Lehman brother is falling down , falling down...

Disaster is spreading through the financial market like wildfire, and there wouldnt be a single soul on this earth that has in someway or the other not felt its aftermath.


After the demise of three of the top 5 investment banksin less than six months after thae start of the sub prime crisis, there are questions about whether the entire business model is sustainable. These banks depend heavily on borrowing in the market and have few depositors; hence they're always vulnerable to a crisis of confidence.The two surviving ones - Morgan Stanley and Goldman Sachs - should be more stable than their fallen rivals. Neither plunged into real-estate lending in the manner of Bear, Lehman and Merrill, while their management seems more on top of things than Lehman's CEO Fuld and Bear's appallingly out-of-touch James Cayne. However, after Lehman and Merill's demise, markets are becoming more concerned about these organisations.


A few months later...the market still tumbling down (FTSE below 4000 (not a joke)), USA has Obama holding the reins, Brown is trying to save the £, the French are laughing and you start almost believing that all this chaos is normal, that it is part of life. And then comes the next set of commotions (as if these were;nt enough) - the scamsters and the fraudsters - Madoff ran off (with 50bn,) Stanford tried with 8bn. India was shining bright with Satyam.

And if within 3 months you have just as many high profile cases and a few dozen other insvester running away or killing themselves , i just wonder how many of these have not come to light.
The Pandora's boxe has been opened (yet again)and I wonder what else lays in store for us....

Dissertation ...and all its academic mess...

I got my weekly traffic report just a while ago. I had totally forgotten about the fact that I hadn't update my blog in a while. Not that there are any readers who bother keeping an eye on the Oh so interesting articles that I post.

What I realised was that I had not kept my mind preoccupied with unnecessary thoughts for a while. They say an idle mind is a devils workshop! Believe me, its better left idle rather than put on overtime work writing up a dissertation ( 10,000 word research essay). The whole last 3 months of mine have been completely wasted writing up an academic style essay. I am not cut for academics. But then, is academics cut for the real world?

I have been toiling over the last few months, trying to understand the nuances of building an online community of high net worth individuals. It started with me writing up a business plan for an online network for doctors. Two investors found this idea very interesting and were keen on taking it up. I guess that's when it dawned on me that this idea had a lot more potential than I had initially attached to it. Further, I worked with an Doctors.Net, an organisation in the UK, that has been running an online service for doctors. What I learned over that past few months has been mind blowing to say the least.

While attempting to put that understanding on to paper, I ended up losing half the interesting facts. Applying all the LSE formatting and academic references ended up destroying the paper, with me falling asleep by the time I read half way through my first draft.

Right now, I sit half awake in front of my pc, trying to wrap up this dreaded paper - hoping against hopes that it passes all the LSE's academic requirements for a dissertation paper. The other half of my brain is praying that Lehman doesnt screw up my work permit and that I can start work on the 8th of September as planned. Until then, I feel like a Zombie - more dead than alive.

Ian Angell on Intellectual Property Rights

This video, where Ian Angell talks about Intellectual Property Rights (IPR) and Museums, was made in January 2008 during a visit by Dr. Prodromos Tsiavos to Ian's office. The voice you hear is pRo's. Prodromos was interviewing Ian as part of his research, and the Departmental video camera was close at hand, and so Pro had the idea of videoing Ian's responses.

Part 1


Part 2

Ian Angell on Hard Talk - the millenium bug

The Hard Talk programme, where Ian Angell was interviewed by Tim Sebastian about his book -- The New Barbarian Manifesto, was recorded just before the book was published in January 2000. It seems quite odd eight years on just how much panic and wasted money were caused by the non-event of the 'Millennium Bug', but the references here were very timely.

Ian Angell's warning of systemic breakdown is now proving spot on! The credit crunch is where the old institutions don't work any more! Watch this video ...dont miss out

Part 1


Part 2


Part 3

Ummeed ! ( Hopes)

I am sitting at home, after (yet another) a failed attempt at asking someone out - feeling like a complete ass (Gaddha). While my miserable run with flirting continues, I get this forward from Seena which brought a little bit of hope into my life.




Ek Gadha:- Yaar mera malik mujhe bahut maarta hai.
[First Donkey: Friend, my boss hits me a lot]

Dusara Gadha:- To tu bhag kyu nahi jata.
[Second Donkey: So they why dont you run away?]

Pehla Gadha:- Bhag to jata par yahan future bada bright hai ..
[First Donkey: I would have run away, but the future looks very bright here]
malik ki khoobsurat beti jab shararat karti hai to malik kahta hai,
[my boss's scolds his beautifiul daughter whenever she is miscievious]
'Teri shaadi gadhe se kar dunga...!'
[and tells he that he would get her married to the donkey]
Bas isi ummeed me baitha hoon........
[I am living of this hope]

Keeping Hopes may not improve your future, but it will certainly
reduce the pain of Today !!!

Yea .. so given that, ..Main bhi bas isi ummeed me baitha hoon........

:D

Queen of my castle

I was forced to go with this title, but hell i was easily persuaded !


