Term - III was a wash, kaput, over. Partly because I am eagerly looking forward to being done with the program and partly due to my interest in the subjects themselves.

We are down to 3 more sessions with three exams, two projects and one final project pending. The exams should be over by Aug 31st (Yay!). The projects, well never mind.

Looking at term III courses, Organization Structure, Design and Change (OSDC) classes were handled by Prof. Gloryson on-campus. He's a great lecturer drawing examples of org design from T-20 and managed to keep the student's interest alive.

Business Law classes were great in terms of course content and relevance - A few students were touched when Prof. Padhi handled a special session  after the sat link went down at one of the centers during class hours.

Strategic marketing was mostly case studies and analysis - good in a way handled by Prof. Sharad Sarin.

IFM by Prof. Pradhan handled international finance - forex, derivatives and the like. I was looking forward to the classes. He blogs at http://hkpradhan.blogspot.com.

e-Biz and LGSCM (Logistics and Supply Chain Management), I have nothing to offer.

So the program is almost done and I will pen my thoughts on the program when its truly done. :)

A few professors I enjoyed listening to -

Prof. Kakani - Managerial Accounting
Prof. Rajiv Misra - OPS
Prof. Gaurav Vallabh - FMB
Prof. Gloryson - OSDC

The rest were so-so

So both Strategic Management and Sales & Distribution Management sessions are complete. SDM End term and project submission is complete while SM is a group case study analysis on Apple that needs to be submitted by 14th.

Corporate Strategy is an interesting subject and lots of ground to cover. Prof. Munish Thakur handled the sessions well with lots of case studies to his credit. SDM sessions were also interesting but frankly none of it registered in my mind and the end term exam with caselets was horrible!

Financial Markets and Banking (FMB) and Human Resource Management (HRM) are ongoing now, FMB is handled by Prof. Gaurav Vallabh and is very interesting. HRM is so-so as expected.

Looking at the rest of the program, the following subjects remain

Term - II

International Financial Management (Prof. H.K. Pradhan)
International Management (Rear Admiral Rakesh Chopra)
Product and Brand Management (Prof. Sanjay Patro)
Consumer Behavior and Marketing Research (Prof. D. Israel)

Term - III

Logistics and Supply Chain Management (Prof. Vijayaraghavan)
Strategic Marketing (Prof. Sharad Sarin)
Business Law (Prof.  P.K. Padhi)
E-Business (Prof. Ashish K. Pani)

Five out of the eight courses I am looking forward to learn about, the other three could be interesting if the Professors can generate interest.

The program completes on 22nd August 2009 with on campus component scheduled for a week in April.

Countdown to August 22nd begins !

Two more to go. Close to six months since the start, the end term exams for QM and OB ended yesterday. Marathon session from 3:30 to 6:30 lasting three hours followed by three hours of session. Needless to say, I fared badly in QM while OB paper was decent.

Strategic Management (Prof Munish Thakur) and Sales and Distribution Management (Prof Sanjeev Varshney) sessions are ongoing. The Strategic Management sessions are light in topics covered so far (with focus on Porter's five forces and competitive advantage) and the subject is interesting.

I am new to the subject on sales and the jargons being used are all greek and latin to me. I need to spend some time on the sessions.

October 19th, Sunday - 12:15 pm to 1:45 pm OR End Term Exam Online (Open Book/Open Notes)

October 25th, Saturday - 6:45 pm to 7:05 pm OB Mid term exam

October 26th, Sunday - 8:20 pm to 9:35 pm QM Mid term exam

November 9th, Sunday - OPS End term exam

November 15th, Saturday, - Last date for OR individual assignment submission

November 30th, Sunday - Last date for OB group case study

November 30th, Sunday - QM and OB end term exam

It's been more than a month since I last posted on this blog, time for some updates.

ME final exam was held in the week of Sept 14th, the questions were related to Game theory, monopoly and a few short notes on economics. Being a open book exam helped me a lot. Overall, I found the subject interesting and the whole subject revolves around  "Rational people think at the Margin" concept - marginal cost, marginal revenue, opportunity costs etc.

OPS (Operation production and strategy) sessions were terrific,  Prof. Rajiv Misra impressed the heck out of everyone and kept everyone engrossed during the lectures. We had an assignment due for submittal this week, I managed to write on semiconductor manufacturing supply chain and process flow.

