Saturday, November 26, 2011

*Book Review* The Monk and The Riddle by Randy Comisar





A very interesting book, The Monk and The Riddle was recommended to us by our New Business Ventures professor Rupert Merson.

Through the story of Lenny, a young internet entrepreneur wannabe and his struggle to find funding for his 'great idea' to 'put fun back in funerals', Randy explores what investors look for in a new venture and their team. The message broils down to passion and vision. The book also touches upon the difference between leadership and management and how VCs look for leaders rather than managers.

At a second level, Randy talks of his own career from working several jobs as an undergrad to being a corporate lawyer to his time at Apple to being the CEO of a gaming software company. His stories of different valley start-ups are interesting. He also shares what he learnt along the way, but I feel he oversimplifies the learnings.

The main message of the book is to work at what your passion is, and not delay it to after you are successful. In fact your likelihood of success goes up if you are passionate about what you are doing.

But for me the most interesting parts of the book were where he looked at how VCs think, what is the Silicon Valley mentality, and how people looked upon the internet a decade or so ago. For example he uses the term 'network effects', one of the most common buzzwords in tech business today, only once.

Overall a very interested read, although I found the message about how to live your life somewhat trivial and trite, I doubt if Randy would make a great philosopher, but the insights into how the Valley works were interesting.

What would have made it even more interesting (although a heavier read) would have been more of a focus on the industry and the Silicon Valley ecosystem of entrepreneurs and financiers, rather than on telling people how to live their lives.

Monday, November 21, 2011


A Wordle for this Blog So far, lets see in another 6 months what changes.

Desi Week at INSEAD

The Desi Week is on at INSEAD.
So we've decorated the campus in Singapore to give it a Desi feel. The desi crowd constitutes of Bangladeshis Indians Pakistanis and Sri Lankans (in alphabetical order) but since the overwhelming majority of south Asian students are Indian, it looks more like an India week. Although at-least 2 people from Pakistan are actively participating in the Singy Desi week.

There are kites hanging from the roof and from walls, nice Rajasthani puppets everywhere, guys walking around in Kurtas and girls in Saris.

Yesterday there was a team of students applying Tilak to everybody that walked in through INSEAD doors.
Today we had yoga classes and a nice South Indian breakfast,I remember the days in Fonty when I had to drive all 70 km to Paris to have a decent South Indian meal at Sarvana Bhawan in Paris (I'm Punjabi by the way).
We have a Holi Party coming up along with the Indian Dinner and the Bollywood Party.
This is going to be a lot of  fun!

Monday, November 14, 2011

Similarities between Jakarta and Mumbai

Went to Jakarta recently for the weekend. Jakarta was the only major city in South East Asia that I had not yet visited, so I wanted to change that. And secondly, I was interested to see first hand what it would be like to live and work in Indonesia, one of the most exciting economies in the world today.
I enjoyed my time in Jakarta, but time and again it reminded me of Mumbai. For the following reasons:

1) Weather : Hot and humid.

2) Income disparities : Very large and very stark. But Jakarta seemed to have a proportionally smaller middle class than Mumbai/India. Have to check the numbers on this, but the contrast was stark.

3) Chaos that works: Need I say more? Most people fail to understand how both these cities function.

Jakarta is a very interesting place to be. I picked up a book set in Indonesia "Map of the Invisible World" by Tash Aw in a Jakarta Bookshop. Very interesting reading. I'll post a review when I'm done.

Singapore Startup Scene

Currently I am caught between the idea of being an entrepreneur and the necessity finding a secure job. On the one hand, entrepreneurship looks very exciting, but on the other hand I have a big study loan, that I need to pay off.

Question : Why did Stalin chop off the left arms of all his economists?
Answer: So that they could not say "but on the other hand......" :-)



Unable to decide, I'm working on both, exploring entrepreneurship opportunities, and looking for a job, simultaneously.

