One Night at MBS....

It is 1:30 AM.... I am still in college with Sanket, Bhushan and Sparsh... we have an OB Presentation tomorrow at 12 noon... I can find all my fellow batchmates online....I guess this is why I was here... This is what i came here for... This is my school, my course, my year... The trendsetters rock...

Nikhil Neelakantan

Trendsetters # 22

Trendsetters- Teekhi Bhel...

Trendsetters- Teekhi Bhel...

Anyone and everyone knows what Bhel is.. If u don’t know then u should visit the Mumbai chowpati... if u don’t know wat chowpati is then do visit it on ur next Mumbai trip to attend ur distant cousins wedding... anyways its the mumbaiya version of chaat... if u don’t know chaat... then Google it... Almighty knows best... Anyways... so why is it mentioned here...??? U’ll know...

When was the last time u saw an engineer, a hotel mgmt grad, and a BSc Chemistry grad presenting a TEXTILE sector presentation...??? NEVER... Its a funny notion... Sounds Weird does’t it... Funny thing... RIGHT... Well we generally generalise wat we feel is right... Well let me tell u... that was a fantastic report ... So when I compare the trendsetters to a Bhel... its a mixture of languages, cultures, profiles... but the combination is absolutely ‘Chatpata’ ... so WE are an amalgamation of Mtec Metallurgy, MSc MicroBio, Msc Chem, BE, BTec, BBA, BCom, BA hons, BSc. Hospitality, etc... had worked with Infosys, Deutsche bank, Eaton, Satyam, Cognizant, Morgan Stanley, Patni etc(not in that order)... with an experience of 0- 72 months... with an avg age of 24... What can be better than this...??? And we are here... and believe you me... We gonna rock...!!!

We are doing a lot of things at MBS... dissecting 21 major sectors of world economy... Making reports... Giving Presentations... Submitting papers... Attending classes... all’s happening here at maddening pace.... with superb precision... And we got some superb set of people to judge, guide and mentor us...

The oath taken on the first day... we still remember it... its our mantra...

the Trendsetter mantra... ‘WE CAN AND WE WILL’...

We have arrived... We will deliver...

Till then... Watch this space, I say...

Bhushan Vishwasrao
Trendsetter # 30
A proud MBsite...

The Fine Art of Living...!!!

The Fine Art of Living...!!!

When was the last time we thought about ourselves...?? Not as individuals... we do that all the time... We are a set of selfish hyenas... we all are... But have we ever thought of ourselves as an amalgam of Body and Soul... About the energy that flows within... About the life that runs through all the cells, veins, nerves... I’ll tell u when... NEVER... So when a program of Art of Living was introduced on our weekly schedules... a few eyebrows rose... But then we had already faced the three demons as mentioned in my earlier blog(For those who came in late... I’m talking bout Yoga, Aerobics and Dance...)... this was another BCI... so there we were... Atleast I was... in a classroom waiting for the Artist to walkin... On a personal note I don’t like to stretch my body beyond a certain physical limit...( I am a big guy... Apparel size (X)nL size... where n >2... Boy do I love Math... Anyways)
So we were all waiting patiently for some BABA types to walk in and give us gyan bout Spirituality n stuff... Instead walks in a lean guy not more than our age... Along with his co-instructor... These were Virat and Vasudha... He did tell us a few things about the course... about quitting some of our mortal pleasures... don’t wanna specify those... for the time period of this course... Once he was done with that... the real deal began... We were first supposed to meet any and everyone in the class, shake hands and tell them... ‘ I belong to you’... Trust me... this was the most awkward moment of our lives... we felt funny, weird, surprised et all... but we did it... felt good later to own so many ppl and in returned being owned by them... Then came the second game... A simple profit and loss question... Sent the entire class into a tizzy... we were to work out a solution and... Convince each other of our solution in case they have a different opinion... Chaos... At the end we all got different answers... Needless to say... We were all wrong... But we did realise something... We always want to speak... No one wants to listen... Now u know why all the ‘good listeners’ get the hot ones... We need to listen... This was followed by a couple of more listening and sharing exercises... Then a small break... Then came the mega-event... *drum-roll*... MEDITATION... but with a difference...
We sat and did some breathing exercise... Inhale Exhale... But on a certain order... certain pattern... certain rhythm... A record was playin in the background... We were breathing according to it... 5mins passed... 10 passed... 15... 20... but a strange thing was happening... Instead of getting restless... we were calm... The tranquil cannot be expressed in words... It was divine... then we lied down on the floor... Oh BTW we had our eyes closed all this time... So it was just dark... Thats when it happened... I felt Me... We felt US... it was amazing... Too good... Never was such a thing experienced before... We were feeling the energy running through... We actually felt it... The vibrations, the churning, the LIFE within... Entire session took 4hrs... Meditation being for the last 50mins odd... when we walked out of that room... we could feel the stress busted... we could feel our head light... we could feel the tension relieved... we were ready for the assignments to come... we were ready for the studies to come... we were at the next level... period.