OR (Operations Research) sessions are ON, need to review the sessions - while I am aware of linear programming problems approach, the real world applications of it are not evident considering there are multiple variables that need to be factored. Prof. De is patiently moving through the sessions with Excel analysis.

OB (Organizational Behavior) sessions are also ON, Prof. Manish Singhal can articulate well and he manages to keep the sessions informal. The subject is very vague by nature although interesting.

Quantitative Techniques are scheduled next - time to revisit statistics and probability

 Corporate Finance sessions and end term/assignment are done and finito. Managerial Economics sessions are over too with yesterday's quiz being the highlight - project submission is due by Aug 28th while uncertainty on end term exam for ME remains.

Marketing Project Submission is also done - We covered a case study on Ginger Hotels. I felt we compiled enough data and did a good job considering it being our first study in marketing.

One takeaway from ME sessions are that I need to concentrate during the Prof's lectures and note down the salient points. If anything, yesterday's quiz proved it ! Corporate Finance sessions did not suffice - need to delve into the details a bit more.

New subject today - Operation Production and Strategy, a very interesting subject according to few folks I know. Hopefully, the Prof is good enough to keep us engrossed and we learn something during the sessions.

Visit GyanClan, being blogged by our fellow colleague Satish on the sessions.

Gregory Mankiw, the Economics Guru, blogs - one of the very few authors who can keep a subject simple enough to explain in layman's terms.

Corporate Finance and Managerial Economics have moved at a very fast pace - so fast that before we could blink and open our eyes, the end term exams have been scheduled for this weekend.

CF Prof has given us a breather by announcing that only Working Capital/Inventory Management sessions will be relevant for end term exam. Both the exams are objective type

Dates to Remember

• Aug 20 2008 - Deadline for paying your second installment fees
• Aug 15 2008 - Deadline for submission of Marketing group project
• Aug 17 2008 - Deadline for submission of Corporate Finance assignment

• Aug 10 16 2008 -  Managerial Economics Quiz End term exam (7:40 pm to 8:10 pm)
• Aug 10 2008 - Corporate Finance End term exam (9:00 to 9:45 pm)

Good luck !

Prof Prantik Ray is referring to "Fundamentals of Financial Management" by Van Horne and Wachowicz apparently. The slides that he's going over in the sessions are available online at the link below


Time to hit the books again - quizzes in couple of weeks.

• Need to pay the second installment of XLRI fees by Aug 8 2008

• Need to let Rashmi P (rashmip@xlri.ac.in) know team members for the Marketing project by 30th July 2008. Include Center and SID

• Marketing and MANAC exams on 20th July 2008 at St.Joseph Composite College on Grant Road (Next to Apollo Hospital, opposite to Kanteerava stadium) for Bangaloreans from 10:30 am to 1:30 pm.

Of the three subjects, financial accounting sessions win hands-down - partly because it made sense and was tangible, partly because Prof. Kakani kept all of us engrossed and on our toes with the assignments.  I wonder why he did not cover cash flow statements.

Marketing was a major let-down, that's my personal opinion. Previous batch members were impressed with Prof Venugopal's insights and were also assigned 3 to 4 case studies. Prof. Pradhan's STP sessions were better.

Corporate Finance Sessions were interesting until yesterday - when the prof started throwing statistical formulas at us poor novices. Time to play catch-up.

Good luck with your exams !

I wonder how many of us have chalked out clear plans on the expectations from this program and how it's going to aid in furthering our careers. Truly unsettling when you think along these lines but the journey has been a revelation so far, that's for sure.

Done ! Done! and Done ! Completed the MANAC assignment today - the past one week I had to re-do the assignment since I had goofed up between my SMS ID and SID. And then I had to switch from manufacturing to services industry.

The hardest part was to limit the transactions to max of 10 with meaningful numbers at the end of the year. I posted a 8% profit in the first period, a loss of 5% in the second (due to an acquisition) and a whopping 48% profit in the third. The entire assignment ran into 20 pages and I must have spent rewriting the case atleast three times to make it clear. Couriering it tomorrow, hopefully no hiccups and reaches the TA by 29th.

I have to confess that nothing registered in my mind during the cost accounting sessions. I need to start poring into a book to understand the  concepts better.