The castle that I refer to, is my wonderful apartment, just around the bend in Kader Nawaz Khan Road. In fact it is the first house on KNK Road. Its the lovely Mansarovar Apartments.

We moved over to Mansarovar sometime in the summer of 2005...and that's where i met the queen of my castle - literally!
The way we fist met each other is worth a mention. If my failing memory does prove right, it was one of those weekends, when I had come down home from B'lore and had as usual brought along a lot of office work with me. Yea .. that was it, I was working on developing a prototype for Revenue Projection and I was working on that day in and day out for about 7 days. So as usual I was in a mess, unshaven, unkept and on top of that totally lost in my project. And that's when the queen walks in. Poor thing, she must have had a fright. Now with that fist impression, you can imagine ... whatever followed could only have been better :D

What followed was nothing short of a fairy tale. As promised, Ashwini, I shall pen down some of those wonderful moments that we did share together while we were at Mansarovar...and if I do forget something, do feel free to re-jig my memory.


1)Ashwini has always pepped me up whenever I was low - which was like almost every other day.

2)On numerous occasion we have gone out on walks. Once we went all the way to Marina for a walk, the other time along KNK road to pay my bills, but that aside - mostly on the terrace or along KNK road. Its surprising, how she did not lose her mind when I kept bombarding her such crazy whimsical ideas of fun walks :D .

3)Every evening, when I came home from work, I would get off at Nungambakkam and walk down KNK road hoping that I bump into Ashwini. And invariably i don't - but yea that's my luck. When I get home, I usually shout out to Ashwini and she would be out on her balcony , we have a cheesy conversation with the watchamn staring at us and then having jinxed the watchman I get back home satisfied.

4) There was a small little stunt we (tried but failed miserably) pulled together - GRE. We decided one fine afternoon that we had to do something with our lives and GRE would be the way out of all our miseries. We tried hard - preparing for the vocab and maths. She was amazing with Vocab and I was better off in maths. That stunt lasted for a few weeks and then she got into NUS and me into LSE - and we did not have to write our GRE.
Thank God for small mercies.

5) The Milkshake episodes - I hate that one. Once in a while, I would take Ashwini out to the Barista next door and get her her fav Chocolate Milkshake. What annoyed me the most was that everytime the waiter took the order, he would be like - "Mam shall I get you the usual ?" and then reluctantly take his eyes of her and come over to take my order. The funny thing is that I always have an Iced Tea and when I say - yea I shall have the usual as well - he would go like - " Ummm and what would that be ? "


6) The Aditya stunt - i tried getting my colleague at Infy , Aditya , to get ashwini a milkshake - but knowing aditya .. he wouldn't spend a penny without seeing returns. That did not work out, but yea I had a lot of fun kidding Adi and Ash with each other.

7) The Friday and Saturday evening dinners. Invariably we would have dinner every weekend at one of our places. I remember how John uncle used to get Ashwini to call up the hotel and make a booking. Ashwini used to play her part well - acting like the hot secretary calling up the restaurant to make a booking for a bunch of us in the middle of the night. She would go like - "No no , we need a table right now , else Mr. John Abraham would be pretty upset".

8) My miserable attempts at getting her to let me take some snaps. Not worth mentioning - other than the fact that i failed miserably.

9) Drives - Adding that bit post reading Ashwini's comment. Of all the drives in her car, there is one of them that I distinctly remember. This was on the night I came home with her after Nithin and Dia's party. We were almost home when we found our quiet neighbour Mr.Bhatts car iun front of us. Ashwini was a bit tipsy and was annoyed at seeing them so late at night and she said " what are these Bhatts (butts) doing out at this time in the night?" Those were the good times. Other than that, we did a lot of drives in her Zip drive, was fun and yea once in a while I drove (but, yea Ashwini realised it was better if she drove)! Yeeeeeaaaaaaaaa !


I guess, we never realise how important the other person is until we move away from them. With Ashwini so far away, our relationship I believe has only strengthened. Thinking of all those times we had together at Mansarovar just reminds me of what a wonderful person you are and how good you have been to me.

Right now Ashwini is pursuing her masters at the NUS - or rather she is done with it- She is busy job hunting but she has agreed to make an exception and is now willing to settle down with a rich millionaire.
Ashwini is an adorable person - a genuine sweetheart.

A Formula for Failure

I coudnt help but take a snippet out of Paul Ormerod's latest book Why Most Things Fail and use it in this post. He quotes P.J. O'Rourke from this book Eat the Rich : "One thing that economists do know is that the study of economics is divided into two fields, "microeconomics" and "macroeconomics". Micro is the study of individual behaviour and macro is the study of how economies behave as a whole. That is, microeconomics concerns things that economists are specifically wrong about , while macroeconomics concerns things economists are wrong generally". (Don't mention this at the LSE, you would get slapped)

That led me to thinking deeply (:D) about failure. Failure is all around us! Government policies fail (almost always), markets have failed, predictions fail, businesses fail...even Newtons laws have failed (refer theory of relativity and the space time fabric in case you doubt me). My first class at LSE was about failures. My first assignment that followed the lecture was about investigating IS failures( IS according to Ian, is always a failure. so that wasn't a tough task). My attempts at flirting has been a failure (always), and my attempts at failing have also failed miserably(no its true, I had decided to fail one of my exams in the 3rd Semester of my engg...the subject was digital display systems... I had not studied a word for that exams and wrote all sort of nonsense in the paper... must have written for about 10 marks out of hundred and when the results came I got 96% ...so yea even that was a failure). Right now my writing this post instead of studying is also a sign of impending failure in my oh so sad exams.

