realised that I have not written any post in a long time. So realised that there is no better way to spend the bits of free time than posting here.

Last few weeks have been really heavy. Loads of coursework, loads of presentation, early morning presentations (these, by the way, are my regular workouts), multiple revisions of same report until I memorise them and then the real world consultancy for which I didn't get paid.

This whole term has been been really hectic (don't know if that is the appropriate word) but equally enjoyable. Good marks (highest) in the case study exam (a three and a half hour exam I wrote in hand after nearly 8 years) and the best presentation award (in Strategy) were the highlight in terms of the academic execellence.

Disappointments were few. Arguments were many. Learnt to say, 'I do not AGREE', with a reason, a logic. Persuasiveness, the art of convincing others is gradually improving so is the listening ability. Ability to reflect has also improved. Overall, I am quite satisfied with this term and happy the way it has turned out to be. I am enjoying this MBA experience (sans the work load).

I have begun sending in emails into my network for a possible internship/job opportunity. If you come across some opportunity do let me know and I will thank you with a hand written email.

Charity

There is lot to write about but right now there is a different need to write this post.

My class is having its MBA charity day on Wednesday (Feb 18, 08) and as part of our contributions to the local charity organisation (YMCA), the Scafell (my) group is organising a day long (12 hrs) squash marathon at the Lancaster University Sports Center.

As the adage goes ‘Charity begins at Home’, you are invited to come and take part in the sport and alongside contribute to the charitable cause. You can also get sponsorship from anyone and play or your sponsors can sponsor themselves to come and play.

The attached brochure describes the event. 

The forms can also be collected from Kanchan or from the MBA office. If you are not playing do consider contributing on the website – www.justgiving.com/mbasquashmarathon

 Your whole hearted participation will make the event a success. Please participate in the charitable cause and make the event a success.

Do contribute.

Corporate Social Responsibility

The big Question is How?

Solution is 'Go Green'.

This is the mantra being preached presently in the class. I agree completely with the fundamental principle behind it. Sustainability has become such a big issue that it requires constant unfettered attention. Globally corporates are paying attention and so are MBA schools, where they view their students as tomorrow's global leaders.

At Lancaster (which got its new ranking of 27 in the world according to Financial Times yesterday), CSR is a major emphasis. There are many lectures talking about sustainability, corporate sustainability reporting, legal aspects, individual and corporate resposibility and many other issues. The basic theme behind these ideas is that tomorrow's leaders need to be aware and informed about the various issues that plague managers.

As I write about CSR, I chanced upon Harvard Business Review Oct 2008 edition that suggests Hippocratic Oath for Managers. It is reproduced below (click on the image to read)

I understand that the oath or the pledges are too simplistic, but they are worth a look. For the risk that managers take and the power they enjoy it is reasonable to assume that the risk generate the rewards and the power is used responsibly. 

The larger question in the context of CSR is how far is this sustainable and to what extent a corporation can go for it. My answer is simple. Companies need to implement CSR and make sure they implement not only in word but also in spirit. For example if customers need to be accounted for and asked for feedback about impact of company's action on them, then it is better to ask atleast 50% of your customers to get some representative data. It does not makes sense if the data is collected from just few customers to be compliant about the guidelines.

There are many such issues which can be highlighted and needs attention, but the most important one is to be ethical and believe one's conscience when working on. Money can be made and will be made, the cycle might be a bit longer.

Why should you NOT fly AirFrance

A lot of people have asked about my travel experience when I went home recently. I have been telling them sometimes in detail and sometime in brief that the total time spent travelling both ways was close to 5 days. 

5 days, Yes. That humungous amount of time that I literally spent on my travel was courtsey AirFrance. It is the time in which I could have gone around the world twice on a non-stop flight. Let me tell you what happened.

I was scheduled to fly from Manchester to Paris and Paris to Delhi and back via same route. Internally within India, I had to take an early morning train from Delhi to Bhopal and back. My flight from Manchester was on 16th of December early morning at 6.40 am. I had been to London and so came back early morning to Manchester. I stood in the first queue at 4.30 am and boarded the flight at 6 am. I was seated comfortably and since I was really tired because of the long night, I was soon sleeping after drinking a glass of water.

