What does it take it to be an Entrepreneur?

Indeed we are lucky that Jerry Rao, an un-usual entrepreneur (who took up to Entrepreneurship at 45) was teaching us entrepreneurship. More interestingly, he was using an HBS case Jerry Rao: Diaspora and Entrepreneurship in the Global Economy. There are several learnings from the class. Jerry credits most of his evolution to his first & last employer Citibank, for whom he worked for 25 years after passing from IIMA in 1973.

1. Flexibility with respect to autonomy at work
   
2. A nurturing environment (Citi sponsored Jerry for a PhD)
3. Jerry built lasting relationships and a network that stood for him in good stead. Jerry built a great reputation which later on helped him when started up.
4. Jerry had rational and not adaptive expectations (belief in the principle that past does not predict future)
5. Jerry developed new skills and abilities as he moved from one job to another (functional / geographical changes). He was willing to jettison zones of comfort and make personal sacrifices.

I have found Jerry's thoughts on Entrepreneurship very insightful.

1. Have a clear sight of downside while starting up. Ask yourself "can you manage the downside?"
2. Going public (too soon) brings it's own sets of pressures- a) it can prevent you from making strategic decisions (Q-Q pressures)
3. Willing to give up cushy (corporate) lifestyle during initial years (very relevant for Xians)
4. Trust and relationships built with different people all along your career would be quite useful.
   

I have chosen this course for sheer admiration for the prof. And this is turning out to be more than what I could ask for. Plus the quality of class discussions is hitting an all time high, thanks to the very talent peer group.

As Bryan Adams would say, some years down the line I am going to reminisce those were the best days of my life....

The future of PGPX

The one year MBA format in India has been a revelation of sorts. The success of PGPX, ISB, PGPEX vindicate this. In my opinion, in the coming 4-5 years this MBA market will considerably grow, catalysed by reverse brain drain of the diaspora.

The larger picture is India has huge reserves of talent and for decades people did not have convenient choices to pursue their dreams. The back to back Engineering & MBA by the time one turns 23, few years of job & fun and finally getting married was the oft beaten path to a good life. Many who have not taken this path rued, as the option of studying later in life was only at foreign schools.

For some one who is married, settled with a good job / career, school going kids, the MBA proposition could be nerve wrecking change. I know of people in my class who have given up green cards, sold houses in US, relocated to India with complete bag & baggage. It is too much of disturbance for a family, but the good news is that the environment and systems are getting congenial to support such people. The Married Student Housing (MSH) at IIMA is a perfect example of some of the support systems that are in place. Completely furnished homes with 24x7 services at beck & call help, enable many comfort conditioned students to ease into the student mode yet again. Admission at decent schools for kids at any level is quite peaceful. Cultural environment in the campus for kids and spouses is awesome. There are lots and lots of things /events that are planned by the Spouses group and make living comfortable and enjoyable. In fact, they are completely independent (the spouses group eats out, shops, watches movies together) - suits us well !

We have been interacting with many Industry leaders and I am quite happy to see their responses meeting us. Recruiting people at lateral level with 9 years of work ex from B schools is not usual in India and Industry is adapting to this phenomenon. Placements seem to hog more than their fair share of mind space. But fundamentally, I would look at IIMA for-

1. Opportunities to get into different fields, if you want to take a job that is.
   
2. Access to funding if you are keen to start up.
3. Acquiring great perspectives and an environment to develop thinking and decision making abilities (getting a great job / starting up is only the first step... becoming successful there depends very much on these abilities)
   
4. One year of reflection, away from maddening / hectic work life for many... to think on what we want to do in life and at work.
   