But then, an optimist would say .... Failure is the stepping stone for success. And that leads us to
Bill Gates -> college dropout who founded Microsoft
George W. Bush -> failed oil executive who became president of the USA

Hmmm... guess I should go with the optimist

My Experiments with TRUST

I have not trusted many people in my life. Just a very few. And it takes me forever to trust anyone. Let me tell you a story of this chappie called Prashant.

I met Prashanth the very first day I arrived at the LSE. He was my senior, who had just landed a job with T-mobile in London. He was at LSE meeting up with his friends and Dr. Khanna (Ash to us). This was the day two major turning points in my life happened. One was Ash (do expect a separate post on this), and the other Prashant. As Steve Jobs said..its possible to join the dots when you reflect on your life. And Prashant is one of those very important dots in my life.

Now, life was not all that easy between us. Prashant is someone who is an ace at whatever he does and he is much better with technology than most of can even dream of being. Every discussion that I have had to date with Prashant, has always ended up as a major heated argument, with him coming down on the idea from a hard technology stand point and me pushing a hard ( i hope) business / i don't care standpoint. As you can imagine, neither of us would budge an inch from our points of view. But at the same time we do end up with a result...God alone knows how ! ! !


But in spite of all this arguments and debates, we listen to each other, discuss anything and everything without having to think of consequences and above all respect each other. To me, Prashant is someone I know whom I CAN trust and fallback on at any point in my life. He is my alter ego, my friend , philosopher and guide.

Prashant - You Inspire me!

GRADUATE JOBS AND INTERNSHIPS

The first thing that comes to mind when you think of taking up a MSc in London would be - Would i get a job? Can I work parttime while i study ? What are the intership options available.

This link should give you necessary details

Complexity is Opportunity - (to me the unwanted opportunity to fail ! ) why cant exams be simple !

Well the status may or maynot make sense ... but my idea is pretty simple .. why cant exams be a simple task... rather why exams in the first place ...

Revising Burrell and Morgan's four paradigm for Monday's paper got me thinking ( what to do , I am an Angellist... I think ! but, I do agree thinking on the day before the exam is a waste of time... and so is blogging .. but then .. what the heck)

The education system follows the functionalist paradigm: those who believe that there is a science of society as phsysics is a science of nature. Functionalists say that social reality is governed by immutable laws of causality that can be discovered through the scientific method, based on unbiased observation, supported by empirical evidence, and then used to advantage to explain and build cohesive and stable structures in society: the fundamental tenets of social engineering. And out of this fundamentall flawed thinking has risen the notion of exams and the education system. THey believe : feed the students with input -> take an exam -> test the output . the output decides how good or bad we are and if we are ready to take on the world.

Senseless? Hurrah to B&M !

Seena's Bday...

Happy Bday Seena !

Seena has been a wonderful friend and a companion in London .. one of my best. Guess my life here wouldnt have been the same without her... and today is her Birthday. Divya and Priyanka had planned an elaborate surprise. We got the gang together and went over to Seenas !



And I had promised long back (in one of my spirited moods) to cook her some good fish.

We all met up ... cut the cake .. gave her the 'facial'.. and then took a lot of photos followed by the usual nonsense gibberish conversations .. had a few laughs .. and then came back home to start studying for Monday's exam!

Its wonderful to know that I have friends lke Seena and Priyanka. I dont have enough words to tell them how much they mean to me ...

bits and bytes on accomodation in London

Hi All,
there seems to be a lot of queries regarding accommodation in London, private vs lse halls ..

Here are a couple of mails I got from an ex-lse student.

. In terms of costs, how much is a week at an lse hall? I can give u a comparison with staying elsewhere-anywhere else you'd have to pay a min of 150 a wk for a one bedroom unless u find someone to share with. If u stay in a flat, ud also have to pay council tax of 2000 a year per flat plus utility bills of abt 25-30 a month. Food would be about 50 a week and travel abt 20. So I guess lse is cheapest plus good way to meet people. I guess it all hinges on the course .... Ill try my best to come up with something for you today.
--------------------------
Sent from my BlackBerry Wireless Handheld

Hi Govind,
I would suggest passfield - it has the best social life and is fairly close to lse. Also good are bankside and high holborn. But these three have students of all ages - if u want only master students, go for butlers wharf (was where i stayed).....but drawback is that its quite far away from lse. 35 mins. I dont think u meant that ur options are lse hall and residence - u meant lse hall and intercollegiate residences right? The diff is that the first has only lse students. So id go for that....unless inter college is much cheaper.


