Aaj ka mailbag 12-oct-2010

Well, I got this email:

Dear Prof Sudhir,

We had bid for section C of MKTR course. We had already formed the group as per the course guidelines with people across sections. But in today’s class you mentioned that groups need to be formed strictly within the section.

At this point in time, we are not comfortable forming the group with people who we have not worked with in the past. Group project makes a large part of the course and hence we need to be really careful in choosing the right group. We would like to know if there is still scope for forming a group across sections, as this would help us in deciding whether to continue with the course.

My response:

Hi,

The group formation is retricted to within-section only.

Sudhir

Well, it is a tricky situation, admittedly. The reason I'd like to have all-within section groups this year is that in lecture 10, space has been made for a few groups to at random, face a live audience cross-questioning of their PPT presentations. Ideally the entire group would need to be present for this.

Now, its entirely possible that things may happen such that there's no time left by lecture 10 to do what I have planned.

A few observations:

1. I understand that one would rather work with people one knows a priori and all. However, in life and all too often in the marketplace, you may end up in a team you did not choose. Would you walk away then also? IMHO, it makes sense to take a chance with a bunch of well-meaning strangers and tough it out. But that's just my opinion, you don't have to agree.

2. I understand there's the danger that some in a group may game the system and choose to free-ride rather than contribute positively. Happens all too often, sadly. Hence, the plan is to have a peer-evaluation setup within the project teams. That way, folk deliberately seeking to free-ride will be in for a surprise.

3. The project last year was somewhat of a messy process. It was the first time I was managing something like that and there were stumbles galore. This time, thanks to the learning curve and all, I expect the process will be much smoother. The project deadline got extended and all last time. This time, we'll finish in week 5.

Shall add more thoughts as they occur. Thanks for your patience.

P.S.
Have sent the lecture 1 slides to be put up on blackboard. My answers to the quickfires are in bold font (again, feel free to disagree with my answers). A dataset which will be put in use in lecture 2 has also been put up.

Lecture 1 mailbag

OK, already have started receiving emails regarding issues. Will post them here for the whole class.

Dear Sir,

I just checked JMP and as I suspected, the license we were issued has expired, effective 31st May.



Regards,

AJ

My response:

Hi A,

Am following up with IT. I'm told the licesnse is there for the whole year. Am copying the AAs onto this as well.

Let's see how this goes. Shall update the blog with this news.

Sudhir

Update:
OK, mail from IT just happened.

Dear Professor,

We are having JMP license valid till 31-Mar-2011. If students are facing any problem with the license they can reach ITCS, we will update the same accordingly.

Hope that helps.

Hello and Welcome

A big 'Hi and welcome' to the class of 2011.

This is to introduce you to the (informal) course blog. A good way to see what role the blog plays is to check out what it did last year.

Pls find the introductory blogpost last year here. Most of the post holds for this year too. There are 4 changes, however:

1. Pls access the blog for information etc on a regular basis - at least once before a lecture and so on. This was 'optional' last year, but is upgraded to 'recommended' this year. IMO, this will save a ton of time, trouble and mass e-mail.

2. Anonymous commenting has been disabled this year. I found last year that it is indeed susceptible to misuse.

3. Your participation on the blog remains entirely optional. However, updates regarding announcements, notifications, clarifications, queries and doubts etc will break first on the blog. So pls check for updates regularly.

4. We'll have a mid-term and no end-term this year. Last year, we had an end-term and no mid-term.

Going through last year's blog posts, here are some typical ones:
Pls find an explanation for lecture slides non-distribution prior to class here.

You can browse through last year's project scope document here. If you browse posts under the 'Project' tag, you can see how things evolved last year re the project. Of course the project topic will change this year.

Some email feedback here and much more here.
Disclaimer: Quiz formats etc may change this year, so the posts for last year are indicative only.

Chalo, that's a start. 9 more lectures to go.

Sudhir

The big day (Oct-11) cometh

Oct-11 shall mark the start of the second time I teach MKTR at the ISB. There is only a touch of nervousness this time, unlike the flood of it last time. Hopefully, things will go smoothly.

Mistakes were made in the first edition. I trust those will be steered clear of this time. Am equally sure despite all efforts new stumbles will happen again this time. The cycle continues. Perfection is ever-elusive, anyway.

Am busy with updating the lecture slides, making caselets, prepping quizzes, the works. That explains the rather slim course manual this time. And that's fine too. A good part of the course manual last time didn;t find use. The relevant bits this time will be delivered as hard-copy in the classroom.

