Category Archives: as-a-student

Now you have an MBA. So what? and what’s next ?

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This is a classic question many people kept asking me in the past 3 months. Its a frustrating question to react to but a very valid question that must be answered by every graduate. Some people asked my directly on how i am going to use my MBA at work and others asked me very politely that they assume that I have a promotion or a pay rise in the coming months. Many felt there is no use of my MBA degree if i don’t do that “next” thing. This blog is like my journal and I thought of reflecting some thoughts on the big question of what’s next.

Why I did my MBA : 

  1. As a technology guy with computer science background, I worked in various industries and not always understood how it “all worked together”.
  2. I had no idea why economists, accountants, financial analysts and statisticians are critical to businesses and organizations. As silly as it may sound, I never understood difference between Accounting and Finance topics 🙂
  3. I could talk and think about the technology and i felt it might give me a good chance to succeed if I knew how to talk and think business.
  4. I could not make much sense of the technology, business models, innovation, customers, markets, international marketing, micro and macro economics, marketing mix, M&A, org. behavior, HR and CRM.
  5. I had 2 opportunities to go independent and start a company and i did not have the confidence to do so (and of course, i did not understand if MBA would help)

What I learned from my MBA :

  1. Think; Decide; Do it; Get the results; Learn; Move on.
  2. How to ask right questions and connect the dots with the answers.
  3. I don’t need to have all the answers but i should know all the people who can answer my questions
  4. How you decide and what you decide are equally important. Use the right set of tools and methods appropriately and practice the decision making process repeatedly.
  5. A right or wrong decision is not absolute. Decision making process is relative to what information, data and goals you have at that time.

Is it worth it ?

It could be a million dollar question. But to make it simple, i would say an affirmative and positive YES. When i look at what I learned in my MBA class, they are applicable to personal as well as professional life. They build confidence that I know how to connect the dots and problems can be solved one way or the other.  While the take home lessons from an MBA degree could be different to different people, I think its mostly to do with how you apply your lessons from MBA and make them a habit in life.

“Knowing and not doing is not knowing”

Not talking too technical here, I feel, I can better analyze and solve problems, find my way out, understand the power dynamics, understand the customers and markets that everyone serves to.

So what ?

This question is hard to answer. If a third person does not feel a difference with you before and after MBA then there is a problem. The problem many people face is when they try to “showoff” business degree knowledge when they talk to others. Instead, i have seen many successful people who mixes business knowledge and human touch to the problems.

Hopefully the MBA graduates do better in their jobs and think about the business responsibility to the society. Ultimately prevent any future Enron, Worldcom, Freddie Mac and likes and hurt the confidence on the economic systems in our society.

What’s next ? 

I have no idea at this point of time on what’s next. I am currently on vacation in India and really not thinking about this next thing in my career. But i am sure I will think about it eventually and do something. I still don’t know what, why and where. I have lots of unanswered questions. While this phase of my life is the most difficult and frustrating one, this probably has meaningful end result.

“Keep looking and don’t settle” 🙂

I definitely hope to write a Update to this story and see “What i did next ?”

Is it love or branding?

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I have been stacking up the iPhone and iPad packaging for a while. Each time I take them to throwaway, I am so in love with the packaging, I keep them back. That’s called Branding and emotional attachment 🙂 How can companies make products and dreams that would make you keep the packaging? The more I think about it, the more I appreciate Apple to lead the way for other retailer and tech companies.

For any product manager, this is a very complex problem to solve and everyone wants to live up to create that brand. In my view, there are couple of things that Apple does very effectively.

  • Focus on 80% of the use cases and find simple solutions (not on the other 20%)
  • Manufacture the need and love for users (be it iPhone or iPad)
  • Do something audacious (market research is not always the answer. Market research can only provide ways to incremental innovation)
  • Provide integrated marketing experience (emails, Apple Stores, Apple Website, TV Ads, Billboards, Blogs)
  • Provide the human aspect of the problem (and don’t focus on the product itself)
  • The end-to-end user experience counts (product information, demo, packaging, website, buying process, insurance, warranty, service and others)
  • Provide use cases that user has not thought about (provide endless possibilities and make customer appreciate the design and thought process that has gone into the product)

I follow Google very closely and I use many internet products from them. I think What Apple if for Hardware, Google is for Software. I really hope there are more companies who takes care of the customers, design and the integrated experience.