Hope this helps

DISCLAIMER (expires on 21st May )

**will not respond to individual emails during exam period**

PLEASE POSTS YOUR QUERIES / COMMENTS HERE AND HAVE A DISCUSSION AMONGST YOURSELVES. I WILL PUT IN MY THOUGHTS AS WELL WHEN I GET THE TIME ... ITS EASIER THIS WAY RATHER THAN WRITING SIMILAR REPLIES TO ALL OF YOU... I UNDERSTAND YOUR ANTICIPATION AND TREPIDATION AS I WENT THRU THE SAME LAST YEAR .....ALL THE BEST FOR NOW

Thanks Priya for the advice ...

Discrimination and our lot !

Discrimination is my current frustration !

I hate the discrimination that i receive from my own country-men ! I guess, I althemore feel the need to rant out this frustration at this point in my life, when I stay away from my motherland. I hate being classified based on my religion , sex , colour , caste , region or anyother box in which I am supposed to belongl and it gets worse when this discrimination comes from one of my own (people).

The words of John Galt from Ayn Rand's epic novel "Atlast Shrugged" still rings in my ears... "The world you desired can be won, it exists, it is real, it is possible, it's yours. But to win it requires total dedication and a total break with the world of your past, with the doctrine that man is sacrificial animal who exists for the pleasure of others. Fight for the value of your person. Fight for the virtue of your pride. Fight for the essence, which is man, for his sovereign rational mind. Fight with the radiant certainty and the absolute rectitude of knowing that yours is the morality of life and yours is the battle for any achievement, any value, any grandeur, any goodness, any joy that has ever existed on this earth."

This is my prayer as well.

What we need is intellectual honesty. The only way people should be recognised and respected ( and again not discrimnated ) is not by these man made classifications but on the basis of his intellectual capcity. For this we need an 'open mind,' but an active mind - a mind able and eagerly willing to examine ideas, but to examine them criticially.

Only when we embrace each other with an open mind would we be able to discard such discrimination - it is then that we would learn to respect each other.

I look forward to this day. And this is the only ray of optimism that would dare have. Everything else is rubbish.... My role is that of a sketptic and of a hopeless pessimist - and I play my part well.

I am a Capitalist !

"Capitalism demands the best of every man – his rationality – and rewards him accordingly. It leaves every man free to choose the work he likes, to specialize in it, to trade his product for the products of others, and to go as far on the road of achievement as his ability and ambition will carry him." (' Ayn Rand... For the New Intellectual' 1961) "When I say 'capitalism,' I mean a pure, uncontrolled, unregulated laissez-faire capitalism – with a separation of economics, in the same way and for the same reasons as a separation of state and church."
("The Objectivist Ethics" in 'The Virtue of Selfishness')

I believe Capitalism is the way forward for India... Its time we phase out our so called implementaion of the socialist philopsphy in our country. Five Year plans and the plannig commisions must go. We need to think of how to uplift the country from its roots, from the villages upwards ...bottom up and NOT top down!

Two things which immediately come to my mind are Dr. Kalam's PURA project and Grassroot Innovation and the honey bee network !

Knowledge Powered PURA (Providing Urban amenities in Rural Areas)
President Abdul Kalam's address to the Nation on the eve of Republic Day- 2003 :

More than two thirds of our billion population live in the rural parts of India. The vision of transformation to a ‘developed’ India can only be realized if we launch a mega mission for empowering the rural people. My visits to the rural parts of India have confirmed that the problem of rural India depends on the extent of connectivity available there. The connectivity that I refer to, would include four components. Physical connectivity by providing roads in rural areas, electronic connectivity by providing reliable communication network and knowledge connectivity by establishing more professional institutions and vocational training centers. Schools with best infrastructure and teachers who love teaching, primary health centres, silos for storage of products and markets for promoting cottage industries and business, employment opportunities for artisans are some of the elements of PURA. All this connectivity needs to be done in an integrated way so that economic connectivity will emerge leading to self actuating people and economy. Such Model of establishing a circular connectivity among the rural village complexes will accelerate rural development process by empowerment. I am sure that removal of poverty will call for Providing Urban amenities in Rural Areas (PURA). The model envisaged is a habitat design that would improve the quality of life in rural places and make special suggestions to remove urban congestion also. Instead of village population coming to urban area, the reverse phenomenon has to take place.

The PURA has to be a business proposition economically viable and managed by entrepreneurs and local people and small scale industrialists, as it involves education, health, power generation, transport and management. Government’s support should be in the form of empowering such management agencies, providing initial economic support and finding the right type of management structure and leaders to manage and maintain.