Research work, at a crucial stage in a couple of projects, will now perforce have to tone down. Can't escape the feeling that, well, if I had one more week, I'd have been able to do this and that within that time and send 'em papers out only. That feeling is always there and is probably false comfort.

Feedback from last year I have tried to incorporate - primarily the Indianizing of content, the standardization of software used, a streamlining of the project timetable, and a rebalancing of statistical analysis with qualitative insights. Time will tell how this goes.

Chalo, signing off for now. Adios.

Indo-UK relations

Dean Nelson in the Telegraph UK writes a poignant piece mourning the formal recognition of the passing of an era: Can Cameron reignite India's love affair with Britain?

David Cameron’s decision to take three of his four most senior Cabinet colleagues with him to New Delhi next week, along with his higher education minister, marks a historic moment in almost 400 years of British engagement with India. It gives ceremony to a state of affairs that has been the case for some time but not, until now, acknowledged: we need India more than it needs us.

Welcome to a brave new world, Dean ol' chap. Brave Old world actually. Sri Nandan Nilekani aptly says it in hos book Imagining India that India's rise is merely a recovery to a very stable equilibrium that existed for centuries before the Industrial revolution - India and China dominating world GDP, trade, tech, ideas and culture.

For those of you whose most recent glimpse of India was the brutal poverty shown in Slumdog Millionaire, or believed you had just elected a government committed to clamping down on south Asian immigration, think again and steel yourselves: Mr Cameron’s visit with the largest senior Cabinet delegation in recent memory heralds the arrival of an Indian century.

Indian century? Asian century will do, IMHO. Better not to draw premature attention. Am not sure India's ready for showtime yet.

His aim is not just to win contracts for British firms, but to establish a strategic relationship in which our scientists, engineers, designers and entrepreneurs will work with their Indian counterparts and combine British innovation and Indian costs to sell to the rest of the world.

It is a challenge to the more familiar view of India, as home to 456 million people living in poverty – just under half its population – and one third of the world’s poor. This grim statistic remains accurate but not as urgent as other developments: India is the world’s second fastest-growing economy. It is expected to overtake China as the fastest-growing within 40 years, and also replace it as the world’s greatest population with more than two billion people by 2050. As its population rises, so too will its number of highly educated graduates and skilled engineers – already qualifying at the rate of 160,000 per year.

The pressing need to “partner” India was explained to me two years ago by a professor heading a series of collaborations between British and Indian university research departments and technology companies. They were hoping to develop revolutionary communications systems which could run on minimal electricity and store sensitive data securely in disaster-proof circumstances. “It is better to help them develop now than be overtaken and alone later,” he said.

Good good good. Jai ho.

Biz Std has this story: ISB forms 'Ivy League' with 3 Asian B-schools

The Indian School of Business (ISB), Hyderabad, has tied-up with three top Asian B-schools to devise a strategy to attract more students from the US, Canada and Europe.

Along with the Hong Kong University of Science & Technology (HKUST), China Europe International Business School (CEIBS), and Nanyang Technological University (NTU), ISB officials will jointly market the potential of studying management in Asia to Western students. All four B-schools, including ISB, feature among the top 30 in the Financial Times (London) rankings of the Top 100 Business Schools in the world.

Aha. Makes perfect sense too. Asian century and all. Why not pool in resources for mutual benefit?

After five months of meetings and discussions, these four Asian B-schools have now branded themselves as ‘Top 4Asia B-schools’, created a logo which depicts the same, have a common signature, and a website http://www.topasiabschools.com to achieve the creation of an ‘Ivy League’ kind of image for students from developed countries. The ‘Ivy League’ refers to eight north-eastern US colleges — Brown University, Columbia University, Cornell University, Dartmouth University, Harvard University, Princeton University, the University of Pennsylvania, and Yale University.

These ‘Top 4 Asia B-schools’, on their newly-created website, reason that “Asia is the new land of opportunity. This is where you should be...to be present to learn to address the challenges of today's increasingly complex business world. And, it is what makes a vital difference in your CV and to the direction your career is headed.”

It doesn't require much selling to convince folks that 'Asia experience' on their CVs is a net positive. And I suspect as time passes, it will become even less of a hard sell only.

IMHO, our Dy Dean puts it very well:

“Asian education has now reached a critical mass trajectory. It is in our interest to give students multiple options. Hence, we got together with the other prominent Asian B-schools to jointly market our programmes. This proves more effective than going it alone,” asserts Deepak Chandra, deputy dean of ISB.

Alrite. But what methods exactly would be used to market this eminently sensible idea?