Many months back I was speaking to an LBS-Sloan Alum and he mentioned that the real benefit of the one year he spent at LBS was visible only after 3-4 years of passing out from school. Strange it is. Isn't it? Perhaps no. As the Sloans get back to real world, they deploy many things they have acquired/developed - it takes a while to take things to fruition. This alum told me if I go there, I would only aspire to replace the chairman of the company I was working on return. Such is the impact of the programme. Well, not surprising considering they exchange notes with Bill Clinton, Tony Blair, Jack Welsh etc during their one year. PGPX is on similar lines. I have found great insights in all the interactions we have been having with the Industry leaders be it R.Gopalakrishnan / Avnish Bajaj / Basab Pradan / Ramalinga Raju. While we recognise the palpable internal transformation, the synthesis of many inputs and more importantly the visible external manifestation will take some time. So, in summary the real benefits of the learning here would be truely visible after a lag, in my opinion.

The design of the programme and choice of some of the cases is worth mentioning here. For instance, sample courses like -

• Role of General Manager
• Merger & Acquisitions

These are core courses and are designed specifically for the experienced participants. Cases like Time - Warner acquisition bring recent real world situations to class room. All this is orchestrated by some of the best experts... the professors of course. Many cases like Walmart, Cisco, Saint Gobain, Citibank, Nortel got more interesting as some of the participants brought in their experiences of working for these companies, to the class room. Need we say more about experienced MBA programmes?

So, while the risks seem high for onlookers for dropping everything and heading towards IIMA for a One year MBA, people who have decided to take the plunge know the risk-reward equations very well. In fact it's a skewed one here.. for minimal risks one is certain to get high returns and continuously over a period of next 25 years+. Irresistible proposition, Isn't it? I am not surprised therefore, with the surge in applicant pool by 59% over last year despite a 40% fee hike.

The decision on increasing the in-take (to two sections) will be crucial and it will be known in a couple of days. IMO, the number of interviewees would be an outcome of this decision. While all the 1347 applicants eagerly await their turn on the 10th September (when the PGPX III shortlist would be announced), here 's wishing all of them the very best.

1-2-3, What's the deal?

The media talking point over last couple of days- the Indo US nuke deal is made more mystical than it really is. I wonder why people responsible for removing the clutter and crisply communicating the nuances of the deal are happy letting the pandemonium continue. The framework deal, called the 123 agreement after a section of the U.S. Atomic Energy Act, has rocked both the democracies engaged in it. Leftists in India, are busy with a dogged search for a political plank/agenda within the issue. Even if there were one, it could be unraveled only after reading and understanding the deal in totality.

The leftist objections about passing on leverage over India's foreign policy to US, seem misplaced and far from reality. Yesterday I was watching a news channel and it was appalling to find many parliamentarians oblivious of what actual the deal is and its implications. Unfortunately, the text which has been made public a few days back, has attracted more rhetoric than critique. So much for much talked about largest democracy. The Communist Party of India (Marxist) (CPM)'s website parrots its opposition but does not enlist what are the specific issues it has over the deal.

Some facts-

1. India has 14 reactors in commercial operation and nine under construction
2. Nuclear power supplies about 3% of India's electricity
3. By 2050, nuclear power is expected to provide 25% of the country's electricity
4. India has limited coal and uranium reserves
5. Its huge thorium reserves - about 25% of the world's total - are expected to fuel its nuclear power programme long-term

Source: Uranium Information, BBC

Since economic liberalization on 1991, Indian economy and consequently industry breathed a new lease of life. Securing energy, the backbone to economy, obviously is the top most priority of Indian Government. What India needs most urgently is public infrastructure and Energy, which Industry recognizes and hence has come out in open to support the deal.

The deal guarantees India fuel supplies for its civilian programme, and allows it to reprocess spent fuel. The debate over strategic compromise is ridiculous as well. Reuters say-

"
The pact has to be approved by Congress, while India needs to get clearances from the Nuclear Suppliers Group of nations that govern global civilian nuclear trade and also conclude an agreement to place its civilian reactors under U.N. safeguards.

"The United States will support an Indian effort to develop a strategic reserve of nuclear fuel to guard against any disruption of supply over the lifetime of India's reactors," the text said.