More than two thirds of our billion population live in the rural parts of India. The vision of transformation to a ‘developed’ India can only be realized if we launch a mega mission for empowering the rural people. My visits to the rural parts of India have confirmed that the problem of rural India depends on the extent of connectivity available there. The connectivity that I refer to, would include four components. Physical connectivity by providing roads in rural areas, electronic connectivity by providing reliable communication network and knowledge connectivity by establishing more professional institutions and vocational training centers. Schools with best infrastructure and teachers who love teaching, primary health centres, silos for storage of products and markets for promoting cottage industries and business, employment opportunities for artisans are some of the elements of PURA. All this connectivity needs to be done in an integrated way so that economic connectivity will emerge leading to self actuating people and economy. Such Model of establishing a circular connectivity among the rural village complexes will accelerate rural development process by empowerment. I am sure that removal of poverty will call for Providing Urban amenities in Rural Areas (PURA). The model envisaged is a habitat design that would improve the quality of life in rural places and make special suggestions to remove urban congestion also. Instead of village population coming to urban area, the reverse phenomenon has to take place.

The PURA has to be a business proposition economically viable and managed by entrepreneurs and local people and small scale industrialists, as it involves education, health, power generation, transport and management. Government’s support should be in the form of empowering such management agencies, providing initial economic support and finding the right type of management structure and leaders to manage and maintain.


Grass Root innovation and the honeybee network !
.... Will update soon .. !!!

A Brief Encounter with the VC kind

Life takes a course of its own. You never know where it leads you to. While aimlessly walking down the path called life, I happened to stumble upon the "VC" community. My brief encounter with VCs left me astounded at the simplicity with which they decided where to invest. "Spray and you pray" is how they call it. Here are some bits and pieces of advise that I recollect.


"Do not come to me with a PPT. I believe Microsoft has created PPT's to reduce people's IQ"

"Business Plans and Sausages are alike! If you know how they are made, then you would not eat it"

"Come to me and convince me that you know what you are doing and I shall give you the money"

"Spray and I pray. If any one of the 20 investments I make works out, then I am happy"


Something that I learnt that day was that VC's are interested in our ideas ( and so is Google). All that they want us to do is to demonstrate our belief in our ideas. If we can convince them that we have thought the entire process through, that we have done the ground work and that we have the right team to take things forward- that's half the battle won. They know that luck favours the brave.

Some other sound advice which I garnered from the VC community are:

Get a prototype ready - you can get seed funding to start prototyping; but then you lose heavily on equity. Finish your prototype , get some traction and then approach investors. Thats the best and easiest way to get first round of funding.

Most successful ventures start with ideas. The next step is to take these "ideas to market" [Ian Angell, Ashutosh Khanna 2008 :D]. Only then do you understand if there is any "dumm" (hindi for something that transaltes to traction, belief etc) in your idea. First and foremost this requires you to have complete faith in your project and your abilities. This has to be supported with the right team. As Guy Kawasaki puts it -

"Find soulmates"!!! "Every young visionary needs adult supervision," he jokes. Behind every Bill Gates is a Steve Ballmer. Behind Steve Jobs is a Steve Wozniak. Build a management team that shares your vision and your enthusiasm, but complements your weaknesses with their strengths.

If you are interested in starting something of your own I would recommend Fred Destin's blog and Guy Kawasaki's blog as a must read ! and just before you decide to present your business plan it would be ideal to have a look at Guy's video on "Art of the start"

This further conditions my belief that the world runs on 2 things - as Ash puts it trust and sentiment.

And in this idealistic world, I too have dared to dream - to start something of my own. And with me is Prashant (with wholehearted encouragement and blessings from Ian and Ash). We are a great team and we are gonna kick ass !

All in the name of studying !

Its funny, exams are a week away. Yet I am not tensed. This worries me! Considering that I should either be studying hard or atlest sleeping at this time of the night; instead, I am having a jolly good time making oreo and strawberry milkshakes with the rest of the Crazzy 4 ...

This was followed by long conversations on the politics in Pak and India ! the usual !

Get back to studying Govind !

P.S the oreo milkshake and strawberry milkshake turned out to be awesome, my preparation for the exams ...ahem ...not so much...

How I learned to stop worrying and love the market

In other words .... my strategy towards applying for jobs during the credit crunch.
(It worked for me many times over, but you should think this through - remember you are not me and I played to my strengths, you should do the same!)

Well here goes !

Step 1. Apply!
Well unless you apply, you are never going to get anywhere near landing an interview - forget a job. There, did I hear you say duh!

It doesn't matter how simple and straightforward this sounds and how you feel that this is the only possible thing to do. Some students (read as me) did not end up filling their applications till the last date ( Thankfully I learnt pretty quickly that deadlines are DEADLINES! )

Stop thinking and go about completing your your applications. Many a times, most of us dilly dally and spend a lot of time contemplating and discussing or end up being just plain lazy and we don't apply ! Weird ! but true.

Step 2. Apply prudently !
Don't go about applying indiscriminately. Think the whole process through. I would say apply to 10-20 companies by end of October and there is a very good chance of you landing a job before you submit your IS470 literature review. (or at least before Christmas). Each application has to be tailor made for that company / profile so put some effort into it. Don't just create a template and send it to 100 companies. Might work , but I would suggest against it.