Singapore Government seems to be keen to promote entrepreneurship in the island nation. They have set up incubator funds and what not to attract and retain entrepreneurial talent. Here's some interesting reading:

Singapore Tech Incubator Gets Investment

Some exciting tech startups in Singapore here

Haute Tech Startups in Singapore

Thursday, November 10, 2011

Le Blog Hog!

Another INSEAD blog by an 08J here. Makes for quite interesting reading. Cheerios!

Tuesday, November 8, 2011

My 5 Best Courses at INSEAD



For most modern MBA programs, you choose most of the courses you take. So what you learn during an MBA might be very different from what somebody else who did the same program did. Like most other things in life, this has both advantages and disadvantages. The advantage is obvious, you don't have to sit through advanced cost accounting (my apologies to all accountants out there, I appreciate the sacrifices you've made in espousing this noble profession). But at the same time, you have to prioritize on your major fields of study. And cost accounting might be more useful than it sounds if you're planning to be, lets say, an entrepreneur.
So, here are some of my favorite courses and professors. There might be many others that are as great or even better that I did not have to attend.
1) Microeconomics:(Prof. Vlad Mares) - My first class in Economics that opened the door to a fascinating new world for me. Vlad has his typical style, some people love it, some people not quite. I just worship the guy! Maybe it depends on your learning style, but Vlad's teaching style gets straight to my thinking and internalizes the learning. Micro is of great use in understanding most industry dynamics, and (I'm gonna say it even if I have to hang for blasphemy afterward ) most of Strategy is nothing but Economics mixed with Game Theory.
2) Market Driving Strategies: (Prof Steven Sweldens): MDS is a class based on a computer marketing strategy simulation creatively named.............wait for it.......Markstrat. The simulation pits different teams in class against one another over 9 periods meant to represent 9 years for growing their market shares and having a strategic entry into a new market. So I feel as if I've been a CMO of a company for 9 years. It was a fascinating class, especially the simulation, where adrenaline pumped and hearts thumped was we tried to beat everyone else with our products and marketing.
3) New Business Ventures (Prof. Rupert Merson): Rupert has his own style and spills linguistic gems such as "Investors are like lemmings, they tend to follow each other, sometimes over the cliff". The class that introduced me to the world of angels and VCs, nail biting suspense on whether the company will fail or eventually sell for billions, was a great initiation into the world of entrepreneurs.
4) Industry and Competitive Analysis ( Prof: Javier Gimeno): This is the subject that finally dealt with real strategy formulations for real firms in real markets facing contemporary issues. The biggest take-aways from my MBA lay here. Javier does a good job of defining the market conditions and invoking a discussion on the situation and possible courses of action.
5) Your First Hundred Days: (Prof. Patrick Turner): We are not allowed to share much about this course except that you live the life of a team that has just bought out a small company and started to run it for the first hundred days. Patrick does a wonderful job of covering most of the issues and pitfalls that new owners face, and also makes you feel the pressure and prestige of being a CEO or CFO in a surprisingly lifelike elective.

There are still others that I would like to talk about, but the title says "My 5 Best..." so have to stop here. However I will mention the honorable mentions Advanced Game Theory (Vlad Mares again), Uncertainty Data and Judgement (Theo Evgeniou), Macroeconomics (Antonio Fatas).

Monday, November 7, 2011

Second MBA

Many Indian MBAs end up getting a second one from an international b-school. Around 50% of Indians in my promotion are getting their second MBA at INSEAD. I also thought this strange before I came to INSEAD, but after interacting with many of these second time MBA students I see the value of a second MBA.

One general observation is that there are many roles in business which are performed by local MBAs in India, but by undergrads in other countries. Many of my non-Indian classmates who were working as marketing manager, sales manager etc are undergrads who are taking an MBA to transition to higher management positions. While most of the non-MBAs from India were working in engineering/technical roles.

Another observation is that INSEAD at least does not seem to discriminate against people trying to get a second MBA. Also due to their previous experience and education, second time MBA students tend to do well in both recruitment and academics.

