MBA results out – Pappu Pass Ho Gaya !!!!!!!

It came as a pleasant surprise, a silver lining in the dark cloud, a lone lamp in a dark night. The results of my MBA 1st semester are out and guess what – I cleared the exam!!!!!!!!

The Marks too were too good to be true. I have got 70 in one subject, 71 in two subjects and 67 another. All the marks are out of 100. That makes my percentage to 69.5. Hmm…not bad for a person working and studying at the same time. Not bad for a person, who till about a six months back did not know a thing about Management. I am extremely happy with myself and all gung ho about the results I managed to pull off.

I literally called up everybody who mattered in my life to deliver this news. I call up my parents, I called up my sister, I called up my brother, I called up my relatives, I personally delivered this message to my friends, I spoke about it to my collogues, I SMS’s my Bosses to thank them for giving me study leave so that I could prepare for my exam. I was in broadcast mode yesterday. Almost everyone who heard the news was happy. Of course, there might be some pessimist’s out there telling that I am getting too exited over a trivial issue. They might feel that I have just finished my first semester and I still have a long way to go. To them I have to tell only one thing – Well began, is half done. I believe that we have to study hard and party harder. I have study as hard as I can for this exam and now, its party time.

This is not just about clearing my first semester exam. I have cleared quite a lot of exams in my time as a student. It’s much more then that. It’s my first stepping stone to a dream of having a Master’s degree under my belt. It has given me the confidence that with a little hard work I could as well go all the way to finish my MBA. It has inspired to take my coming exams with more zeal. I now have belief in myself and am sure that I will not leave any stone unturned to finish off my MBA course. I pray for God’s grace to finish my remaining exams with the same result. I thank God for giving being with me to clear this exam.

I now have my next semester books I front of me. I got two subjects and four papers. First subject is Management accounting and second subject is Introduction to quantitative methods. I just opened the book and skimmed through the contents. It’s now getting more difficult. At the first glance I was very happy. More then 75% of the book seemed to be filled with numbers and mathematical problems. I have always been fascinated with Math’s. I love Integration, differentiation, Trigonometry, Calculus etc. But it took me a little closer look to find out it was full of Statistics. Statistics!!!!!??? I don’t remember to have solved statistic problems since school days. It’s going to be a totally different ball game. It’s going to be more difficult then pure mathematics. I do not know if I still have the energy and/or brains left with me to learn a new branch of maths. But what I do know is that I am not going to shy away from this challenge. I will go for it and give my best shot. I will try and learn to assimilate it in as many different ways as possible. I will not quit without giving a fight. Rest is left to GOD, and I have immense faith in him.

 

Hectic week..

It has been a very hectic last couple of days. Seen a lot and went through a lot. I could not put posts because of the intensity and business of these days. I recount here a few things that both eat up my time and also made me happy.

Of course the list is topped by – finish of first semester MBA exam. God!!!! It feels great. So what if a few of my friends say that the evaluation of the MBA papers is very difficult. That I may as well not scrap through my exams. At lest I attempted the exam and gave my best shot, and I am happy for that. I have already written about my first set of papers last week. Last week I had studied and had been to exam. The story was quite different this week. I had not studied that well. This was because of a combination of some surprise packages I got during the end of last week (more about it in my future posts). But, God is great!!!! The exam did not go as bad as I had expected it to be. Though the second paper (managerial effectiveness) was a difficult, with God’s grace, I think I will scrap through it.

The second thing that happened was that I went shopping for Good books this week. Totally I brought about 6 books and spent close to 1500 rupees. But all the books are great – worth their weight it gold. I will definitely write about what these book wonderful books in future posts. Yeah, yeah, I know some people will think if it’s worth buying so many books? Will I read all these books? Well for them my answer is – I love books and am creating my own mini library.

There is one more surprise package of the week. I will not write it here now. I will touch upon it after a few weeks. It has everything Drama, humor, adventure, anticipation, suspense and a lot of susheelish twists and turns. I am dying to write about it, but Amol will kill me if I write anything about it now . Also, I realize it’s not the right time to blog about it now.