Make sure you have a smart looking , sensible and well structured CV (refer LSE Career Office) . Each application has to be well thought out as well. Read the questions carefully. Remember not to lie (manipulation of the truth is alright I guess), because you are going to be interviewed based on your application and they will find out any discrepancies. Answers should be well structured, with sufficient examples to validate your claims - meaning don't write something like " I am a great leader, I have great analytical skills, people skills etc etc" without substantiating it with evidence. The LSE career service office would help you with your applications. VISIT THEM , its free !!!

Step 3. Be aware !
I would suggest reading the FT and watching the BBC news. Invariably a question that would pop up during your interviews would be something that tests your awareness of the market situation. Stop worrying, start reading and have a good (or at least reasonable understanding) of the market.

Step 4. Prepare !
Assuming that you have got an interview call, you should be well prepared to tackle it. I never went for an interview with an attitude that it would be a good learning experience. I went with the attitude that the job was mine! Perhaps it sound pretty confident / egoistic / naive ...whatever.... I don't care ! The attitude did the trick every single time!

Talk to others who have been through the interview. If you are the first person, don't worry, its not (yet) the end of the world. Prepare well. There are 7-8 competencies that you would be tested on. Be aware of the possible questions. They usually are around initiatives, Team work, Leadership, Conflict management, market analysis, why this role / job , Organisation, Analytical skills etc. Have a structure for your answers, introduce the example, get into details and make sure you talk to them in their language (meaning use the right keywords - e.g if its marketing use up sell , cross sell etc, else things like contingency planning, terms of reference for conflict management etc). This conveys a positive message to your interviewers in that they feel convinced that they would be comfortable working with you. As Ian puts it. Convincing is merely convincing, its not the truth ( but then that's the way the world works :D)

HELP OTHERS! ! ! I don't understand the logic where you don't help out your classmates. If you feel that helping another would mean that you would end up not getting the job - I say you are stupid. Remember its not just your friend, there are 100000 others who are applying for the same job ! Get real.
Work with your classmates / friends/ seniors and prepare the best application. Again this is the ideal situation in my mind. I don't impose this view on others. But then again .. be practical .. don't encourage free loaders! Put some effort into your application, do your homework and then go around asking for advice / help or review - rather than blatantly copying someone else's application.

Step 5. Relax !

On the day of the interview, relax , be confident, and pull your weight. Smile, dress smart greet the interviewers and give them a good strong handshake. By this time, more or less the decision would have been made. Now its up to you not to screw up ! So don't. A suggested read would be the book "How Would You Move Mount Fuji? Microsoft's Cult of the Puzzle - How the World's Smartest Company Selects the Most Creative Thinkers"

Recession and MSc admission trends

Today, I had a very interesting conversation with Prof.Angell. He brought to my attention, the admission trends in universties. Universities in general offer admission to a surplus number of students becuase not all of them end up joining - a very straightforward scenario. For eg out of every 50 student given an offer only about 40-45 turn up. However during the last recession, this did not work out. 185 students joined the course instead of 145 as none of them turned down the offer.

What is interesting is the recession gives students all the more a reason to take a year off, take up a higher degree and wait till the market gets back on track. This is the way the world works!

Given this , LSE has another advantage. Its essential to understand that the important thing is the LSE name, not just the course content. Then it's up to you to leverage it. If you go to some Mickey Mouse university, then the course content matters a lot more.

I am sure all the courses at LSE are first class. However, I reserve my judgements
to ADMIS alone as I have (nearly) completed this course and find myself in a position to comment on its quality. The course has been thought provoking and inspiring to say the least. I started this course with one perspective - a hard functionalist , engineering perspective of the world - and today, I leave with a very enlightend social outlook on matters. I am able to judge situations better and understand implications of various scenarios. To top it all, the number of contacts, opportunities and learning that I take back with me is immense. Not bad at all for an MSc degree !

Conversations with Steve and Ash about ADMIS

Well, there have been a lot of questions about ADMIS as a course, the job scenario in London, and what-not being posted up in public formus. Let me try and make an attempt to give you an unbiased and honest reply. Unbiased in the sense, the answer is well thought out, researched and understood and hence not biased due to ignorance. Additionally, these are the thoughts that I bounced of Ash and Steve, and the wholeheartedly agreed with me. I shall try putting pen to paper and discuss the course and the job markets in London.

Last night, I ran up all the way to tower bridge to bid farewell to Ash. Met Steve (Prof Smithson) and Richard( ran cus Tooley street was closed: the cuase attributed to a burst pipe and hence flooding: Folks you gotta check out Brahmaputra floods: now that what I call flooding). Slap! of I needed that for digressing from the topic!

Getting back to the questions, let me take it bit by bit.

First, about the course. The course gives you a very socio-political view of Information Systems. There are 3 courses -IS 470,471 and 472. 471 is more about system design and hence is a lot more about OOPS and Methodology and Software Design practices, a cake walk ( not entirely ) for all those budding software engineers.

But then there is IS470 and 472. These are two course that would blow you apart. I would request Prof. Angell to put up bits and pieces of his opinion of the "nightmare on the net" which would be his first class. This should give you a perspective of what you would expect in 472. Trust me, the first class would leave everyone in shambles. You would leave the class thinking, O Why Why why? did I take up IT. I should have been a bloody cobbler or a blacksmith or something. Never will I use a computer again. But then, when you reflect back, you get to see the light at the end if the tyunnel. There is hope, and it is this hope that would take us all a long way.

