Reflections Of Life

What time of the day is it??

Monday, October 31, 2005

I have had no clue about how time has flown this week… too many things have happened and all I could manage was listing down in my small brain what all I need to write in my blog! And true to its size, it has over flown and I better pen something before I go blank :-)

I played (in a team of 4) the IIM-A Mousetrap (Confluence), a live simulation game, each session lasting for about 2 hours and 6 sessions over a period of 4 days. We had to choose sectors, decide on plant locations and capacity, and for each production session, we had to decide on the production and advertising. We thought it would be similar to the Markstrat simulation we played as part of our Marketing Decision making course in second term… but this game did not live up to our expectations… The game as such was not as interesting and did not have many reports to analyze for the decisions to be taken. And the fact that there were too many glitches in the way it was conducted was not expected from an institution like IIM-A. In all, the good news is that we are the only team from ISB which ended up in the top-50 and after their redistribution according to their rules, we were ranked 25^th overall. So we are eligible to make our way to the Ahmedabad campus in our November term break:-). This week, we are also working on a finance case for another IIM-A competition… with an OPFR midterm this week, I hope we have the time to crack this case.

Other than this, the Marketing club of ISB is organizing an internal competition every fortnight - Industry Olympiad – Each fortnight, 2 industries/sectors would be chosen by the club and teams need to write a report and give a presentation about the sector. The main aim is to help us learn more about different sectors and this week we had Telecom and FMCG (Personal care). I (in a team of 3) participated in the Telecom sector presentation… Three days ago, I didn’t even know the basic terminologies and in a couple of days I learnt a LOT through this initiative. Great idea from the Marketing club and thanks to my team for helping me learn so much! Seven teams participated and we were one of the three chosen for the final round. I gave half of the presentation today and though we did not win, the quantum I have learnt has made me decide that I would do this every fortnight! I hope more people make use of this opportunity by turning up atleast to watch the presentations.

There are times when I have wondered if I should have taken this one year program when I have lesser experience compared to almost everyone around here… but the best thing about this place is how much I can learn from my fellow students…

I am happy that I am still sane this term :-) and managed to even get out of the campus for lunch on one of those rare holidays for me last week. Diwali is on Tuesday and many activities seem to be planned – I guess I would light some fireworks along with the Chennai gang tomorrow evening!

This place has kept me so busy that I think I might like a break at times, but wouldn’t enjoy a slow paced life at anytime. I was just thinking of same time last year and everything else that has happened, I know for sure that there isn’t a better place I could be in right now!

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