Here are some of the reasons why some people in my class came for a second MBA:

1) I want an international career These are the guys who were doing well in corporate jobs in India after getting their MBAs but wanted to break into the international scene. This category I think forms the biggest chunk of second MBA getters. I have classmates from FMS, MDI etc. who while doing well in India, wanted to transition to global headquarters of multinational companies and hence chose to get an international MBA. There are also a couple of students that worked in the Gulf (Kuwait/Saudi Arabia) straight out of Indian b-school but now want to move on to either India or the west, but could not find any opportunities for that staying in the gulf.

2)I need the brand of a top school there are guys who want to remain in India, but want the brand of an international b-school. For example there is a guy, MBA from IIT that was working with a Private Equity firm, and felt sort of intimidated by all the big-name-school graduates working with him. So he came to INSEAD to boost his confidence, and get on an equal footing with his peers.

3) I want to get (back) into Investment Banking A classmate, IIM graduate, who was working for a global bank's investment banking division, left to start his own company. When his venture did not really take off, he tried to get back in banking but did not succeed. So he came to INSEAD to get back into IB.

And in fact, it is these second time MBAs that form the strongest candidates for many jobs because of their relevant previous experience. Most of the Indian students that have gotten offers from Private Equity, IB and even Consulting are second-time MBA students.
I feel jealous of these guys because they seem so capable during class discussions, but then I think that the increment in learning from the MBA are much greater for me, a techie with no foundation in business than for these guys.

Two disclaimers here are that none of my observations are hard and fast rules, and that Indians that studied abroad (US/Europe) for undergrad are in a different game altogether.

Thursday, November 3, 2011

Where do I come from

To define my credo, and to share where I come from, here's some info:

I'm M 30+ Engineer from India. I completed my engineering from an unknown engineering school in central India in early 2000s. During this period, I spent more time in bars than in classrooms and my undergrad marks show it. I worked in the enterprise software industry for 7 years, mostly in Asia Pacific. At the end of those 7 years, I felt bored and didn't know what I want to do with my life. So I decided to try and get an MBA to see how it goes.
I started preparing for the GMAT aiming to score 700+, but somehow got a 780. THis was a big problem coz hitherto I had been limiting my ambitions to getting into one of the better b-schools in Asia. WIth this GMAT I had a realistic shot at some of the best b-schools in the world, and I ended up being accepted at INSEAD.

In my admissions essays I put in some bullshit about wanting to get into Management Consulting in order to help my country. I couldn't write "I have no idea what I want to do with my life" could I? The intention to help my country is genuine though, but I'm still searching for the means. I sort of suspect that dressing up in a sharp suit and making PowerPoint slides all day is not the best way to go about it.

Another thing, I plan to stay anonymous on this blog. Mostly because anonymity gives me the opportunity to be completely honest with you guys. So this might be the only 'about me' post on the blog.

Cheers!

Ding Dong Ding Dong

Jargon: Ding: n. Message from recruiter saying "We're sorry, you're awesome but not for us. bullshit, bullshit, best of luck!
Jargon: P5: n. Last two months of the 10 month INSEAD MBA.
Jargon: Singy n. INSEAD's Singapore Campus

Got another Ding yesterday. Ding is a fact of life. Ding is what gives you courage. As Omar Mokhtayar said, "Blows that don't break your back strengthen it". I haven't tried recently, but my back should be stronger than Hercules' right now.

But still the tired soldiers plod on, never at peace, never at rest, but believing in their cause.
Well I'm over-dramatizing. I'm having fun! I'm in Singy, have a long weekend ahead of me, and plan to travel to Jakarta to check out the sights and sounds and of course the tastes.

I'm spending the last few hundred dollars of what I saved during 7 years' of working to make my INSEAD experience more memorable. I'm not recruited yet, am not very hopeful of getting recruited in the short term, but still am OK with it.

Blows that don't break your back strengthen it.