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Observations from my daughter’s spring break

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Now that I am done with my MBA, I have weekends for myself. More than anything else, I am happy to spend time with my family and learn many things that I missed in these 2.5 years. In the last couple of weeks I observed many kids playing in my neighborhood and parks which helped me develop a perspective on their behavior.

I have observed enough kids to categorize the sample as below.

Leaders: These kids wants other kids to follow them. They don’t care what other kids think. Unconsciously they show direction, they lead and there are “some” who follow them. These kids often are very assertive and they do stuff no matter what others think.

Followers: Clear…! These kids follow the leaders. Not because they like them because they need someone to show the path. They want someone else to entertain them. So, the leaders take this opportunity and take the followers for a ride. Followers simply can’t decide or they need some assurance from others. So, they fall pray.

Observers: Observers pretty much sit beside the Leaders and Followers and jsut relax. They are not very dynamic in nature and they like watching the action from outside. They have the most fun because they do not get involved in any action directly or indirectly. If a kid falls down, they laugh; If couple of kids are fighting, they still laugh; Pretty annoying to see such kids.

Discoverers: These kids are explorers trying to understand themselves and others. They want to try, understand what they like and what they don’t like. They lead based on the situation but not necessarily a leader personality. They usually don’t get into fight, because they want to learn and experiment. They don’t care about the cool kids.

Haters: No matter how kind and gentle a kid is there is always a kid who hates him/her. These kids usually try to be a leader, fail and then start blaming the other kids for unsuccessful attempt. They induce poison to other kids and instigate some wrongdoings. The hate in the minds of these kids so sophisticated that these kids are pretty hard to identify for the first time.

Now, think about these kids and fast-forward their lives for 20 years. Do these kids remain the same with their traits? What re-shapes them when they are growing? Does parenting influence a LOT? or is it just a personal trait that does not change over time?

While it is easy to push everything that a child behavior on individual traits and parents, there seems to be lot more factors that influences what they turnout to be as an adult. Did we not hear parents saying that my son/daughter is “very intelligent” at young age and then they turn out to be real “hope less human beings” as adults? It would be pretty interesting to study some of these factors that drives a child’s future. I will write more on what i find and when i find.

UC Davis GSM : Classes that made a difference to me!

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OK, now I am done with my MBA, many current students asked me about my personal preference of classes at UC Davis GSM. I have posted all of them in “UC Davis Class FAQs” and for those who like to see it in a single place, see below 🙂

Markets and the Firm (Victor Stango) – I never studies economics before and Victor brings in many many practical examples in the class from various industries. I only wish it was a case study based class but never the less, his class really was my foundation for future classes and I apply the basics everyday.

Data Analysis for Managers (Roger Edelen) – Simply put this is a statistics class. But with a twist of how to represent the numbers in spreadsheets and present it to senior management. I like the practical aspect of using the spreadsheets and getting things done. Don’t miss the Bayesian concepts : it just becomes so important as a manager.

Organizational Strategy and Organizational Behavior (Gina Dokko) – Covers the fundamentals of the strategy and human behavior and biases. This class is case oriented and this makes it much more lively and enjoyable. Everyone in the class has a different opinion. That’s OK. There is tons of reading and there is a lot to learn in this class. In my view, this strategy class is foundation for anyone going into (or planning) general management.

Negotiation in Organizations (Joseph Radzevick) – Negotiations is part of everyday life and this class makes you aware of various techniques. Irrespective of who is teaching this, the material and the class interactions makes it worth. At least when i took it, every class had at least 2 negotiations with fellow members using the techniques that i learned in previous class. I highly recommend (again, if you don’t practice it’s of no use).

Mergers and Acquisitions (David Petroni) – My time and money was well worth for this class. David is a industry veteran with a lot of M&A experience and brings in the financial, organizational, cultural, legal and industry aspects to M&A. He brought in many speakers who lived through M&A and that was very insightful. Most interestingly, I was involved in two M&A teams after that.