IS470 - Social Study of IS. This is a theory paper. But it seriously lets you analyse any situation and gives you the theoretical basis to justify yourself. Let me give you an example. I was working with a particular company for a bit of my research work / business plan. Lets call this company xyz. The CEO of xyz came over to LSE to have a meeting with Ian, Ash and me. I was able to comprehend his problem scenario and was able to give my justifications for possible course of action that they could take thanks to 470. Now these included advice on Organisational change to operations to outsourcing to people management to politics to user acceptance of technology to diffusion to infinity. I made a mistake early on, in that I did not take 470 seriously - thanks to my engineering background I ended up scoffing at anything to do with theory. But it was this lightbulb moment in Ian office that made me understand the value of that course. Moreover, in my honest opinion, I know I will have a better understanding of the course only once I start work. The only thing that is required is to REFLECT and THINK.

In summary, ADMIS is excellent ! Why? Beacause it teaches you, at the very least to THINK, and at the same time leaves you with a million new perspectives that you would never come accross in any other course or university.

Now, the next is regarding the job market scenario!
First, are you coming here with the ultimate aim of getting a job in one of the top companies? Fair enough, thats what most ( if not all of us Indians) aim for. But believe me, after this course, a consultancy post at one of the top 4 is going to be the first offer you would turn down, amongst the many that you would get. Now, I am not claiming that it is easy to get a job here. No on the other hand it is difficult. But then, if you have a good strategy, then I can assure you that its not impossible, and afer a bit, it becomes all too straigtforward (not simple).

This is infact, the best time to be in the financial capital of the world. Perhaps, if you are looking for a job as in investment banker, you might find it difficult to come accross openings here. Rememeber thers is a slowdown - London has not come to a standstill. But then look at the broader picture, there are so many other jobs out there. Starting from consultancy, technology, Strategy, regulation ,security, risk, audit and lots more. More than anything, if you read the newpapers you would understand that the industry here is re-structuring. I feel the Accounting and Finance folks would find it hard to get a job here, but ADMIS folks would find themselves overwhelmed with opportunities. What the market is looking for is fresh new perspectives - and where else can they find that -@ ADMIS

But then, its not all that simple. You need to cosntantly think, reflect, be confident and be aware. If so, then the course would load you with the right perspectives (and you would be able to use it as well )to be able to find your way through any interview. Have a strategy, APPLY IT, and start early - as early as September / october. The ideal time frame is if you finish all applications by October ( at the latest). Have a look at some of the applications - decide on what kind of jobs you want , Ibanks, consultancies, technology compnaies, audit etc - then write a few sample applications and covering letter - prepare an impressive CV (which has the right keywords) and you will be fine. Learn to think long term and be confident. Confidence comes with preparation and hard work.

My serious doubt is, after IS490 atleast 10 of you would even think of starting your own company. In that case, all these worries about job markets, interviews and applications dont matter does it ? ;)

That has been a whole lot of positive feedback from me. And if it comes from me, then it would be better than the picture that I have painted

In case there are still more queries / unanswered questions doubts / leave a comment ! Will ( try ) and get back at the earliest.

Bits and pieces of ADMIS and LSE and London !

Its indeed been a long time since I have bothered putting up a post. Well at this time of the year, I should be studying for my exams. But I find myself absolutely incapable of studying any further for the next few hours. So well why not.. lets update my long forgotten blog.

ADMIS. Short for Analysis Design and Management of Information Sytems. In other words, the programme which gave my a different persepctive of life. My experiences with ADMIS were many and not all of them were good. But then, such is life.

I came to London with a fair idea (or rather what i thought was fair ;) ) of what to expect, as in I knew that this course was not the usual "technical" course. It would provide me with different social perspectives of technology and systems. I had done my fair bit of homework on this, or so i thought. However little did I realise that with the systemic way in which I have been educated in India, I would never be able to comprehend social reasoning the way it is taught at the LSE- and that was before I joined ADMIS. Today I am glad to announce that I have been converted and today boads to being an Angellist ( followers of Prof Ian Angell, http://ianangell.blogspot.com).

A few days before the course officially kicked off,I had the good fortune to meetsome of the ex-ADMISseniors (Jalaj , Prashant, Vinnie, Gagan and Vineeth). They introduced me to Dr. Ashutosh Khanna - my friend, philosopher and guide and my journey starts from that moment.

Its been an inspiring year and my understanding has been broadend to say the least. I do understand that I am hopeless in the literary front. But then I realise that I have a few other capabilities that I wouldnt have known otherwise. All thanks to ADMIS and in particular Prof Ian and Dr. Ashutosh (Ash to me)

This year is claimed to be a year of turmoil. The credit crisis has led to a slowdown (depression would be a politically incorrect term ). But to me, this has been a year of learning and comprehension.

