Lehman Brothers, not over yet

People may relate themselves differently with the fall of Lehman Brothers. While most of the stakeholders have recovered from the shock, a unique stakeholder is still struggling. Yes, I am talking about the B-schools. If you take the case of WIMWI, Lehman was the firm recruiting the most number of people and paying the highest. With the fall of Lehman a strange thing has happened. Many people who worked as an analysts at Lehman became free and joined B schools in India.(I am talking about the engineering grads of India who follow the strategy of 3-4 yrs of work at bank and then MBA from Harvard... stuff). The result: The B-school students are pressed further in these times. But, how does it matter at present? The banks are back on hiring spree and each B-school is making new records in its placement figures. Why this crib about the Lehman Brother thing now?

A fortnight ago I was talking with a guy named xxxx. This guy is head of US Residential Credit Strategy at Barclays, NY office. The earlier Lehman Brother office of NY, acquired by Barclays. Although he had come for placements and he did pitch for his company, he shared some really eye opening insights about the fall of Lehman and his short term prediction about the future. Here are some of his comments:

"Lehman had always had one of the best financial prediction models in the industry. But, suddenly we realized that JP Morgan has come up with really great models and no one in the industry matches them. This superiority gained by JPM led to the Lehman fall. I think you people know that JP Morgan is the least hit bank, it is not because of luck."

"Ya, I worked in the same sector which started the recession. I was most hit. But I have made a lot of money during my days."

"I do not want to scare you, but you people have decided to do the MBA when it is the most risky to do it. I feel that by the time you people pass out, the job scenario will be very gloomy. Most of the Lehman effect is yet to come, and it will be really very bad for you people. I think your senior batch will somehow luckily survive and get placed decently. But be aware. I don't want to discourage you from entering into the financial sector. Its just my personal view."

Competition, Money, Uncertainty !! Closing in on you. Can you feel it, Mr. Anderson ??

The Summer Placements

/*This piece was written during vacations when I had no access to net. May be outdated now, but am publishing it verbatim.*/

This was a new experience. Quite different from the one during undergrad placements at BITS. Why is there so much importance given to it? I don't know. I never gave, and hence am not interning in one of those i-banks or consults of day-zero.

Lets look at the implications of the placement process on its stakeholders.

Students:

Probably the most vulnerable of them all. Their so called future depends on this. No matter how much he or she is inclined towards being an entrepreneur or working in an NGO, placement is something no one can afford to play with. Some of these students are really sought after by the companies, while half of them don't get a shortlist for any day zero firm. Break down happens frequently, to the extent that people are advised to keep a few tablets of disprin with them everyday till they are placed. Friends have a tough job in consoling a person who has broken down.

Placecommers:

People having a huge responsibility. They really try hard to remain unbiased. But sometimes have to take calls which do no justice. Have to live with that. You should be really a tough guy to handle this. A job not for sophomores. Learning experience of a lifetime, negotiation and soft skills can get no better chance to be honed than this.

Firms:

The least vulnerable and the most cunning of the stakeholders. They try all the dirty tricks to get the most sought after candidates. A piece of advice(from personal experience): never trust any of them. No matter how friendly he or she has been with you. In this respect investment banks are better off than consults, but not always the case. A firm having a large IIT-IIM based people may tend to be more understanding than others.

One of the by products of the summer process is the unity that comes in the batch(more on it later).

Keeping these things in mind may really help you better prepare for the summer placement process. All the best to people who are still to face the heat. Cant share my experience as placement process is still on, and I am restricted by placecom guidelines for interacting with media and publishing sensitive information on web.

Cold-Calls and Friends

For all those who don't know what a cold-call is, it simply means that you are pin pointed and asked by the Prof, in the class, about your views on a subject which you should have prepared for the class. With "class participation" being graded, such cold calls are something which a WIMWIan is most scared of. This fear is almost squared when the guy has had a party last night and has not done those 50 odd pages of case readings.