Now moving on to marketing case studies :)

Did I say that I finished the MANAC assignment ? ( damn, that feels so real good that I could not resist ! )

Marketing sessions are proceeding at a slow pace - we tend to lose a lot of time over

29th June 2008

MANAC Assignment -3 to be submitted  to TA Rohit Barchha. The weightage for this assignment is 30 marks and should be handwritten and couriered to the TA at the address below

Our own beloved Laloo Prasad Yadav  featured as a guest speaker at the prestigious INSEAD university to talk about the dramatic Indian Railways turnaround during his present stint as Minister of Railways.

17 million passengers and one million tonnes of freight every day is mind boggling !

The video is available here.  Enjoy !

Note the comment by Sudhir Kumar that Indian Railways is in the business of transportation and not in the business of railways - value and needs based positioning in a broader, competitive market.  Ring a bell ?

Another interesting article on part time MBA pros and cons @ Rediff - here

Beware, MANAC can be deadly - here

Nostalgic video on XLRI - here

Running into Technology issues - the Managerial Accounting session was disrupted by a breakdown in communications and was called off half an hour later. Yesterday's two sessions were also called off by an email from Mr. Santosh Mohanty, Hughes representative at XLRI.

Prof. Venugopal in the Principles of Marketing session on Sat elaborated more on the market universe and marketing objectives. The pace of the sessions are slow and I hope it picks up in the next few ones.

 I wish the Prof would hand over three case studies and ask us to come prepared for a discussion in the next session.  He must have held a consultant/advisory position at a few organizations - Analyzing two case studies from his experience where

•  his marketing strategy failed to achieve the expected results in the market and  
• another strategy that was a resounding success

would make the class more lively and interesting.

On a separate note, questions of whether we will be able to leverage the XLR degree for larger paychecks or promotion is preying a few minds.  XLRI does not offer on-campus placement services and this makes it even more harder.

I really don't believe that graduating with a part time management degree is going to yield instant results unless you have some kind of a tie-up with the organization you are currently working for.

Learning the basics is just one part of the equation - there are additional things that you can do to brighten your chances.

• Network, Network and Network !

Many of us underestimate the importance and relevance of networking. Networking is very beneficial when you link with friends/colleagues with whom you share something in common.  Often, organizations are looking for employees to recommend new recruits for open positions and networking can give you that edge that makes the difference. 

Networking is not a one way street where you link with friends when you have some motive to do so, it requires you to be proactive, sincere and sociable.

Fortunately in this era of online networking, there are several business networking sites that can help you network with colleagues/friends/strangers. I like Linkedin as it's widely used and has alumni groups, associations that you can enroll into and it helps you seek answers related to career/job from others.

• Seek Mentors

There are several folks who have tread the path you are on - seek them out as mentors, learn from their experiences - the things you must do and should not do for career success.

Recently, I contacted a fellow Linkedin member (a stranger) to draw knowledge from his vast experience of shifting from a technical background to a business development role. He was gracious to not only respond to my questions but he also elaborated on the skills and knowledge a successful business development manager should have.

An important lesson to me - People are always willing to share their experiences/knowledge provided you approach them with an open mind.

• Improve your communication and leadership skills

Prof. Kakani solved Case 5 of Balance Sheet which was part of the assignment.

I think I did well on the assignment except for the event ' Ram sells some chilli everyday rationing 1kg/customer' - there was not much info here on the sell price and the amount he sold. I was debating whether to ignore this event or to make some assumptions. Since it affects the inventory, I made some assumptions but the prof completely ignored this event.

The Prof walked through profit & loss statement in session 4 but since most of the students were not able to digest the entire info in one session, he graciously offered to cover it in session 5 too. The costing session has been postponed to the following weekend. An assignment on P & L is most likely going to be announced June 10th for submission.

Prof Venugopal covered 'Principles of Marketing' on Sunday in two sessions. The session was very slow paced as students came up with too many Q and too bent on detail. Having covered the hierarchy of needs, the prof moved on to Maharaja Whiteline dishwasher case study. I was impressed with the way he walked us through to the conclusion of the case - the marketing objective is to market the kitchen as a social envy need - truly amazing !

On a separate note, there is a Cypress job opening posted on Placement menu of the XLRI Satellite website and also a manual for students (pdf format) has been uploaded in Manual menu. Something to watch out for during the course.

