Uncertainty displaced

The world is pretty arbitrary... Quite often I find myself feeling disconnected with what I've learnt and what I see... most things, when you study about them in theory, seem pretty grandiose and oh so simple... but it's the Murphiness in life that disconnects reality from theory...

However, personally for me, the qualitative subjects here at AIM have exposed me to a more realistic perspective of things... not just postulates that ought to work...

Today especially I feel that there are absolutely no certainties with anything and its probably foolish to expect them to ever be there... I don't think it's possible to learn enough to know anything for certain... and I think it's a huge thing for me to digest and come to terms with...

Strangely, it feels good to realize this.

And so begin the Walkabout preparations

There's been something or the other going on pretty much every weekend this term at AIM (Asian Institute of Management). Finally Rachna, Shibani and me got down to getting some serious work done for our Walkabout.

A walkabout is kinda like an initiation ceremony that Australian aborigines go through to prove their coming of age... here at AIM it assumes alot of significance coz it has been adapted to the business-world concept. In fact our Associate Dean, Prof. Ricardo Lim spoke about the walkabout being a unique feature of AIM when interviewed by one of the leading MBA websites, pagalguy.com. (Check here for the full interview http://www.pagalguy.com/index.php?categoryid=51&p2_articleid=1506). Each student here has to do a 'walkabout', in the sense, not necessarily go off into the wilderness (although we were contemplating that) and 'survive' but do something that we've never done before, something that stretches us, something that changes us, something that makes us grow.

There are two ways of looking at it... one just do something you haven't done before or do something that you've always wanted to do but haven't had the b@#%%s to do before...

Our plan is to have a 'chai' stall right here on campus from late evening to early morning - why coz there's a need in the market for this product, at this time, done this way (I like using 3 adjectives, reasons etc... it feels poetic to me) - a good cup of tea (or is it a cup of good tea) can solve anything. (I agree with you Katti on this... we will forever remember our chai sessions by the poolside... won't we). As a rider, I want to add that I also think beer does the same thing.

We're nervously excited about it coz we're gonna have to micro-manage (bleccchhh) and time-manage (wow... if only I could do that).

Up until today we were figuring out what we wanted to do exactly with the stall and now that we have a fair idea we went in to 'source' our requirements.

Usually when you goto a shop, negotiating comes naturally to you... what happened today was that now that I knew we were being MBA-esque, part of me was doing it and the other part was observing, relating what we were doing to what we've read or studied and getting supremely amused.

Honestly I feel there's nothing new that you learn in an MBA... its primarily things you have been doing... it's just a shift of perspective to making it more non-mundane.

Anyway, coming back to our sourcing exploits... we've managed to get a good deal (cannot be disclosed... confidentiality and all that jazz ;-)) on raw materials as well as capital investment...

Encouraging Entrepreneurship

While looking for an Asian Sports Company for my Asian Business Systems paper here at AIM, Manila I chanced upon this website http://www.hotteststartups.in/coolestStartupsRankingList.do?method=fetch&businessFn=top50Startups. It's not surprising to see TATA at the forefront of such a contest. Apparently it's the first peoples choice type of contest. Brings to my mind the fact that today everybody wants to participate. Even if you look at the type of shows that people enjoy, it's mainly vicarious enjoyment through reality shows and game shows wherein people have to send in their vote. People's choice matters. Although I do think that currently since we're at the start of this participative trend, there might be a herd mentality. Very soon that should be replaced with informative participation and that is when companies are going to need to be more synchronous with their primary stakeholders i.e. their consumers.

Coming back to this website, some of these business ideas are really great and the internet allows these to be exhibited to a large mass. I honestly feel they should include courses in business schools on how to juice out as much as you can through Web 2.0 offerings.

Another thing that came to mind was a question that are more people looking to set up their own ventures in the face of lots of standardization and boredom with regular jobs? Have they realized that maximum value will come from occupying niche long tails?