One more disturbing thing of this week is the news I read about post Godhara confessions. I came across these articles through a blog friend of mine. I really really hate these people killing each other in the name of religion. I hate them soo much that even as I type this my hands are shivering with anger for such kind of fanatics. Who has given them the right to kill in the name of religion? Do they even know their religion? Has Ram personally told them to kill at will? Do they understand Hinduism in the first place? Do they have even a little bit of brain in their rotten heads? Do they understand humanity? Are they humans? How can we even have such kind of lunatics in civilized society? How the hell can anyone kill in the name of God? God who takes care of everything – from a worm crawling in the soil to the mightiest of elephants – like his own children? God who brings in day, night all the seasons with such preciseness? How can anyone kill people in the name of God? How? How? How??????

Last but not the lest – Work pressure. Work came back with a vengeance for me taking leave. I had to complete a lot of unfinished work. And of course I had a few bickering with my boss. I sometimes love to work. I have a very very active mind. Always something or the other is going on in my mind. I am very restless. If I don’t find anything to do, I will catch the nearest person and start talking with him endlessly. I simple don’t like to sit idle. Work eases me a bit. It keeps my mind engaged. It keeps me grounded.

All in all a mixed package last couple of days. It was a very hectic and difficult week. I am sooooo happy to be alive

 

There is soo much to learn!!!!

Today my long weekend finally comes to an end. After three days of being a student, one day of writing exam and another day of lazing around, tomorrow I have to go back to office. The honeymoon comes to an end.

I still have two more exams coming Sunday before my first semester comes to an end. Today I was studying from the book called “Business communication”. From that book I learnt about the importance of listening skills. I learnt about how important it is have interpersonal skills in you official life. I learnt different ways of conflict resolution. I learnt about different ways of negotiation. I learnt how important it is to give praise. I learnt the importance of giving and accepting criticisms.

After reading this book, I felt I have sooo much to learn. This made me think about lerearning itself as a process. If we take things correctly, there is so much there is that we can learn even from a routine day. But the first thing that we need to understand is, perhaps, that there is a lot of learning out there that we have to do.

Is it not starange that unless we attempt to know something, we don’t even know about its existence? For example, if I have not taken up the MBA course and not read the book I was mentioning, I probably would not even know that there is a seicence behing praising, negotiating, motivating, negotiating and what not. In fact if we are ope enough, there are so many things that we can learn even from everyday instances. But the first step is to realize that – Yes, I have to learn something new.

In an official setup – When my boss scolds me, I learn how I should not behave with my subordinates. When the implementation team rejects even my best thought plan, I can learn that I still have a lot of things to think about before drafting a final plan. When my collogues disagree with me, I can learn that I don’t know the entire dimension of a problem.

In family setup – I see my dad and learn the importance of sacrificing your personal comfort so that your near and dear ones are happy. When I see my mom, I learn how important unconditional love is. When I see my brother, I learn how brilliant a young man can be. When I see my sister, I learn what all I would have missed if I did not have a sister. When I see my relatives, I learn how manipulative people can get to get to their needs.

With friends – I learn how different people can be and still be caring. I learning how important it is to belong to a group and still be unique. I learn the importance of support. I learn, there is still soo much to learn.

Yes, it’s really strange that when you open your mind a little wider, you know how much there is to learn. Everyday seems to be filled with so many lessons – if we are willing to learn. How wonderful it would be if I could somehow learn to learn the leasons of daily life.

 

First MBA exam over!!!

I got over with my first pair of MBA exams today. Gosh!!!!! I am tired. It’s been years since I used to keep sitting in one place. In office we tend to move around a bit. While studying I roam around/listen to music. I am also used to the constant chatter and noise of office and my roommates. It’s today that I realized how difficult it is sit quietly for 6 hours (in two sets of three hours each) in pin drop silence and concentrate every nerve of yours towards solving a question paper.