So, our friend Bala, was the unlucky guy today. More than that, he was unlucky in 2 different lectures on the same day. Find out the probability of that! While both of the time it was an interesting and funny sight, I would like to describe the scene when he was called in the second lecture.

As the Prof uttered the name "Bala", the whole class burst into laughter. Poor guy, its his worst day at WIMWI, everybody thought. "So Bala, what are the costs responsible for the bank's loss making retail business?" Obviously he didn't knew the answer (neither did I), but he needed to say something, and that something cannot be "I have not read the case". He looked blank and kept silent for a while. Thirty seconds passed, and there was complete silence. And then, suddenly, there was light. A girl "A" who sat next to him, and had analyzed the case, came for his rescue. But according to the norms, you cannot rescue a person caught in a cold-call scenario directly, or the Prof will kill you. So she tried a trick. She leaned on the desk, supported her head by her hands, in a way looking at Bala, and hiding her face from the Prof. She then started speaking phrases, slowly, and asked Bala to repeat it loud. But that sucker again goofed up. He started speaking aloud looking at her face rather than the Prof's."What a loser!", I thought.

Now, the Prof got little suspicious. Those people are expert in recognizing who has prepared and who hasn't. And this time, when he had finally got hold of a good bakra, the bakra has started speaking profound words out of nowhere. The Prof made a comment, " What are you looking in her face, Bala?(pointing to A)" The class again burst into laughter. And then he asked A something,"And why are you facing him like that? Are you telling him something?".

To this A replied, "No Sir, I was not telling him anything. I had put my head like that because, I WAS......SLEEPING !!".... and then there was the biggest laughter ever in the class.

The purpose was not to share a joke with you. I wrote this piece because there was something in this incident. Something which I had been searching for for long but wasn't able to find here. In a place like WIMWI, which boasts of having cream of the cream of India, it is really hard to find people who can bring the same friendly smile on your face that some of your friends at college did. However whenever such an incident, like this, happens, where people walk that extra mile to help a fellow classmate, my dwindling faith in feeling of selflessness is reaffirmed.

The Google Calendar

With WIMWI aligning its time table with the google calender of students, managing time has become a cakewalk. Everything, from change in the schedule of classes, the PPT schedule, or pesonal engagements, can now be found in one integrated platform. The feature which I like the most is the SMS reminders of event and deadlines. Needless to say, many of those reminders were critical in reminding me of some of the important tasks which I would have surely missed.

However, I am one of those who are very particular about maintaining privacy on the internet. The suspicion which I have about these dot com firms has made me apply many weird tactics to dilute the information content available about me. Some of these include, but are not limited to, having different google, orkut and youtube accounts. But I soon realized that it served no purpose. Google calender would be a source of far more information about me than any other application I can think of right now. But still I am using it on a regular basis. So, why is this inconsistency?

At this point I can only say, in marketing lingo, that they are real gurus in understanding customer needs !! No matter how strict a person is in not disclosing information about himself to google, the offer is becoming too attractive to resist now.

Professionals

Section Delta, 0930 hrs

The sleep of many of the dozers was disturbed when a peon entered the class in between. "I've never seen someone entering the class in the middle. What's the matter?", I thought. The peon showed a circular to the Prof. The Prof paused the lecture, took it, read it silently, and gave it back to the peon. He then continued his lecture from where he left it. All we could do is to guess what that circular contained, while he kept on discussing Forex reserves of India, China and the US! After some time, we became engrossed in the lecture and this episode of peon was forgotten.

The class ended on time, at 1000 hrs. All of us were too hungry. That's what happens when you get up late for class and have to skip the breakfast to avoid the wrath of the Prof for being late. "Why are they so strict on being punctual? They say it is to instill in us traits of professionalism......My foot! Leave us alone to do that, let the Prof teach what he has come to teach and no more", that's the thought process shared by many of us, especially those who are frequent late comers.