If despite these arrangements fuel supply is disrupted, the two countries would jointly convene a group of friendly supplier countries such as Russia, France and Britain to restore supplies to India, it said.

While both countries would have the right to end the pact with a year's advance notice and demand the return of fuel and equipment transferred, "the two parties recognize that exercising the right of return would have profound implications for their relations", the agreement said.

In what Indian officials said was an indirect reference to a future Indian nuclear test, the pact said the two sides had agreed to take into account whether "circumstances that may lead to termination" resulted from a "changed security environment" or "a response to similar actions by other states".

In other words, if Pakistan or China conducted nuclear tests, the U.S. would take that into account if Indian responded.

"
Pakistan seems as confused as the left parties on the deal. Pakistan has warned that the accord threatens regional stability, saying it would allow its arch rival to produce more atomic bombs. I would not find fault with their apprehension as it is stemming out of years of mistrust and misadventures. The deal has taken already 2 years since originally proposed during 2005 visit of Dr.Manmohan Singh to US. It may take a couple of more months for all parties involved to understand the intent and the construct of the deal and how it serves strategic purposes. In many ways, the agreement which will last for at least 40 years, is attempting to reverse 30 years of cold war time adversarial relationship between India and US. Truely, if and when it goes through historic milestone will be created.

All New Look for Term III

That's right! As I get ready for the next half of MBA life, I said let me get a new look... for my face as well as for my blog....

And before I realized, the week long break disappeared. I am off to Ahmedabad tomorrow; term III will begin on 27th Aug. I chose 3 electives for term III out of a selection of 19 options. We have to make up a total of 2.4 credits or 60 sessions. Since I am looking at FMCG and Retail industries as my key focus areas post MBA, I opted for Retail Management as one of the electives. The Prof who will be teaching entrepreneurship is gawd level and hence this course as well; besides it fits into my long term scheme of things. And finally Strategic B2B, again because it falls into my key focus group - Marketing and the prof is rated pretty high. So, you would have noticed electives decisions are influenced by the quality of prof... that's one learning I had from two terms at IIMA.

So, tomorrow I gonna carry tons of book from PGPX office (for term III) for starting prep for Monday's classes... here we go.

Bonsai Manager

Mr R GopalaKrishnan, Exec Director Tata Sons was on the campus during the first week of August. He interacted with the PGPX class for half a day and also spent time talking about developing intuitions as managers and how we can use it for making effective decisions. He being a great believer in role of intuitions in management, pour in all his experiences into his maiden work, "The case of the Bonsai Manager". Gopal uses his deep understanding of nature in driving home his point and he has been absolutely brilliant at that.

I was particularly impressed by this man's thought process and articulation skills. He held the class captivated for about 2 hours, as he took us through his learning from stint at Levers and now at Tata Sons.

His brother R. Srinivasan is another wizard (I've heard him a couple of times - even this man is a great thinker and orator) but works for another Indian giant ITC. Looks like getting big, runs in the family !

T-Nite and end of Term II

Last 3 weeks have been perhaps the most hectic times since the MBA grind has begun. First it was T-Nite and then the last week grind of term II and finally the exams. Phew ! it has been a physically and mentally sapping stretch.

T-Nite (for those of you, who wouldn't know of this IIMA tradition) is short for talent nite. All the incoming freshers exhibit their talent in this 4.5 days marathon that calls for extreme planning, coordination, high talent levels and more importantly class camaraderie. The 4 PGP sections and PGPX class compete; leaving the whole campus on a cultural frenzy. Interestingly, only towards the end, one discovers there are no loosers; as everyone discovers new ways of relating and bonding with their classmates. Class X is supported with the 25 odd spouses on the campus who have rocked as well as class X. In fact, they have proved why they are called better halves! Class X surprised everyone (as it did last year) and ran the favorite after the second day. In the end, we ended up second but we are happy to discover our elements and live those glorious moments to the fullest.