The day by itself started in a typical Susheel way. I thought the exam starts at 10:30, but actually the exam was scheduled to start at 10:00!!!! (God!! How careless I am). Reporting time was 9:30!!! At 9:30, I was still in room and had just finished taking bath. Got ready and came out singing, happy that I am leaving an hour early for my exam. It was when I pulled out my Admit card to give the address of my exam hall to the rickshaw driver, that I realized that the exam starts at 10 and I have only 15 minutes to reach the exam center. And to top all that, I was so busy studying all these days that I did not even know when my exam center is physically located. Just imagine what might be going through my mind. I could hear my hear beat above the sound of the rickshaw and the traffic. After every breadth, I was cursing myself for being the most careless person to walk on the face of this earth!!!!!!!

Luckily, today was a Sunday and that too vijaydashami (It’s the day when people wash their vehicles and worship it) traffic was less. I reached my exam center in about 10 minutes (God is great). Hah, by the way did I mention, I forgot my watch in the mad rush? Anyway I ran into my exam center just when the bell rang. It took me some time to catch my breath back. Slowly settled down and began to read the question paper.

Still I could not believe how careless a person I am and why I do not improve even after soo many bad lessons. Still I could not believe how I have been thinking about this exam for more then a month now – only to ignore seeing the correct time of the commencement of the exam. Gosh!!!! Have you met the most careless man in this world?? If no, you are most welcome to meet me!!!!!

The first paper was OK. I attempted all the 100 questions. But the problem is that it is an objective type paper. And in objective type papers you always tend to think you have done well till you get the actual marks. At least I hope I can clear the exams.

The second paper was a bit difficult as compared to the first. Here too I attempted all the 100 questions. I think at least 70% is correct, but lets wait and see what the results have to say (results are expected in next one month). Of course, my only fear is that if there is negative marking, I am dead.

Mom (who knows me like the back of her hand) called me twice to tell me not to forget anything and be less careless – How sweet of her. But, I think even mom does not know that some things do not change. I think my carelessness is one such thing.

All in all, apart from the initial shock of the beginning of the day everything went fine. I am expecting to at lest pass in both the papers. My next exam is on coming Sunday 28th of this month. Yeah, yeah, I will be more careful that time around. For the time being – it’s OK

PS: Will I ever become responsible and more organized???

 

Exams tomorrow..!!!

Yeah, yeah…I know – Exams tomorrow. Tomorrow will be my first MBA exam on “Introduction to management”. Next Sunday I have one more exam on “Managerial effectiveness” and my first semester exams will be over. Yesterday too I had taken study leave. Felt so good, being a student again – Wonderful.

Frankly speaking, I am surprised by own motivation to study. After all it’s been more then three years since I last studied for an exam. Studying has really not lost its charm as far as I am concerned. The discipline, concentration and the will power that it calls for to write an exam is really exiting. I have never been a brilliant student in college days. No topper or the most brilliant kid in school. I have always had to study hard even to get OK OK score. But still, somehow, I have always loved to study and be a student.

At the end of the day, I saw the book that I had finished. Could not believe I had finished such a big fat book. It also brought back memories of my Engineering college days. It also brought back memories of – believe it or not – my Mom.

It’s so easy to take things for granted. I still remember how supportive my mom used to be during my exam days. I used to get hourly tea. Just tell my mom when I have to get up and no matter how ungodly hour of the day it might be, Mom used to wake me up. Any disappointing performance in exam and my Mom would always be by my side to perk me up. She used to cook my favorite dishes so that I have my stomach full. I still remember her telling me – Eat fully and fill the answer paper fully. I can’t stop remembering her enthusiasm to see me doing my level best. Maybe, it’s because of her that I love being a student.

Now I am staying in a bachelor room. Got to go to office in the morning and make time for myself in the night to study. An hour of study will make you feel tired, because you don’t have even a table and chair to sit and study. No hourly tea now. If you have to study, you have to get up – nobody will wake you or remind you. Have food if you are hungry, else leave. One person perking you up is yourself. There are soo many things that we take for Granted.