While we were getting up to go out and purchase the samosa, the Prof announced something, and there was a common utterance from everyone present there-"Oh! Shit".

One of the PGP1s of our batch had expired. The classes stood suspended for the day. Everyone was shocked, including the Prof, who inquired from us about his family, hometown and the disease he was suffering from. And, in all this, I was taught a lesson in professionalism by an Economics Prof.

Command of the Sovereign

A bit late, however, important enough to have a thought upon: Is Mayawati right in erecting her statues? Is it correct on her part to do that?

The above question can be broken in two parts:

Is it legal on her part to do that?

Is it ethical on her part to do that?

Sometimes I wonder whether ethics is given its due importance in education? We are told that the reason universities do not emphasise on it is the relevance of ethics in today's world. Many Profs had claimed that although industry does put pressure on them to teach ethics to students, the industry itself does not value it. Every "case" discussed in the academic environment of the class in ethics had very clear answers of what should have been done and what shouldn't have been. However, in each case, the person who was most ethical was the one who bore the brunt of everything. The view from the trenches is far different from the cloistered environment of a classroom. So, in many of the cases, the discussion ended with no recommendation to us.

So, can we get any answer about Mayawati's statues from the study of ethics? Very doubtful! Lets leave it for them who always get in the dilemma of ethics, morality and law. Lets leave it to the Supreme Court, like we have always done, and escape unhurt again.

Obviously, there is no method in the madness. Or, is there a method ?

I have always wondered about something. If I had been admitted in the first semester, what would have happened? Someone(a BITSian friend) told me that she wished she got admitted in the second sem instead of the first and I was always confused by this statement. I thought she used to make fun of me by saying that. It was ironical but there was an element of truth in her statement which I always felt but was never able to figure out. I spent three and a half years at that place and then a couple in the industry but still wasn't able to figure out the merits of being admitted in the second sem. And now, in an entirely different institute, I am able to slowly appreciate the merit of her viewpoint. It took me so long to look at the glass and say it's half full rather than half empty.

No doubt, management education opens up your mind and enables you better capture your own biases and stereotypes. Suddenly everyone you have met in your life starts appearing correct and you are the only person wrong.

Kashmiri Bride

"Indian citizens from other states and Kashmiri women who marry men from other states can not purchase land or property in Jammu & Kashmir"... a part of Article 370, Constitution of India

Many a times in office, I used to get into hot debate on BJP and its ideology. Article 370 was an issue in which I had a very liberal view. I was in favor of it being continued. Frankly speaking, I do not know, but in many ways this article contradicts the concept of gender equality. Given the special status of J&K, it's like saying to a girl that if you marry a person from outside, you do not belong to our community or country any more. You lose your identity, your roots.

As things stand, women who marry outside the state may not hold government jobs, and they cannot vote. Their children cannot get admissions in government schools, colleges or professional courses. A person applying for a government job has to produce a certificate of being a permanent resident. A woman’s certificate is marked ‘‘until she is married’’. With these conditions still present, the plight of a Kashmiri migrant, specially a girl, can hardly be understood by others.

If you look at contemporary Hindu laws, you will find them amongst the most discriminatory against women. Muslim law is even worse. So, it's not the J&K clause but the overall structure of constitution. Then, is the common civil code an answer to these problems? Ideologically, it may be. But, it is like asking all states to adopt Hindi as their official language. A concept, which is today regarded as well-fitting ideologically, but practically, against national integration. In fact it was this very concept which led Bangladesh sever from Pakistan.

In all this, I see some of the liberties of a particular sex and region being sacrificed to achieve a greater good. Doesn't it go against the contract model of society? I feel it is a fundamental ethical dilemma which should haunt the two major political parties of India. Oh!! did I say political parties and ethics !! People caution me never to use these two phrases in the same sentence.

Addendum: It may make more sense if you google about the social contract model and greater good.