We had our first individual presentation in class.  The most important Management Skill is is...   Ya ya! I hate that topic and all such topics that make not too much sense nor add value commensurate to the effort.  But...What an experience.  I have done this before when I was at Infosys and NDS (my previous work places) but that was always in front of a crowd of 5 people with camera right in your face.  And that was done, mostly because you were on bench or felt bored to work.  But this was so intense!  It accounted for 25 marks and we were being evaluated by 2 people in the class, the professor and the camerawoman - who was was capturing us on her camera.  It was just a 2 min presentation (and by 2 mins.. I mean 2 mins.) .  The class starts applauding at the end of 2 mins.  Not completing in time is the worst thing that could happen (well not really, choking on the floor would be worse)...

The funny part is, this presentation had no prior sessions of preparing for a presentation, ettiquettes of a presenter etc.  Actually those classes are going to follow.  We are marked on things that are going to be taught.  Strange.. but I find it interesting.

Our team is a good one.  Working in a team where every one wantes to help everyone else is such a wonderful thing!  We all practiced together and presented our presentations to rest of us, and used the feed back to change, adjust or redo our presentations.  It really helped.  Thanks team!

I did pretty okay, but the more important thing is that it is over!

At last it is over.  I have wasted one full day doing nothing but thinking abut the presentation (not to mention, one day before that was spent preparing the speach and practicing it.) and about all the what if's and imagine that questions that made me so nervous.  After having successfully wasted a day, I have a lot to catch up on.  Blog later.

Stepped into the second week of the first semester.  The course is gaining momentum and things are heating up.  Better be on the top of things else we will be run over is what we keep reminding ourselves.

The elections for the President and VPs is happening this week.  The nominations were submitted last week.  I did not nominate myself, for a couple of reasons - One, I wanted to contest for VP Social Affairs and that involved a lot of work.  Was a bit hesitant, considering that I want to take part in the case comps etc, and second, the other nominees for the post are montrealers and have done enough preparation for the post.  So I conveniently backed out.  Sumedh is fighting for the VP Academics post.  Wishing him luck.

There were a few surprises in the nominations.  You can never predict the competition for any post.  We predicted that VP Acads would have no competition and Social affairs have a lot of them.. We were surprised.  Sumedh has to literally fight for his spot and Social Aff is the contest between 2 ppl only.   

At home, refrigerator is stacked with beer.  Drinking in a controlled fashion...The cheapest pint of beer a is dollar. Expensive.

The MBA grads can give me some pointers to read up on how to prepare for a case competition.  John Molson is round the corner.

For people who like to enjoy their summers by going for a long run or by cycling a few kilometres, Montreal is made to order. Mount Royal (MR) in the middle of the city has running trails that give you an experience like never before. It is totally worthwhile to explore the part of the city around your house by running. It is amazing to see all the small shops and all kinds of restaurants and very few StarBucks, Wendys etc! You will also see taps along the roads to quench your thirst.

I would recommend you to buy a cycle if you are really interested in cycling. And I suggest you do it immediately after you come here. Every passing day brings you closer to winter and by the time you have made a decision to buy a $100 cycle, you have only 3 weeks before winter is covering the roads with snow. It is 3 weeks since I am here and I have not bought a cycle. I consider that I have too little time to cycle now. And I suck!!

The trail on MR is about 15 minutes of uphill from my house. I am not used to running more than 1.5 km of continuous uphill. Listening to Rocky B tracks, I feel like Rocky himself, throwing my hands up in the air when I reach the top.. and all that :) By the time I reach MR, I am totally tired and waiting to come back. This is when I wish that I had a car / cycle so that I can commute up to the foot hill and run on the trail. The way back is all down slope. So it is okay. 40 minutes of a very satisfying run during the weekend prepares you for the week ahead.

GlobStrat Simulation

This was officially the first week at the HEC Montreal and we are playing games. The class was split into 8 groups of 5 each. Each team had to sell HiTech Televisions in the Asian European and the American markets. We all start with a share price of 100 and the same product to sell. We have to innovate and differentiate ourselves in a certain way to increase our market share. The business is virtually run for 6 years. The team with the highest share price at the end of the game wins. Easy?

The members in the team had to take up the responsibilities of CEO, CFO, HR Director, Director of RnD and Operations and Marketing Director. We were given resources and had to manage it in a way to invest a right amount in the right places (advertising, buying machinery, buying technology, increasing the ISO standards, employee satisfaction and providing services) at the right time. The interesting part is that there is a lot of interdependency amongst the parameters and that is interesting to understand. We initially started with our territory but could expand into any part of the world. There is competition from everywhere and strategy is the most important thing to succeed. The company has to successfully run for 6 years and we had to make 6 decisions..one at the beginning of every year. Performance prediction, Sales prediction, Finance availability and arrangement, Technology acquiring, marketing and pricing are the key. To balance all these seems more difficult than you think! Strategy is easier thought than implemented!

It is one of the best experiences at HEC. This is the second year that the game is being played and the seniors say that this is the best part of the whole course. I guess I can comment on that at the end of the course. But 5 days of hardly any sleep, working on making a decision, trying to build consensus, convincing your team mates of how and why one idea is better than the other is very interesting and never-before experience. We were absolutely dead tired at the end of the simulation. Getting into the shoes of the top management and to take decisions that effect the performance of the company, satisfaction of the employees etc gives you a feel of real life. Amazing learning too.

Is this game played in other schools?

This reminded me of the games we play at Chili’s place.

Campus du Fort St-Jean

Aug 16, 2008
The batch of 2008 were taken out on a trip to Campus du Fort St-Jean. This was a Drink-play-party-and-know-each-other party before we begin the course.

The event started at 11 in the morning with 130 split into 4 groups getting into the bus to start our journey to the military base where we, as a group, had to spend the night knowing our batch mates. I was excited about this event, but the event exceeded what ever I thought it would be!

Campus du Fort St-Jean is about an hour drive from school. This place is now used for certain military education facilities and for University de Montreal's local programmes. It is an awesome place! Look it up.

Lunch was arranged. Being a vegetarian, I did not enjoy the food as much as the others did. Nonetheless, it was good. Since I was late for lunch, I had to stand with the cadets. Spoke to them about their course, their commitments and the physical training. Always inspiring to know that the people in the army are so committed (I know it is too much of generalizing.I wanted to get into the Indian Army, but never got a call!).

After lunch, we had a whole lot of games arranged, volleyball, kinball (it a stupid game where you have a huge ball and you should not let it fall on the ground), ice hockey (the Canadians were really pissed off about this. They called this broom ball) and a brain teasing quiz (I got all the questions related to India and subcontinent, but realized that I know nothing about Africa, Latin America and Europe. We lost and were ashamed of ourselves. But, it was fun.). It was super fun.

The fun part of all this is to know so many people from so many countries, and everyone is keen to know and learn about each other. There was no one standing in a corner, feeling out of place and wondering where he has landed up. Got to know a lot about the Latin American food (And, God! The girls are hot. ), the Chinese and the French cultures.

Booze began at 7, went on till 3. My friend shot a video with his handy cam with no CD inserted. He was totally drunk passed out some time in the night. He got up at 9:30 am and told me he did not remember what happened after 2 :) He is now famous in school. :)

I shall post the pictures once I get them. I did not take them, but I am sure some one did and will send it to the whole class.

And, I won an IPod nano 8 GB in a luck draw. Was really lucky!!

Ready to begin the simulation tomorrow. Have a lot to study tonight.