Yes, I might be becoming a bit incoherent in writing. Yes, I might be becoming unnecessarily emotional. But, that’s Susheel for you.

Tomorrow is my exams – I love you and miss you, Mom

 

Productivity…

I had a very good day today. No office, no calls, no mad rush, no quarrel with collogues and/or boss. I have taken leave from office and devoted the entire day to studying. It was a wonderful feeling – felt like a student again (I have always loved being a student).

I almost finished the entire book on “Introduction to management” but for the last chapter. Today I learnt about different control techniques in management. I also learnt about Operational research (OR). OR caught my imagination almost at once. OR is the field of management that uses mathematical modeling to solve the various management related issues (like human resource calculation, inventory ordering, risk analysis etc). It helps managers to make optimal and most logical decisions under uncertainty. Hmm…interesting. Math has a say in management as well, felt good to know that.

After the entire day was over, one of my very good friends – Amol – called me. We chatted routinely and he asked me how much hours I have put in to study and what all I have learnt. The discussion went back to our engineering days and he was surprised to know I used to study for almost 12 hours a day during our preparation holidays. He was of the opinion that studying that much did not actually give good “productivity“. This got me thinking.

I felt that whatever he was telling was very reasonable. It also made me think more about the concept of productivity itself. The most commonly used interpretation of productivity is Productivity = (output/input). It is the output that we generate per unit of input. If this ratio is more, the productivity is considered to be more. This is correct when we are talking about machines and other non living things. But, I feel, this definition is not correct when human beings are involved.

When humans are involved, productivity is so much more then the ratio of input to output. Let me try and clarify. A student may study for 12 hours and yet not get good scores, in general terms you may say that his/her productivity is low. But, this teaches the student the importance of tenacity, never say die attitude and a passion for striving hard to get results. A fresh graduate may give interviews in about 10 companies before getting a final job. In general terms you may say that the productivity of the person in 10 previous attempts was zero. But it is this zero productivity activity that gave him much needed experience so that he can clear on the 11th attempt. Are you getting what I am trying to say??

Life for many of us is so much like a tennis game. You can have control over the ball only when it is in your court. Once you have hit that ball across to the other court, you do not have control over the ball or what your opponent does with it. Productivity for me is doing your best when the ball is in your court. It does not matter if you miss the ball, so long as you have stretched to your maximum extent possible. Your productivity should be measured by the amount of effort you are putting in when the ball is in you court. You are ultra productive if you are doing best in your court. You are unproductive if you are not playing up to your best of abilities.

Thank you Amol for your chat with me today

 

Leadership…

I have now become paranoid about my MBA exams. I want to clear the Exam at any cost. Of course, the fact that I have taken correspondence course makes the matter a little more difficult. On top of that I am having a very demanding Job, a Job that is full of mental pressure and also requires me to move “on field” now and then make the matter a little more complicated.

But the fact that I have always loved to read and immensely enjoy being a student has helped me a lot. I thought how I can make my preparation and revision interesting. I got a very brilliant idea. I decided I will play by my strengths. This is how I am tackling it.

I love being a student, so I have drawn up a strict time table for studying even after a hard days work. I have always loved reading, so reading the courseware is in fact an enjoyable experience – once a strict time table is set. I also like to write down my thoughts. I decided, instead of being philosophical, I will write about what I have read on that day, there by effectively revising what I read – Hobby and study both accomplished. Last but not the least; I love to post my blog with relevant photos. I will browse the net and find some photos/articles that are relevant to what ever I have read on that particular day and pot it in my blog. Today will be first of these series of posts.

Well, today I learned about leadership in an organizational setup. I learned about the various theories of leadership and how communication skills are very important for an effective leader.

Leadership, by the way is the art of influencing the behavior of your collogues/subordinates in a positive way so that the goals and objectives of the organization are met. Many scientists have done a lot of study to understand this “art”. The various studies can be broadly classified into Trait theory, behavioral, Situational/contingency theory and finally transformational theory.

