HBS Essay Topic Analysis by Clear Admit

Nice analysis of the questions for the year, which haven;t really changed, but then "the devil is in the details" :)

The analysis is here (http://www.clearadmit.com/2006/06/hbs-essay-topic-analysis-2006-07.html)

Infosys amongs Wired 40 Companies

Infocys Technologies, headquartered in Bangalore and employing over 53,000 software professionals was placed 11th in the Wired 40 Companies released yesterday.

Here is the article
http://wired.com/wired/archive/14.07/wired40.html

My own Dilbert moment

This is what I got as a reply (to an email) from my boss...

"That is we can learn to organize and present the results and progress in concise yet complete manner."

My Dilbert moment??

DabbaWalas interact with ISB students

Found this in a couple of leading national and regional dailies.

DabbaWalas are the 5000 odd people in the city of Mumbai (Bombay) who carry over 200,000 tiffin boxes having fresh home-made lunches to their intended consumers in their offices and then back to their homes. Most of the people doing this job have minimal education (I remember reading that the highest education one had was the seventh grade) but still they are able to the job so well, that the Forbes Magezine awarded this organization the Six Sigma performance rating. The code system they use has been blogged upon by a current ISB student Sumit Poddar here. Even Prince Charles met this extra-ordinary group of people on his last visit to India (he even invited them to attend his second wedding); so did Richard Branson. More information about the organization and their service may be had from these links

WikiPedia article
Rediff.com article
IDFA Magezine
The Hindu Article
www.MyDabbaWala.com

Keep it simple

I was just now chatting with a friend of mine. He was a re-applicant tis time and is heading to Cornell. I asked him if he had some 'words of wisdom' for me. Thi sis what he said

keep it simple, that's all
tell them what you did. they know there's only one superman and even he's from krypton

A nie way to say it all.

Bargins are just a few words away...

Yesterday was my wife’s birthday. She have procured for me a set of gifts that she knew I would like, and that I actually needed them. I am not really good at this game and hence I took her shopping. I actually asked her to buy whatever she feels she needs, so that the gifts are really things that she likes and needs.

After buying her a new dress and some accessories, we had a quick bite and then happened to cross a particular shop that sells eyewear. I remembered she likes wearing sun glasses and the moment she said her sister-in-law had got one from that shop, I dragged her in. We narrowed down to a pair from Titan FastTrack worth Rs. 1395. I just took a shot and asked the store owner for a discount. He said it’s a branded item and there is no scope for one. He also mentioned that the Titan store in the same mall did not give any discounts. I know that the retailers always have some margin and so I persisted. I also mentioned that we are a repeat customer (a lie, but not a white lie. My wife had been to that store earlier and had made a purchase that time.). This time also he bulged, but then I casually said "Jo kam kar sakte ho aap kar do" (“Do the best you can on the discounts front”). He relented and gave the product to us for Rs. 1250. A discount of Rs. 150 or an 11% discount.

My lesson from this episode is that one should at least ask for what one wants in a negotiation. You may not get it, or, if you are lucky, you may get it and maybe even more. But unless you do ask, you would never know if you could get what you want.

I'll try to extend this theory to B-Schools when I go asking for scholarships. I hope I'm as luck as I was with the sun glasses :)

Back in action

Hi guys.

I'm back in action. After a long hiatus, I'm back in the admissions business. I postponed the apping process; I got married this January. Life has been great ever since.

I am going through the process of short listing a couple of schools I would be applying to. At the same time, I would start racking my brains to find out what (if anything) I have achieved that is worthy of finding a place in those essays.

Its my wife's birthday this Sunday and hence not much would be achieved over the weekend. Also, I have no internet access in this new house that I have rented. So the real work would start only next week.

I know people have been dropping by (the ticker is counting). Add to the comments; wish me luck.

PS: I have been having the entrepreneurial urge these days. Have read Bootstrapper's Bible by Seth Godin recently. I hope this phase goes away, for the short term. Atleast now I think I can be an entrepreneur.