prashant79

Hey Hey .....

Btw I'v gotten my US visa....yipeee . Hopefully, that was the last of the hurdles to get to Babson

Apart from just writing a lot about what I did during the day , how much I drank and partied , my thoughts , I feel an urge to write reviews of books I have read. I dunno how far it would be useful , but for sure I know I would love to look back at them.

For starters I can go on and on about the books I have read over the past few months , but rather I’d just pick and chose a couple of them , I really enjoyed and write some brief reviews on them.

1. What I learned from Sam Wlaton: ‘ How to compete and Thrive in a Walmart world’ : by  Michael Bergdahl 

            Yup, I realize people would say , oh yeezz npt another Walmart book. !!! But the catchy part of this books overall emphasis is the subtitle : ‘How to compete and thrive in a Walmart world’.

            It’s a really easy read book, all of just around 225 pages and has neatly divided the book as follws : POCKETS

·         Introduction

·         Chapter 1 : Pricing strategies and Tactics

·         Chapter 2 : Operational Strategies and Tactics

·         Chapter 3 : Cultural Strategies and Tactics

·         Chapter 4 : Key Item/Product Strategies and Tactics

·         Chapter 5 : Expense Control Strategies and Tactics

·         Chapter 6 : Talent Strategies and Tactics

·         Chapter 7 : Service Strategies and Tactic

·         Conclusion

Though the book is an easy read, the author does tend to go round and round once in a while and could have really saved 50-75 odd pages. But manages to keep the reader alive by using his personal experiences and those of others with Walmart .

MY RATING : NOT A MUST READ, BUT A GOOD READ

2. Blue Ocean Strategy: How to Create uncontested Market place and make competition irrelevant by W Chan Kim and Renee Mauborqne

Thankfully, I thought the review written in the economist was a good one and picked this book up. An awesome book !!!

This book introduces the metaphor’s of  the ‘red ocean ‘ and the ‘ blue ocean’. The former being where the space that everyone in the industry compete’s and hence a crowded market place whereas the blue ocean represents the untapped markets and how one can go about creating such oceans and becoming highly profitable.

Theory, Theory  is always a bore and that’s exactly what these two professors from INSEAD didn’t do . They have brought in a great deal of examples from various industries be it wine’s , be it fitness centers/gym’s  and even the famous southwest airlines and Starbucks.

It has also got a great list of ways/tools that any entrepreneur can use when thinking of his/her venture. If you are stuck at a particular point when thinking up ideas , trying to get a framework to see that you’r ideas are not yet another boring one and common one but potentially know that there is a way rather many ways you can possibly differentiate your product offering but somehow seem to be getting stuck, this book is yours.

It takes on a totally diff approach and trust me its kinda out of the bix thinking !!!!.

Personally, for me the timing was ideal so pls beware that there might be a tone of biasness on this book.

MY RATING : VERY GOOD READ FOR ENTREPRENUERS

 

A bunch of my friends from school decided to meet up at cochin and then drive down to Kumarakom and spend the weekend there ( actually just a night, geezzz everyone should have gotten more days off from work)

I got into cochin( thats in kerala btw) ran straight into office and cramped in some hours to get some of my work done and then headed straight to yatch club to start my 4 day long alcohol time .....pheww.....i dont want my month end bills !!!!!!!!!

On saturday afternoon , once everyone reached cochin from Bangalore and chennai, we drove out in 2 cars , picked up some beers on the way. We had a tough time getting to the Kottayam sailing club ( where we were put up) but once we reached we loved the place!!!! Of the 4 rooms they had we occupied 3 , they place was ours!!!!!!!!!

Quickly grabbed lunch and opened our booze bag ..well we just carried 2 bottles of red wine, 2 of white wine, 2 bottles rum, one bottle black current vodka , a bottle of citrus vodka, and a bottle of bacardi for the 8 of us ( of which 4 were woman who didnt wanna drink much...yipeeeee guys!!!)

We laid out the table near the backwaters, spread out the booze and finished up 2 red wines and a white wine for starters. Then came the food ...chicken,fish and the likes ( would have prefered better food...but heck!!) . Just went we got down to main course ( rum and vodka :)), it started to pour ....we wanted to get drenched but worried of the dilution of our drinks we moved the stuff to the side by bar counter. Still we got drenched!!! We did some crazy drinking, pulling everyone's legs ( coz everyone seemed like they were going diff ways to pursue thier careers , we wanted to make the best of the last till it lasts....)and then we decided to jump into the water . Crazily drunk that we were, it was soo much of fun!!!!

Dinner was a sorry affair, everyone looked like they were dying , when gautham and sneha lit the moment and got us started again and there went drinking again ......

Soo much of alochol was consumer that ended up crashing by 12 , i think....was wayy too pissed by then .

Next morning , i woke up at 6 30 am and started irritaing sorraj and gautham ( sorry guys, felt bored :) ) early in the morning and manged to drag them out of bed for coffee and breakfast. So pooped we were, Jugal and myself ( meghana ran back to bed, sneha ,harsha , gautham , tripti and soorak decided to watch to watch by the sidelines) jumped into the water, opened up the last bottle of white wine ....Phew 10 30 am and i was drunk again ..Hic Hic...