Waiting for the next ‘Encounter of Our kind’....

Bhushan Vishwasrao
Trendsetter – 30
A proud MBsite.

Flirting with curves...!!!

Flirting with curves...!!!
Human mind is a funny thing... U never know what games it’ll play with u... One of those things is ‘love of math’... Everyone loved 2 + 2 = 4... but all hated Integration... All homo sapiens love shapes... Martians’ adore Andersons, Basus... The inhabitants of Venus like the bulging biceps of Pitts and Roshans or the Doughles of yore... but when u see the same curves on graph paper ??? Now u get my point... Mortality is a curse... Cause u have to b immortal to completely understand the language of Axes... So there we were... Friday the 5th ... Morning 9am... Trying desperately to meet the deadline of the upcoming MBS event( ZietGeist...Spirit of the Time...)... Wat happened after that was incredible... We were never hit with such pure awesomeness ever... Suddenly all was clear... Deviations and dispersions... ranges and frequencies... Symmetries were no longer a planet in the milky way... All became crystal clear... Thanks to Prof. Nimkar... I’ve never seen any one so subtle, so soft teaching quant... trust me... he was explaining a certain problem for 15mins... till the time all understood it well.. We salute u sir.. Another day at MBS well spent... Another set of rules learned... Another fear dealt with...

Bhushan Vishwasrao
Trendsetter- 30
A proud MBsite.

Gyan of the day!!!

We were sitting through our Business Immersion presentations - when Girish Sir (Regional Director of PRMIA) - he evaluates our presentations - gave us the lesson for the day.
"Shoppers are of 2 types - Fools and Idiots"
Fools: A fool is categorised as someone who goes to a mall and ends up, buying an Ipod from one store at a higher rate without enquiring at the nearby store.
Idiot: Some one buy's 2 axes (not the deoderant) because you get one free with another - in a place like Dubai where there are no trees. :)
Definitely a gyaan for Sales and Marketing aspirants on how to understand and tap shoppers.
Nikhil Neelakantan
Trendsetter # 22

OB!!!!

We had one of the most enjoyable teaching sessions at MBS– Organization Behavior – we had Prof. IFS Raj from XLRI, Jamshedpur who had come to teach this subject to us. As a class, we felt he was by far the best professor who had taught us so far - someone who always had a smile on his face, someone who addressed his students as “Sir’s and Ladies”, someone who was so well connected with the class – not ignoring the value we have received from other professors like Prof. Rakesh P Singh, Prof Sunderrajan etc.
I believe, Prof. Raj was incredible when it came to making a connection with the class. He was so good while conversing with us; he thought at our level at the same time, taught us how to think at his level. As any other normal class, we would play around with cell phones…. The way he conveyed his message on any issue, was just remarkable. Believe me when I say this, he noticed a few of us messaging on our phone, neither did he take names, nor did he shout at us – the only thing he said was “Friends, I believe I can say this and be open to you – please don’t use your phones again” – and I know for a fact, I didn’t see even one student using his phone after that. I think his sessions were so much of value add – we all have a different respect for OB as a subject… Once again MBS has provided us with another awesome faculty – another faculty with wealth of experience – another faculty who makes us believe that he is one among us, another faculty who we are blessed to have among us.