Half an hour past departure time, I woke up and realised that the flight was still in Manchester. Upon asking, the reason was, the fog at Paris airport delayed our departure. Reason accepted and I forced myself to sleep again. 45 min. later, I woke up again and this time realised the under the floor, in the belly of the aircraft, a massive movement was taking place. I asked again and I was explained that a passenger had checked in with her luggage, but later checked out while the airline did not knew which was her baggage so they were looking for her baggage. As soon as her baggage was sorted out, we will fly. This was the first time I started getting worried about my connecting flight from Paris to Delhi, which was at 10.25 am local time.

I wanted to clarify if my connecting flight would still be available and I was explained that while I may miss my direct flight from Paris, some arrangement would be met at Paris airport and I will have to wait until we reach Paris. Flight from Manchester took off around 9.30 am and we reached Paris at 11 am local time.

My flight to Delhi had left.

Almost co-passengers had missed their connections and then we stood in the customer service queue. It was 11 am and I got to the counter at 2 pm. It was an excruciating wait of nearly 3 hours in the queue without food and water. In the flight no breakfast was served and at the airport the treatment was "We are doing you a favor, dare you not question us". When my turn came up, I was exhausted and the darn lady at the counter said she could offer me a connection from London on AirIndia flight to Delhi. The flight was at 9.30 pm London time. To drop me to London, my flight was at 7 pm from Paris. She gave me a "Drinks + Sandwich" coupon and said 'BYE'.

I was pissed off. Treating me like a shit is no way to get away. Since I did not wanted to waste other passenger's time who were wearing out like me, I wanted to meet the manager separately. I got to meet him after an hour who, realizing what he was getting into, gave me nothing but a meals coupon. 

After coming down on the terminal, I had my lunch and found a chair to sleep. I woke up again at the departure gate for the flight to London to realise that the same flight was delayed by more than 1.45 hrs. There was no way I could reach London to catch the AirIndia flight. 

I went back to customer service.

The customer service guys had no idea how to help. Their supervisor couldn't even try to help apart from saying that I will have to spent the night at Airport since I did not have the visa to enter city and there is no possibility flying out that night via any connections. Still, I asked her to try to arrange something and later she took my passport, cleared us out of terminal and asked us to wait. Three hours after waiting in the no-man's land in the airport, I asked if my visa/passport has arrived. It had and I was moved into a sub-standard hotel at around 11.30 pm. There was no food or water and I slept hungry.

Next day I came to airport and asked the airline representative about the compensation and he asked me to contact customer service at Delhi who would be able to help. I belived him and boarded the flight.

I fly into Delhi and the airline guys gave me a sales office number to help me with my complaint. My entire reservations of previous day had gone awry and I had to re-reserve my ticket to Bhopal. Call to sales office gave me an email address of customer service in India. I emailed them and their response was

------------------

Dear Mr Bhargava,

We acknowledge with thanks receipt of email dated 23rd December 2008, regarding your scheduled travel AF1469/ AF148/ 16th December 2008 Manchester/ Paris/ Delhi. At the outset, we offer our sincere apologies for any inconvenience that may have been caused.

May we kindly advise you that as you are currently residing in UK, your email has been forwarded to our office at the following address, for their necessary action:

Air France - Europe
Customer Care Center
TSA 13002
60035 Beauvais Cedex
France

Best regards,

Ashwani KUMAR
Customer Relations Supervisor

------------------------------

So far, I have not heard back from them.

On my way back on 2nd Jan, the flight developed a technical snag and the oxygen pressure in the cabin was not enough to fly high altitude. This required re-routing as the aircraft could not fly over Afganistan. While they waited for a new route and the delay was over 2.5 hr. Instead of flying at 1.20 am, the flight took off at 4 am. 

My connecting flight from Paris to Manchester was at 7.40 am, Paris time and like last time, I missed that too. I had a confirmed train ticket to Lancaster at 11 am, local time. I missed that too. When I reached Paris, the guys gave me a new ticket and I reached Lancaster 8 hrs late in the evening.

My story ends here but I have vowed that unless there is a very compelling reason to fly AirFrance, I am never going to fly with them. I am going to wait for them to respond back to my complaint else I will lodge my complain under EU laws to European Transport Commission and hope that atleast they will redress my complaint.

Their rude customer service behaviour, non-responsiveness to customer issues was agonizing enough. I was not flying free and I understand issues like this do happen but other airlines are more responsive and try to make the experience better and not worse.

If you read this and decide to fly AirFrance, please think again.