AIM Diwali 2008 Celebrations

Last friday we celebrated Diwali at the Asian Institute of Management... Shailaja, Rachna, whom I fondly call Rakhans La, Lambi and lotsa variations of those words, and me stayed up till 3 AM friday morning making chottu (small) diyas to stick on all the dorm doors. At 3:15 - esque we decided to stick diyas on the professors cabins... was awesome fun... the place is so huge we actually got lost a couple of times... and all of this while the Diwali Taash (cards) session was going on in college (which we obviously missed)

Come AIM Diwali day and our entire dorm, 311, was performing 'Bollywood through the ages'... I'm not usually the dance on stage kinda person but it was a dorm-mate's walkabout and so lots of us from class performed....

Hats off to Shailaja who made sure we came for practice, casework or no casework, decoration or no decoration work. She's a fabulous dancer but she'd never choreographed before and made the Diwali performances her walkabout... After going through what she did, I realized had I been in her place, I'd have probably given up and picked another walkabout topic... getting everybody, including the exchange students, to come for practice was quite a task... the best part was that inspite of everybody's nakhras (tantrums) she kept plodding on....

I was pretty worried about performing coz the songs she was making me dance to arn't normally the kind of songs I'd dance to and so I had a drink or two before I went on... it was so much of fun... the show went off pretty well and of course Shailaja won everybody's hearts.

Sportatainment resorts

The future of hospitality development is the convergence of leisure, recreational, entertainment and sporting activities all rolled into an offering, complete with seasonility proofing through providing something, especially adventure sports, for all seasons....

What do I mean by that... indoor versions of outdoor sports like skiing, kayaking, golfing, surfing... you name it!

Sounds great for a sports marketing wannabe like me... but it got another part of me thinking... going to different places to experience the charm and the sports styles of that place is a package deal... with these indoor or man-made resort-sportatainment complexes the whole 'discovering places and their natural sporting charm' will disappear.

But then again... with most of us caught up trying to make as much money as we can to enjoy it how we want, we often miss out on going to all those places we fantasize about...

Thinking about it some more I feel these developments are fantastic... coz this way a curious mind knows where he can go, can make a weekend trip out of it (assuming the infrastructure comes up globally - which it will), try it out and if he truly wants to experience the magic of nature go and do the same without making the visit a commercial travel... why did I bring that into the picture? Today alot of people want to travel to 'exotic' locations, example Leh-Ladakh, to the extent that their travels to these places is proving hazardous to their (places') existence...

So with these resorts in place at least natural beauty can be conserved.

Another good thing is everybody will have tons of fun options to indulge in, all year round.

These resorts then make business sense by having multiple offerings. Most importently it portends good job options for people like me. :)

http://www.hospitalitynet.org/news/4036681.search?query=dubai+indoor+adventure+sports+complex

Quotable Quotes

This is going to be an on-going post of quotes that I find inspiring, quirky or just plain funny...

"You have to approach the world as an equal... there's no such thing as being a supplicant" - Howard Stevenson

"Bacteria is the only culture some people have" - No clue

"Before you criticize someone, walk a mile in their shoes - that way if you still feel the need to say something abrasive, you've walked a mile away and you have their shoes" - No clue

Another fillip to Sports in India

It's been a really long while since I last blogged... the weather's been too rainy to get any significant work done...

but trust sporting developments to get me to blog again...

I see that the Sports Authority of India (SAI) is going to build 20 astro turfs for hockey, to better the basketball court in Bhopal (apparently the regional center for SAI) and waiving off 30 million that sports federations owe them... sounds fantastic....

this is just what Sporting India needs... a good signal that the government is taking the business and social potential of Sports seriously...

I just hope the projects take off, middlemen or no middlemen apart

Our country needs focussed investment and sports is definitely a good way to go....

Here in Makati, I see phenomenal sports infrastructure.... they have fantastic badminton courts and more importantly people are perpetually engaged in keeping fit and playing lots of sports... its fantastic... even these regular courts I mentioned are really really good... it's basically an indoor construct with I think close to 10 courts, all occupied with waiting lists, on working days too!

We could take a leaf out of Makati's book and use sports to mobilize people and channelize their energy... for which the step taken by SAI seems to be one taken in the right direction