Executive Leadership Seminar (Jim Wundermann) – This class is very different compared to what we have in GSM. This class has two parts to it. First part is to make you realize your strengths and leadership style. Second part is that you get a perspective on various industry leaders. CEOs from various industries (DELL WYSE, PG&E, Virgin America, Silicon Valley Bank, Citi Bank California, etc…) talk about their leadership challenges and experiences and you get a chance to ask them questions too.

Product Management (Marcus Lowe) – This class needs a *lot* of work. Pick a good group that you can work with. This is a highly analytical and quantitative class and a must for anyone who wants to do product marketing, product innovation (R&D) and new product introductions. Though i do product management for work, the markstrat simulation puts you in various phases of product life cycle that one many not always gets exposed to.

Multi-Channel Marketing (Rubel, Olivier) – Olivier is very knowledgeable and one of the very few professors who presses you to think “as a decision maker”. I have got a lot out of his multi-channel marketing class.

International Marketing (Peters, Kay) – This is a very interesting class for people working with international firms and looking for global expansion of products. This is a one unit class and Kay provides a wonderful framework to think about the international product marketing. This could be a three unit course and get into more details of the nuances of the international marketing.

Technology Competition and Strategy (Hemant Bhargava) – People get what they want to get out of this class. Due to the inherent nature, the class discusses a lot of technology companies and products. This is a must class for anyone building the technology products in startups or corporations. The modern nature of the platforms (internal or external) and network effects makes it much more challenging for the survival of the technologies and this class addresses exactly that. This class provides a framework to think about when building products. Its difficult to appreciate this class if you have not faced any challenges to promote your product or standard in your firm.

UC Davis GSM – Incoming class 2012 – Student Panel

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Today I was at UC Davis Graduate School of Management San Ramon campus as a part of the Student Panel for the incoming class. I was part of the student panel addressing their questions and advising them on the 3 year journey.

Below is summary of my advise to new students.

=> Priotize, Focus and Act – Beginning of the MBA program we all want to do our best and get all A grades. Soon you realize that it is important to balance life and not go crazy about your grades. Make sure that you choose the important tasks in your life and prioritize them. Focus on the tasks and make sure your act on them.
=>Your MBA grades does not matter. No one is going to ask for your overall grade for a job. As long as you are learning and applying the concepts at work, you will do wonderful.
=> Make sure that you are doing MBA in a good eco-system. You boss or your super boss should not see you as a threat. If they do, thats going to be end of your career. Be careful in the way you message based on your boss.
=> Work for an organization that values your MBA. If your present organization does not value your MBA, then move on. Life is too shot. You dont wnat to convince them.
=> Before convincing your family and peers at work, convince your self about MBA. It must have a strong reason for doing MBA. Dont do it just to get a raise or a promotion.
=> Make sure that you let your family and friends know about the expectations. Your readings, assignments and group discussions take time and your people should know about it. Make use of technology – use google calander and share it with your spouse.
=> Relax – You are going to go through this journey for the next 3 years. Dont stress. Make it fun for yourself and family.
=> Keep in mind the end goal. You are going to get the MBA degree at the end of these 3 years. Hopefully you learn a lot and meet wonderful people.
=> If you have too many things happening in life, make use of the short break between each quarter. Go for a 2-3 day break away from your daily routing and just focus on your family. It helps a lot to bring back sanity to your life.

Google TV – Customer’s Dilemma [Updated]

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I am planning to do the below Market Research for my Marketing class. Any takers ?

Topic : “Google TV – Customer’s Dilemma”
Abstract : Every year $70 billion is spent on the ads alone in US and 4 billion users world wide. Google TV integrates the traditional TV and Internet for a seamless user experience. With ever increasing user generated video content on the internet, Google TV would like to capture the ad $ by marrying the TV an Internet. In October 2010 Google inters the market via hardware vendors Logitech and Sony. Soon enough, customers are thrilled about the capabilities and at the same time they are confused thinking where does the Google TV fit into their current home entertainment.
In this market research and presentation, we will focus on the various aspects where Google, Logitech and Sony would have done better to segment and position the Google TV.

I will post the research results by the end of March 2011 for sure.

Below is the update on March 4th 2011. This presentation is done at the UC Davis marketing class by my group.

Does your Bank make you happy ?

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Do these Banks and Financial Institutions make you happy ? They are such a suckers… aren’t they ?

I got a PayPal credit line for $500 in June 2010 and they raised my credit line to almost 5X and here is the message i got in the statement.