To begin with, the first few months were spent understanding the decaying job market. I was (many say lucky) to have got a interview calls from 6 companies before December. It started with Deutsche Bank in december followed by Merrill Lynch, Deloitte, Lehman Brothers, E&Y and Barclays to name those companies whose interviews that I attended. I would attribute this to 2 reasons - well written applications , good and well structured resume with relevant achievements and experiences.

Good fortune or good preparation, I got an offer from all the companies that called me for an interview. Lesson learnt: Good preparation leads to good fortune. It seldom is the other way around. My understanding of the strategy towards cracking the interviews - good analytical skills, good set of experiences ( i wouldnt qualify experience as purely work experience category alone, by experience I mean your understanding of how you would deal with situtaions and how have you dealt with situations in your life), and tonnes of confidence . What you need to have is a good perspective of who and what you are capable of. I applied for a graduate role in the technology dept for Lehman Brothers. After my final interview, I had a brief chat with my interviewrs regarding my perspective of what the industry needs - a new lease of life. It needs to be bled dry of the old blood and be pumped up with fresh new perspectives. It was then that they asked me if I would be interested to join the Corporate Geenralist programme as they felt that I had a good vision and was better off in strategy than just pure technology. Lesson learnt: Speak your mind. Be confident ! You never know where that would take you. I would have ended up as a technologist, but just beause I was able to speak my mind (intelligently) I got an opportunity to work with the corporate strat team for Lehman Brothers.

My good friends. Again this is something that has helped me get through difficult times. Priyanka, Seena, Rupali, Gautam, Nurit, Martin, my good doctor friends at Birmingham, my aunt and uncle, Vineetha chechi and Dav, Ashutosh , Prof Ian, Prashant, Richard , Aditi , Riddhi Sonal to name a few. Some stray thoughts that come to my mind are -
1) the long walks with Ash discussing everything from capitalism , monetisation , philosophy , markets and everything else under the sun.
2) Seena, my darling friend with whom I have spent a lot of time talking about all the nuances of my life
3) Priyanka - my good luck charm. You are truly one of the nicest people I have met
4) Nurit - my brother. A gem of a person, the optimist that kept a hopeless pessimist like me going...
5) The long arguements with Prashant ! Hard core techie vs hard core bullshit (me)
6) Richard - the way you break my arguement - into a million pieces.
7) Friends and family at B'ham: the wonderful food and love kept me going !
8) Aditi and Riddhi - Bhain Club ... and now with Waqas - Crazzy 4 ... lol... thanks to you I study !
9) Sonal ! the only person who finds me funny :D
10) Vineetha chechi - who taught me the art of conversation ! and much more !


I was pretty miserable at first. Not knowing what to do with the sudden credit crisis and news of job cuts puts one off (understandably ,at this point in time, all i was bothered about was getting a job) . My friends have really inspired me every single day. I owe you guys a lot!


My Passion: Cooking and Travelling and Photography :D
I guess these are the only 2 things that I can claim I am not too bad at ! I have enjoyed every moment in UK taking photographs of all my lovely friends. I have fond memories of all the wonderful trips that we have gone for. I guess my flickr album justifies all the fun that I claim.
Cooking has been wonderful. The wonderful meal with Priyanka and Seena ! those cookouts with Sonal, Aditi and Riddhi ! yummmmmm

My learning !
The power of Networks!!! Hang on to every word I say. This is what Prof Ian and Ash taught me. "The wealth of networks" . I started out as a "node" connecting through Ash and Ian to many others in the industry. Ian and Ash are my "bridges" to the wealth of their network. Thanks to them ,I have been able to meet several people from various industries - Financial Services to consultancies, lawyers to vendors.

This network helped me tremendously understand the market and look at the world through various perspectives; I learnt to ask intelligent questions and make interesting conversations. Slowly, I learnt to become a bridge adding to the network, people from the Financial serivce industries, strategists from Indian consultancies and Angel Investors and VC's from London. (I would recommend LinkedIn to one and all). Ash's words keep reverberating in my head "Stop being a node.. take over as a bridge"

Lesson Learnt: Invest in your network. It will reap huge rewards sooner (than) later.

My Dream! From the day I left Chennai, I always used to nurture the dream to start my own company. Someday, became someday soon. And now it looks more or less like a reality. Thanks to the Business Innovation class, I have been able to write up a business plan that has got a few big investors interested. The experience has been exhillarating. Hopefully after my exam, I would be able to take this forward.
Lesson Learnt: As Dr. Kalam says: Dream Dream... Dreams transform into thoughts and thoughts into action. And as Ayn Rand puts it ... capitalism is the way forward ;)

My perspectives of London: I guess my perspective of the situation in London is very different from that of many. I see a lot of hope and lots more excitement in the coming days. News of jobcuts and slowdown does make the situation look pretty bleak. But then if you are prepared to see this through, I honestly believe that life would be very exciting.

The entire financial service industry in restructuring itself. London is an amazing city with a will to survive. Nothing would bring this city to its knees. This is not something that any other city can boast of !
Lesson learnt: Keep your eyes and ears open. Look out for opportunities, have your own perspectives and be well read.