Prof. Kakani has an uncanny sense of humor - the subject being taught was Balance Sheet  and he asked one of the students to list his assets and liabilities. The student promptly started listing his assets (car, house etc) and his liabilities (house loan, insurance).

Immediately, Prof. Kakani says "Mere Pass Maa hai" - a classic 'Deewar' dialogue between AB and Shashi Kapoor. It had the class in splits (or atleast I would imagine as the classroom is virtual !).

Another incident that occurred during the first session was hilarious - Prof. Kakani had randomly asked a student to respond to one of his Q to which the student asked what the Q was (probably he couldn't hear the Q because of network or audio problems). So the Prof moved on and selected another student who also queried the Q.

Exasperated, the prof threw up his hands and said  ' This is not done yaar. You are ragging me now.' His favorite phrase appears to be 'this is how we play the game'.

To be serious, he handled the balance sheet lecture very well starting with the basics and then delving into balance sheets of companies like Infy, Bank of Baroda and Crompton Greaves. He has assigned 10 points for classroom interaction in the course and allots negative marks to students who are unable to respond or run into network problem issues. I think it is unfair to grade us negative because of audio/video infrastructure issues as they are beyond our control. Truth be told, we should not really stress on the grades but on the learning aspect of the sessions.

Well well well, we received our marketing textbook yesterday - "Marketing Management : A South Asian perspective" with Kotler being one of the co-authors.

Read through a PGCBM14 blog by Shyam and it covers the sessions in elaborate and immaculate detail. As I read through the posts, I could vividly remember the concepts taught by the Prof - great work and highly recommended to read !

Another blog I linked (in my links section) is based on the IIMK eMEP program experiences - some of the posts (like choosing a distance learning program and  how to handle group assignments) are relevant and informative.

Time to study the first two chapters of MANAC thoroughly. The Prof had assigned us case 5 of the textbook to crack and asked us to use our last three digits of SMS ID as Roll number. This puzzled me whether this was an assignment that had to be submitted. But going over the case, the roll number is being used in the transactions and the solution will differ from one student to the other. Ingenious ! I think he is going to ask one of the students to present the case in the next session.

The class schedule for POM and MANAC is available on XLRI AIS under "Schedule" link. As per this spreadsheet, the first session on May 24 was divided into

Details on the satellite based XLRI PGCBM course can be found at the link below:

We had the inaugural session yesterday (May 19th) at 6:30 pm, I was dismayed to see only four of us at the Malleswaram branch, Bangalore. Hopefully that does not work against us in team projects and assignments. There are altogether four branches in Bangalore (Cunningham Rd, Malleswaram, Airport Rd and Koramangala) and according to Mr. Salil who runs three classrooms (except for Cunningham Rd), Malleswaram was judged the best classroom two years ago. He did go through a few tips for making the most of this course and also made us feel at ease.

The inaugural session was not as smooth as expected - there were constant 'echo' interruptions and worse, a few students were happy to indulge in personal trivial chat or repeatedly ask the same questions. Prof. Srimannarayana (chairperson for satellite based programs) introduced us to the course, faculty and the terms and conditions for the program.

• 22 courses (21 subjects + 1 project) spread across three terms
• Each term will roughly be 4-5 months in duration
• Minimum 75% attendance is mandatory for each course
• Maximum of 2 Ds or 1D and 1F to secure the certificate eligibility
• On campus visits will be only during summer
• No placement opportunities will be provided by XLRI
• XLRI has dispatched all the course textbooks and should be picked up at respective centres.

We were introduced to Mr. S.Roy ( sroy@xlr.ac.in) who is in charge of Satellite AIS (Academic Information System) and to whom we can direct all our concerns to.  AIS stores all information regarding course schedule,  exam notifications, student grades, assignments and handouts. Students are required to update their CV in order to access the AIS resources as I understood. At the end of each course, student feedback is mandatory to view the grades.

We were also introduced to the course teaching assistants and other support staff.

I encourage all fellow colleagues to join the orkut pgcbm14 group (search for PGCBM in orkut) and also the official yahoo group from XLRI (intimation by email).

The  coursework starts on 24th May (this Sat) as I understand and the first two courses will be

• Principles of Marketing by Prof. P. Venugopal
• Managerial Accounting by Prof. Ram Kumar Kakani

Students must have received a hardcopy of the recommended Managerial Accounting textbook


A softcopy of this book is also available here


Good luck to you all.