T-Nite took its toll on most of us - some with bad throats (the cheers leaders), many with viral fevers and other pains which I would like to avoid talking here ;) Unfortunately, nothing seems to stop the academic grind at IIMA; we realised this as we went along... came back after t-nites and worked on submissions for the next day!

Before we recovered from the ailments exams were staring in deeply. One after another, for 8 days and the ordeal was done finally on 17th Aug with the last submission. What a way to end term II!

Finally, we all have hit our home towns for a well deserved break. I could also catch up on my blogging... expect more rambling during next week :)

Presenting Class of 2008...

Class X's profile book is ready and will soon be available on IIMA's website. Get an early peek from here.

It is a week long break for us now between terms II & III. I am chilling out in Hyd and hopefully blog as often as I wish ;)

Cheers.

PS: Some people have asked me for profile book of Class of 2007. Here it is.

Awesome... Sujata !

This one is going to be a certain IIMA memoir for most of us. The prof who taught us Financial Markets, not only helped in developing an intuitive understanding of debt, equity and derivative markets but also connected with us so well, that most reckon her to be more a friend than a teacher. For us, Sujata has re-defined teaching in B Schools. She was simply superb !

As we all gathered this evening, to say thanks to this great teacher, I was awestruck with the amount of love and affection she had won from the class in 6 weeks flat. As she stood listening to people sharing their experiences with her and was receiving souvenirs and good wishes, a simple truth dawned on me. To win the respect and love of people like students and sub-ordinates (who owe no obligation to return favours/say good words) you not only have to be good in what you do (she was amazing in fin fundas - BS(MIT), MBA(IIMA) and great pedagogy), but also have to be a good human being(she was extremely helping, caring and approachable).

Personally, it has been wonderful and gratifying experience with you, Sujata. Your advice has been extremely useful and I hope to find my goal on the path I am choosing.

Till we meet again..... Adieu.

PGPX Selectivity among the top international programs

Yeah, that's right. Sample this information. First graduating class with 60 students out of 730 applicants, a selectivity of 8.22%. The current class with 72 out of 849 applicants has a selectivity of 8.48%. Looking at Business Week information on US Ivy league schools and European top schools tells us these numbers are actually pretty good, for starters. What IIMA has got right in it's formula is from among the Indian pool of applicants (located around the world) who are more than 27 years old, they are perhaps getting the best. This is also validated by the fact that many in the current class chose PGPX over other admits they had. And yes, the yield (no of people accepting offers to total offers made) is around 85% only next to schools like HBS. We learnt about Segmentation, Target market & Positioning (STP) tools in Marketing classes and PGPX programme itself is a good example for this.

Given IIMA's obsession with low selectivity rates this statistic doesn't come as a surprise. On the diversity factor, US schools have international participants upto 35% in general, hence they are by & large American dominated. However, in European schools (like IMD) no single nationality really dominates. In years to come, as IIMA gets into the global league we would have made some big strides along those lines.

Do catch up on Prof Arvind Sahay's (PGPX Chairman) interview on PagalGuy.

PGPX III - FAQs

Edit log:
1. 6th July
2.19th July (point 7 onwards)
3.11th September (point 10 onwards)

A future aspirant of PGPX came over today and we talked about where (&how) this programme will fit / not fit her requirements. I realised some things are common for all aspirants yet many are personal questions. I would be happy to help any future aspirants in this regard. I may not be able to guarantee immediate responses, but will try to do my best.

I would like to discuss some frequently asked questions and MY responses. I shall update this post with my responses from time to time, as I gather more questions.

Disclaimer: As, I am not connected to Adcom in any way, the opinions expressed here are purely personal. There could be significant differences between mine and adcom's views on certain questions. Please visit the IIMA website for official information.