“This could be in the form of World MBA events wherein we travel together along with the officials of the other B-schools or sometimes in pairs. We also plan to participate in seminars besides using collaterals, etc. in the countries that we travel to,” says V K Menon, senior director (Career Advancement & Admissions), ISB.

Menon points out that traditional marketing methods like direct mailers, advertising, etc., are “prohibitively expensive”, hence “this strategy makes senses”. “We have a history of collaboration, especially in executive education programmes,” he adds. For instance, ISB has collaborations with some of the world’s leading corporations including a number of Fortune 500 companies, the Kellogg Graduate School of Management at North Western University and the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania and London Business School.

All the top four Asian B-schools, including ISB, have an international standing, a pedigree and are well-anchored in their own regions. ISB enjoys the distinction of being the first Indian B-school to be ranked among the top 12 global business schools in the FT rankings. All its faculty members hold doctorates.

To see how much of a headstart 10 yrs represents, look at the difference between India and China, and that between ISB and HKUST.

HKUST was established in 1991. Today, it is regarded as Hong Kong’s premier business learning centre and its MBA programme has been consistently ranked No.1 in Asia by The Economist and world No. 9 by Financial Times in 2010. HKUST Business School is characterised by a blend of East meeting West. It was the first institute in Asia to be awarded dual accreditation by AACSB in the US and EQUIS in Europe.

CEIBS, on its part, has the longest running MBA programme in mainland China and the biggest EMBA programme in the world. The school has 10,000 graduates worldwide and 1,000 are added every year. It ranks No. 22 globally by Financial Times and has been No.1 in Asia for six years.

We'll get there pretty soon. Cheers!

A product exchange fiasco at Hypercity, Hyderabad

Hi, so its been a long hiatus. Well, am back, for a while at least.

I want to document a particular incident that happened with me yesterday. So on 23-June, I and my wife went to Hypercity, purpotedly India's largest hyperstore in the Inorbit mall and bought ourselves an AKAI DVD player for some 2 grand.

We come home and try it on and the DVD reader doesn't work on any DVD or CD we could find. So, the next day, armed witht he puchase bill, I goto Hydeprcity and try to get a product refund or exchange. I see that a board there proudly proclaims a 14 day exchange policy. Wow, so the product exchange service, meant to de-risk and hence spike consumer trial and purchase, had come to India after all!

So, one floor employee plugs the DVD into one of their TVs and tries soem DVDs out. Same result. Then an entire baraat of line staff arrive to do the same. Its 30 mins plus by now. Clearly, the product is defective. But my queries are bounced along like email forwards within this ever changing group of line employees. Finally, after some 45 mins of endurance testing, someone from 'management' comes in. And then she tells me that store policy prohibits refund or exchange of electronic items.

Well, I'm foxed. Now, why go through this sordid product checking saga for so long, I wonder. And why not check the product before the sale, if this is what policy says?

So I try to reason with the lady - "Look, you sold me a defective product. Why don;'t you contact the vendor for recall? Why am I supposed to go to some service center somewhere when the product never worked even for 1 minute?" and so on.

But the manager is an expert at stonewalling. She continues to wave the policy document around. I tell her, "Fine, I've been a loyal customer, have bought 1000s in goods in the past year alone and that the store gains nothing from pi$$ing me off." She claims to understand. Well, OK.

"See, Wal-Mart, among the cheapest chains i nthe US offers a 60 day return policy. Why don't you keep good on your 14 day one?"
She says: 'But we're not wal-mart'.
"Sure, I can see you're not, but why not aspire to be world-class at least? Does a third-world location serve as a catch all excuse?" I argue. Deaf ears are all the rage by now.

Finally I ask her if she's line staff or managerial staff. She's foxed for a minute and then grandly declares she's a 'manager' here. And I try to explain that unlike line staff, who have no authority to deviate from policy, managers are supposed to exercise judgement. That is why they are given discretionary authority. Since she's clearly unwilling to do so, could she take me to her boss or somebody higher up who has the authority to take a decision?
"No, the boss is not in."
Yeah, right.

And my wife was planning on buying a flat-screen from that store. Imagine getting stuck with a defective product worth several 1000s instead of just a few 1000s? "Whew", I guess. The cloud perhaps did have a silver lining.

Anyway, object lesson here: Pls, pls, pls be careful when buying electronics, mobiles and the like from even fancy name stores, especially from Hypercity, Hyderabad. Always, always better to check the product in store prior to purchase. The fancy big-name stores may not be agreebale to that, if so ditch them.

Anyway, my 2 cents. Jai Ho.