Nikhil Neelakantan

Trendsetters - 22

Good Read

India can now emerge as Asian superpower Stephen S Roach

IN RECENT years, the global view of India has been couched in terms of the daunting China comparison. It wasn’t all that long ago — 1991, to be precise — when Asia ’s two giants had similar levels of income per capita. That was then. Now, China ’s standard of living is more than three times that of India .
The China comparison has been India ’s wake-up call — a striking example of how economic development can be galvanised by pro-active government policy. It’s not that India has floundered. To the contrary, over the 2001-07 timeframe, India ’s real GDP growth averaged close to 7.5% — an impressive pick-up from the 5.5% pace of the 1990s. Perhaps the most remarkable aspect of this accomplishment was that it occurred despite the government — in the face of stiff political headwinds.
Those headwinds could now quickly become tailwinds. Thanks to the stunning victory of the Congress-led UPA in the recently concluded elections, there is a distinct chance that India could now benefit from its own strain of proactive, development-friendly government policies. The same reformers that were so successful in opening up India in the early 1990s were stymied by the politics of coalition management over the past five years. The massive win of the Congress Party all but removes that impediment — hinting at a new era of reforms that could well unshackle the increasingly robust potential of the Indian economy.
The dirty little secret of the Indian economy is that it has actually been performing much better, beneath the surface, than the China comparison might otherwise suggest. India has long had a much better micro story than China : A large population of world-class companies, outstanding entrepreneurs, a well-educated and ITcompetent workforce, relatively sound financial markets and banks, a well-entrenched rule of law, and democracy.
By contrast, India has suffered more from its macro deficiencies — especially when compared with China . That’s especially been true of savings, foreign direct investment and infrastructure. Yet, in the past three-four years, India has made impressive progress on at least two of those counts. Gross domestic savings rates have moved from the low 20s (as a percent of GDP) in the late 1990s to the high 30s in 2007-08. Foreign direct investment accelerated to a $40 billion annual rate — still short of Chinese style numbers but a fourfold increase from the pace of India’s inflows as recently as 2005. Even on the infrastructure front — where development constraints remain quite serious — the GDP share of such investments is up from the rock-bottom levels of the late 1990s.
Therein lies India ’s great potential — an increasingly virtuous cycle brought about the self-reinforcing interplay of its micro and macro drivers that now stand a real chance of being augmented by pro-active government policies and reforms. The new government needs to seize this moment — moving aggressively on four fronts — public sector deficit reduction, infrastructure support, privatisation, and deregulation of pension funds, retail, and banking. These are all tough battles for any politician to wage. But, if the government makes a down-payment on these critical initiatives, the Indian economy is well positioned to benefit for years to come.
The world has fallen in love with the China miracle. India has slipped between the cracks in all this euphoria. Yet, China now faces increasingly daunting challenges in coming to grips with long-simmering imbalances of its export — and investment-dominated macro structure. That could be a great opportunity for the ‘sleeper.’ Shifting political winds now give a well-balanced Indian economy a real chance to emerge as Asia ’s biggest surprise in the years immediately ahead.

The author is chairman, Morgan Stanley Asia

Winston Dsouza
Trendsetter # 7

WEEK 4...

Week 4...
Ever heard of EL Dorado... the city of gold... Well we are in pursuit of the same... An elusive dream... A chase for the perfect tomorrow... but its not that easy... trust me... its tougher than ever... but as they say... when the goin gets tough... d tough gets goin... Last three weeks were really eventfull... from Rappling in 42⁰C at Dabosa camp to Sector assignments in 18⁰C MBS classrooms... don’t know which one was tougher... but one thing is sure... We survived it all... Its become a part of life...A part of the MBS culture... Eyes are wide open from 6am to 2am... Assignments are fun to do... Teamwork has a whole new meaning... Leadership is no longer just a word in the dictionary... Sharing is not just a hotel thing anymore... We can watch, see and feel the transformation... TRENDSETTERS... the name given to this batch by Dr. Rai... We are doin our best to live upto it... and i am happy to say that... to some extent we are successful too... An average day in an MBsites life’s pretty tough... 9 am sharp lectures... A demon awaits us... Financial Management... They say Achilles was the greatest warrior ever born... I say he never faced Fianancial Management... Troy was easy... 10:15am... a well needed breakfast arrives... 10:30 am the fight resumes... 11:40am... a well deserved tea- break... 11:50 am... the war resumes... 1:20pm... a well earned lunch break... we rest till 2:30pm... After that comes something which even a Spartan soldier would fear... Naepoleon would think twice... Hitler’s suicide makes sense... Its time to meet the SATAN... The Devil’s trio... Bow before ‘ YOGA, AEROBICS & DANCE’... 6pm is a sigh of relief... But wait... You are not yet free to go home... NO KID NO KIDDIN... Assignments awaits us... So its a quick snack in Shivsagar or a round of yummy BBC frankies... Back to work ppl... Its bout 9pm when we actually leave the campus just to go home and study the read- up for the next day... So dinner at 12 am... followed by some intelligence exchange with roomies... Then we sleep to wake up by 6am and the process goes on... There are no shortcuts to success... But this is probably the best thing that could have ever happened to us... Its just the beginning now... Just four words to explain MBS... Survival of the fittest...


Bhushan Vishwasrao
Trendsetter – 30
A proud MBsite.