They talk about the PURCHASE POWER delivered to YOU. It is assumed that YOU also understand the PAYBACK PERILS.

Which means, i can buy more and increase my debt… if i miss a payment – they charge more and a lot more…

Wow… thats the defunct fundamental of Economics that says…

Consumers want to be Happy;

Business wants to make Money.

I can see it coming…

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As i wrote in my previous entry that i will be starting the part-time MBA from this September from UC Davis Bay Area campus. By now, i am already seeing most of the challenges that i would be facing. It’s definitely going to the time crunch and mostly it deals with the time management. 24 hours seems to be too less to do want i am doing now. All the time divided among the following categories.

….and… I am already getting anxious. In the past week my daughter has been with high fever and teething pain and we are spending most of the time with my daughter diverting her and pacifying her pain. I really want to be able to do “same thing” (at least i want to dream to do it) even after my classes start in September. The biggest challenge of all the things is to be able to justify the time at Office, Home and School. All the three are very important and crucial to want we want to be as a person.

I want to get the maximum gain out of my MBA at this time. Let us see what i say in the next 4 months. I reserve the blog title… “I am seeing it now…” to talk about my experiences of MBA in November 2010 🙂

My Decision on Business (MBA) school in Bay Area!

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This post is supposed to be a private notes. However, i thought this post would help many more out there who are deciding between colleges. The decision of choosing the college is a mix of quantitative, qualitative, personal and emotional analysis. One might get so many conflicting opinions and finally one may be totally confused about the DECISION.

I applied for 4 different colleges in Bay Area. # UC Davis Bay Area Part-time MBA program # Santa Clara University Professional MBA Program # University of San Francisco # Golden Gate University. These 4 universities are more or less famous in the Bay Area and i see many colleagues and friends who did their MBA and are in good positions in their respective organizations. I had discussions with many students from each of the university that I applied and debated a lot on one over the other. Trust me, I had almost 4 months of decision time and research. I did also attended the guest classes from each university.

Without wasting your time and my time, following are the considerations 🙂

  • Reputation of the School
    • Is this school recognized out side Bay Area ?
    • Is this school recognized out side California ?
    • Is this school recognized out side USA ?
  • Total Cost of the Program
    • Is it affordable? Is it Worth ?
  • Campus
    • Is it necessary to be in Campus ?
    • What do you want to do with Campus ?
    • Do you have much time to hand around in Campus ?
  • Alumni
    • Do you have powerful Alumni ?
    • Is Alumni active ?
    • Can you benefit from Alumni ?
  • Industry Connection
    • Does the school provide good exposure ?
    • Can you get connections from School ?
    • Do you get access to best people from Industry ?
  • Diversity of Students
    • Do you want same mind set of people or different ?
    • Do you want to stick to same field of profession even after MBA ?
    • Do you respect the opinion of a person in other profession ?
  • Faculty
    • Do you have a guest faculty or a full-time faculty ?
    • Do you get the professors from undergraduate program ?
    • Are they well qualified and well experienced in Industry.

Once I had the criteria, it was easy for me to decide. I never had the Commute or Schedule as the critical criteria as most of the classes are over the weekend and i don’t mind the commute at all. I also had the “easy factor” in the application process. I definitely wanted to join something that i felt “GOOD” and “CONVENIENT”. Following is my general impression on the application process for each University.

Golden Gate University : Had to send the GMAT score, TOEFL waiver essay, 2 Recommendations, 1 Application Essay/Statement of Purpose, Transcripts directly from University and the application fee. It was a very smooth process and i had no issues with the communication or the way they handled the application. They offer an MBA with in 21 months and the tuition fee is relatively less in Golden Gate. I had a personal interview with the director of the program where we discussed my experience, why i want to do my MBA and my future aspirations. All in all, it was a nice experience.

University of San Francisco : Had to send GMAT score, waived the TOEFL, 2 recommendations, 2 application essays, and Transcripts sent to WES (World Education Services) and application fee. This is one University that made me bit frustrated. I had no idea why this university asks people to send the Transcripts to WES where as ALL other universities asks them Transcripts sent directly to them. The problem is the WES support system is very lousy and i hated interacting with them. They have a customer support and email that does not respond. Repeatedly interacting with them just made me frustrated and angry most times. They also charge around $260 to review your transcripts. I have no idea, why this university does this. My university sent the Transcripts to all the universities including WES and the WES says that it had not got it (where as other universities got them). Also, the fact that i had to put so much of pressure on USF to get a reply from a “person” (and not IVR) from WES was too huge and not desired.