Q1.What is a safe GMAT score?
Raju: Like all other schools proclaim, I would be tempted to say there is no such thing as safe score. The lowest score in our class has been 640. Having said that, I would imagine IIMA might have a preference for higher GMAT scores. If your profile is normal, a 700 would get you past the initial screening, but may not guarantee admission. Remember the applicant numbers are only going up and hence more is the competition. However, a less than 700 with other good application components will also get you past the initial screening, IMO.

Q2.What is your take on the programme?
Raju: When I have made a choice on pursuing a one year MBA, I was mentally ready for a grueling one year. At IIMA, it gets more intense than you can imagine. Hence term 1 was a rude shock for many of us, but many of us got comfortable with the pace and intensity as we moved on. Hence, I would say, this programme is good for those who can really soak in this sort of academic milieu and are ready to take the best out of it. PGPX perhaps has the most number of contact hours for a one year MBA programme.

Most of the faculty and the peer group are awesome, so learning environment is incredible. I am not discussing placements because that has been great from the very first batch itself.

The target applicant is typically more than 27 years old, has substantial work ex (the last two classes' average work ex has been 9-10 years) with a substantial international work exposure. Comparisons seem to be inevitable with other one year programs (such as with ISB) but I would imagine, there isn't any other programme catering to this segment of applicants in this part of the world. IMD and LBS (Sloan) would perhaps be the competing programmes. The programme has made giant strides already in it's second year, thanks to the preparatory efforts of the insti. It will get more international and diverse in future, IMO.

Q3. Please share some unique profiles from the current class.
Raju: The youngest in the class is 27 and the oldest is 49 (well she says, she is a lot younger mentally!). There a couple of entrepreneurs who I find most interesting (they say they are here to recruit talent for their companies), bankers, Accountants, Civil Servants (IAS, IRS, various others), Defense officers, a scientist and the others. The others have a wide range of experience- a director of an MNC, a VP from a leading BPO and so on (some of the senior profiles), while functionally people have manufacturing, sales & marketing, finance & accounting backgrounds from diverse industries. Almost all the participants have great academic pedigree (& a stellar record) or a successful career or both. Please refer to IIMA website for more details.

Hence, it is obvious that individual objectives and take aways from the programme would be very unique.

Q4. What is the focus of the programme / are there any specializations / electives offered?
Raju: The programme is designed to nurture general managers and hence does not offer specializations. However, there are a wide variety of electives on offer which are really batch specific (supply of faculty that year v/s demand of electives from the class). I also realize some courses like mergers and acquisitions which are electives in other programmes elsewhere, are core courses here, in line with the programme objectives.

Q5. Any dope on placements... how do you go about them?
Raju: All PGPX participants come with unique profiles by virtue of substantial work-ex and so are their aspirations. Hence, placements are customized to meet individual needs and the process is designed to meet this requirement; yet, PGPX pioneering batch could achieve100% placements and individual participant needs were met.

Q6. What are the programme USPs? Why should I choose PGPX over others, assuming it meets my needs?
Raju: The following aspects are compelling to a prospective aspirant.

1. Tough selection standards: IIMA continues to choose the best available from the international pool of applicants. I would encourage future applicants to come over to IIMA for a closer interaction with the class, to get a first hand touch & feel. For details, please contact Manager, PGPX.
   
2. Small class size: This helps in knowing all the class mates and form lasting bonds. Also very good from a networking perspective.
3. Great faculty: Most of the faculty at IIMA is awesome and that IMO has been key contributor in IIMA's success, although not so well recognized. Getting into IIMA as a faculty is tougher than getting in as a student. Surviving here as faculty is even more tougher. The feedback and continuous improvement process (to faculty) is very transparent and an effective process.
4. IIMA alumni Network: Being part of the alumni network of Asia's top B school gets you un-paralleled access to many things you may want in your professional life.
   