Trait theory says that leaders are born and not made. This theory says that leaders are a gifted lot. It tries to describe the various traits that leaders somehow acquired. But, the crux here was that many successful leaders had contradictory traits. This theory was hence not successful. The next theory propounded was behavioral theory. This theory says that leaders can be developed. They have certain set of behavior’s that make them an effective leader. Any person who consciously learns and adapts himself to these set of behavior, will become a leader (like consideration for employees, consideration for achieving the goals etc. Based on the behavior the manager himself they can be classified as an autocrat, Benevolent, consultative or participative leader. One particular theory I liked was the “Management Grid” theory. In this the consideration for the employee is on the x axes and the productivity on the Y axes. Value of these axes can range from 1 through nine. Based on this grid the leader can be classified as impoverished leader, Autocratic leader, Country club leader, middle of the road leader and finally Team leader. A person should always aim to be a team oriented leader (High consideration for employees and productivity). But this again failed to give a permanent solution to the question. So, situational theory was proposed. This theory says that a leader must always change his leadership style depending on the situation. He should ask himself certain basic questions before adopting a particular style. Or, he could use the path goal approach in which he defines the goal for the subordinate and depending on the personality of the subordinate lay out the path to achieve the goal. Finally the Transformational theory was proposed. Transformational leaders are the ones who inspire phenomenal output out of their subordinates. Nobody till date has been able to pin point the way transformational leaders are developed.

Finally, today I read about the various communications that flows in an organization (Downward, upward, horizontal and crosswise), Model of communication process, barriers of communication and finally the ways to overcome communication barrier.

Hmmmm….a lot of stuff read. Personally I have some opposing views on what ever I read – but about that later. For now, I am pretty paranoid about my exam and “I want to do well”

 

MBA…

Well…I am having my MBA exams on 20th and 27th of this month. This leaves me with seven more days to prepare for my exams. Of course I am tense. I need a lot of good wishes and good luck – both for preparing as well as writing for my exam.

I have been reading my MBA courseware voraciously off late. What I have learnt till now is that management is all about five things – Planning, Organizing, Staffing, leading and controlling. Each of these five fields forms the cornerstone for Management study.

Planning is the phase wherein you plan for your Goals, objectives and mission as an organization. Organizing deals with giving a formal structure to your organization. It involves creating various hierarchy structures of employees, breaking your organization into departments and divisions etc. The main thing here is that your organizing should be in line and complement your plan/goal for the organization. Staffing is the process of putting the right people in the right places in the hierarchy structure developed in the organizing phase. Leading is then guiding and influencing the behavior of the haired employees so that “they” can help you to achieve the goals of the organization. Controlling deals with the various ways in which you have to control you finance, communication, morale etc for the smooth functioning of the organization.

I personally like the leading part of management. The main reason I like this is because in today’s scenario to be become a true leader, you have to truly understand and know people. You have to know what is it that motivates people. Why do people behave the way they do? How to get along with people to achieve a common goal? How to handle conflicts in work place? Etc. It feels good to get into the minds of some of the greatest of Physcology/management thinkers. It’s good to know what their opinions are on these topics (like Peter F. Drucker, Abraham Maslow, Victor H. Vroom, David C. McClelland etc…)

The another reason why I like the literature on leading is because I truly believe that each and every person is a leader in his/her very own way. A father is the financial leader in his home. A mother is the emotional in her home. A teacher is a leader for molding a child’s character. A sweeper is a leader of cleanliness of his area. I am a leader for myself; I am responsible for managing myself. So, I think everyone is a leader in one way or the other. And the literature present in management for organizational leadership can also extended to personal/family leadership. Maybe we will have to modify it a bit to take care of the human element. For example, have a look at Maslow pyramid proposed to know the motive behind people’s work in organization. A look at it and you will know how relevant it is in our personal life as well. We too – maybe unconsciously – Plan, organize, staff, lead and control ourselves in our life.

All said and done, days are slipping by, and I need to write my Exams. Wish me luck