However, my experience with this university was tiring and i don’t recommend this for International Students.

Santa Clara University : This needed GMAT score, waived the TOEFL, 2 paper based recommendations, 2 application essays and the Transcripts sent to them directly. I loved the campus and the class rooms (i took guest student class) and the professors looked very knowledgeable. Students that i talked to gave a very good impression of the program. This program has mostly students from the IT/Software industry. Probably people looking for diversity may not find this as a best choice.

My over all impression was that this is a great school and i had a smooth communication. The admission team is nice and professional.

UC Davis : This needed GMAT score, waived TOEFL, 2 recommendations, 2 long-essays, 3 short-essays, 1 personal interview and the Transcripts sent to them directly once you get admitted. Bay Area campus is an extended one in San Ramon and i liked the class rooms too. Santa Clara University and UC Davis Bay Area had similar class rooms. UC Davis is known for the diversity of students and it stands in leadership position in the Industry and events. I had to go to the San Ramon campus for my personal interview. I had an interview with the panel and a 5 minute presentation with the panel. The presentation topic could be any thing and i talked about my parenting experiences.

My overall  impression was great and very satisfied with the way they answer the questions/queries about the program.

Of course, i finally decided to take the admission in the UC Davis for the various reason i discussed above. Everyone have their own priorities and expectations. Depending on what your goals are, the decision parameters and the end result might differ. However, it is worthwhile to consider all the options available and take a careful decision on the MBA program that’s going to get added for rest of your life. I consider deciding an MBA program is like decision of marriage. One needs to be very careful with personal expectation and the spouse’s. If your mess up the expectations, you screw up the complete relationship. It takes a lot of effort to analyze and decide what each one of us wants.

My decision is my decision. I want any readers to take my opinions with a grain of salt and use your own discretion. My situation may not be your situation.

Next 3 years at UC Davis for my MBA !

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Finally the moment of triumph is here! I decided to join the UC Davis part-time MBA program and today (08-Apr-2010) i got the confirmation.  Officially I am admitted to the program and i will need to go for the UC Davis orientation on August 28th. I am really excited to see the fellow students, professors and the campus. The feeling of going back to school is exciting and also challenging. For my under graduation, i had no responsibilities and the only thing i did was to study, enjoy and workout ;). However, in contrast, i am married and have a 10 month baby now. Yes, with a young family and work during weekdays, it is very challenging to balance everything.

I am glad that i worked hard to get to to this DAY! Giving GMAT, Writing Application Essays, Looking for Recommendors, Follow-ups with the Recommendors, Deciding the Schools, Preparing for Interviews and finally DECIDING a SCHOOL really gave me a different perspective of my self. Though it all took 1 year 4 months of process, i fell so happy that i did it. This is the indication that i was very serious to do my MBA this time and all the effort had paid off. The complete MBA Application process makes you think a lot about your self.

The UC Davis part-time MBA usually takes around 3 years and may be some Heros do it in less than 3 years. This year schedule is already out and the Classes start on September 10th and ends by December 11th. Wow, after 10 years i will be writing my exams again. Need to see if these exams are in anyway different than the undergraduate ones. I like the Facebook updates from the UC Davis MBA Graduate School which are very crisp and informative.

I am super excited to go to school and get the business fundas. I cant wait anymore to attend classes which i have been waiting from past 7 years. In 2003, i took a complete GMAT orientation and i had to give my GMAT in a week when i got an opportunity to go to Germany for long term project. I was somehow more fascinated to go to Germany than doing my GMAT. And after 6 years, i decided to give GMAT and continue to live my dream.

For now, my MBA expectations are very clear.

  • Understand the complete Organization, Business Functions and their dependencies
  • Get the fundamentals of the Entrepreneurship (my planned specialization)
  • Increase the Business network in Bay Area and get help from vast UC Davis alumni
  • Find like minded people and venture a start-up by the end of MBA program
  • Finally, to live my dream of MBA!