Added on 19th July 2007
Q7. My GMAT score is not all that high, but I think my overall work-ex is good. Should I apply?
Raju: A lot of people send me mails / leave comments on the blog with this question. Unfortunately, there is no right answer to this question. But in general, if you think you have a profile that you can show case and think you can bring something unique to class discussions and learning, you should go ahead and apply. However, I doubt if GMAT scores less than 640-650 get a dekho, no matter how good the profile is.

Q7. Lot is said and talked about entrepreneurship these days. What is the climate at IIMA for fostering this?
Raju: Super! There are good support systems such as the incubation center, some profs who are happy to help, you have access to funding bodies and more importantly various clubs and informal associations. We have an entrepreneurship club that not only helps budding entrepreneurs but also actively promotes intrapreneurship.

Q8. Is there any industry interface in addition to academics?
Raju: Pretty much. Business leaders from different industries come and interact with us. Jerry Rao (Founder,Mphasis), Basab Pradhan(Founder Grid stone) Rahul Bhasin (MD, Barings Equity), Pulak Prasad (Ex- MD Warburg Pincus), R Subramaniam (Founder Subhiksha chain), Sanjiv Bhikchandani (Founder Naukri.com) are among few luminaries who have interacted with us this year, so far. It has been a great learning experience listening to them and learning.

Q9. What is the International Immersion Programme (IIP) all about? How is this different from a student exchange programme?
Raju: IIP gives a PGPX participant an opportunity to spend a week at a chosen foreign business school and do a project with an organization in an environment different from the participant's home country. Please visit IIMA website for more details. Whilst the participant gains business insights and develops an understanding of host country's context (cultural and economic). The sponsoring company gains fresh perspectives from experienced and bright B School grads. Moreover the time spent (over a month) would give an opportunity to know the prospective hires and a choice of offering a pre-placement offer (PPO). Thus IMO, IIP is really a hybrid between a student exchange programme and a typical summer internship.

Added on 11th September 2007

Q10. Can you talk about the combination (and %) of teaching modes employed by the PGPX (case study/lecture/group projects)? Would be great if you can also mention the opportunities to interact with the industry (live projects/cases etc.)
Raju: Mostly case method driven. However some courses like Macro Economics were dealt in the lecture mode. In some soft courses role plays, seminar formats are also used.

Q11. Are students expected to be familiar with general management topics or are the subjects covered ground up?
Raju: All subjects are covered ground up. During January, PGPX office will send some prep material to all those admitted for some courses in term 1.

Q12. Given that the PGPX is a recent program, are there opportunities to interact with PGP Alumni body?
Raju: Interactions happen when the alumni visit the campus. It will improve as the programme matures.

Q13. How well (or not) is the program suited to career switchers? In other words, what % of the class typically switches careers?
Raju: By design, I think the programme is not meant for career switchers. People would like to capitalize on what they have done for 10 years. However, switches may happen for younger lot
(<30 style="color: rgb(0, 102, 0);">Q14: The program doesnt require choosing a concentration and emphasizes on general management instead. Does this impact the number and availability of electives?
Raju: Please refer to Q4 on this. There are about 40-50 electives that are/will be offered this year between terms 3 &5, which covers all relevant aspects of a particular area. For example. Fixed income, Advanced Financial Markets etc for people looking Finance focus.

Q15: Can you provide a glimpse of social and professional networking opportunities (clubs, activities etc) available to PGPX students?
Raju:Although all the PGP clubs are open to all Xians, few find time to participate. Networking happens during events like T-nite, Chaos, Insight etc at IIMA. PGPX runs unique clubs like Entrepreneurship, Strategy which have specific needs of experienced participants. Focus of these clubs is to update on industry current affairs, special talks etc.

Q16. Finally, what do you like most about the program, and what do you like least?
Raju: This blog is full of things I like about the programme :)
Awesome faculty, amazing peer group and finally a great culture of IIMA. Things I don't like are a) It's still sarkaari in some areas. Unless the govt. gives a free hand these may not change.