It all went by soo fast , before we knew it we were back in cochin. Well Sneha and myself , in the meantime, managed to get invited to jugal and harsha's new house the next evening . Harsha cooked some awesome food...Kozhikode chicken curry, fried fish and idiappam ...Yum it was!!!!! Thank Harsha....

For around 3 weeks I interned with Rane Madras at chennai, who are in the automobile ancillary space of steering linkages and ball joints.

The purpose of my internship was to gain insights into manufacturing and get a glimpse of the shop floor ( apart from checking my mechanical engg skills, which i sucked at !!!).

It was great to see the amount of detail that was required at the shop floor level and more so from a production planning schedules. Understanding the various process's, TQM, TPM and the likes of everything under it ...kaizen etc..was great. During this period, I was constantly watching the stand up meeting among the various production supervisors and managers. Heated arguments like ' why cant you get you machine and your team to give me what you promised, am gonna be having the marketing guy sitting on my head now!!!!' , ' Hey you materials guy, you were supposed to send me the pipes for me to machine and your vendor's coming up with lame excuses..manage him better ' etc etc ....

If someone walked into these metting , they would have thought there was chaos. But if you looked deeper, there was an organisation going through a dramatical change in the way it functions, pulling in the various teams and getting them involved in the final end result of getting the products to the customer on time. While talking to the various top level management , i was able to get a view of the holistic view they were trying to bring in the system. It was great to see the changing attitudes of even the machine operators. Soo much detail, soo much of on spot desicions to be made and soo much that everyone from various industries can learn.

I also managed to get a big block of iron fall on my feet while taking some readings on a scale and guess what by the time i got back the operators saw to it , that the iron block could never fall again. Might sound wierd/vauge, but looking at it , it shows commitment to change and improve the essence of Kaizen.

Wow !!!! I soo loved those moments when my sister, my brother-in-law and my niece came down to cochin for a couple of days.

I had soo much of work to finish before I moved to Chennai ( prefer the name madras) and it all just pilled up. She's one adorable lil thing. Love you trish !!!

I just tried to move all my blogs to friendster ( coz thats where all my friends from Babson seem to hang around) but then somehow it just doesn't feel like fun blogging around there . So ended up just leaving a link to live journal :)

Now i'v ended up uploading my snaps at Friendster and blogging here.

So go ahead check the snaps at www.friendster.com .... you should find them under Prashant Parameswaran (catch_prashant@hotmail.com)

Well ....for the past one month...lifes been hectic as hell....Finished my assignment at Chandigarh and am back in cochin. Enjoyed my last few days in North India . The whole 4 month stint was such an awesome experience. The best part about the last one month was my admit to Babson !!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I was jumping in joy when i saw the mail . Though i knew my heart, mind and soul wanted babson. I deliberated for 2 weeks Babson Vs ISB and chose Babson. My near and dear ones where not surprised one lil bit :)

visit www3.babson.edu , btw its an entrepreneurial school ( has been in the US news ranking for the past 12 yrs in slot no:1 in this field ). But rankings aside, the curriculum,faculty and students are awesome. Got a glimpse of it when I visited babson in October.

Gotta run and have some beers :)

At last my Dreams of going to a business school is finally materialising !!!!!!!!!!!

Am gonna join ISB,Hyderabad . Registration and orientation begins on April 15'th.Lord theres not much time left.It's gonna be one helluva packed one year ....Phew !!! Pray for me...

Check out the school: www.isb.edu

Seeya

Hi,

 

I just recvd the following article from a friend of mine. Am sure a number of people would have already read this one, but if it proves thought provoking and useful to some, I'd be more than glad.

 

Disclaimer : I do not agree with a couple of points that were raised , but do agree with the general idea that the reader is trying to present.

 

As BMW steps into Gurgaon, Kerala slips into a deadly abyss
BMW scripts a Kerala melancholy!
A. Vinod Kumar
 
Well before the Tsunami waves hit the Kerala coast, a cataclysm of a different genre had already hit Gods' Own Country, but this time with an unobtrusive force that would reverberate for decades in Kerala. Sometime in early December 2004, the news channels and the pink media in New Delhi announced the decision by German auto major, Bavarian Motor Work (BMW), to start its Indian production facility in Gurgaon - the sophisticated metropolis on the outskirts of Delhi.
 
In the past few months, top executives from BMW had toured the country to explore a suitable avenue for setting up a production plant for its high-end luxury sedans, intended to cater to the whole Asian region and export markets. Despite cheaper options in the Vietnamese industrial belt, the company opted for India considering the recent economic and technological progress. And blame it on some celestial elements: BMW dared to shortlist Kochi among the prospective locations for the plant.
( Its pretty intresting ....read on )

 

November end was a great time .( Btw , guys am updating my journal , a huge backlog of it :)). During my visit to Ludhiana , I managed to squeeze a day off and do a day trip to Amritsar and Wagah Border .

The day started at 7 am , when Bains ( A sardaji marketing exec of the company i'm interning with ) picked me up in a taxi . Had a great time during the drive we talked about the various issues in selling agri produce ( read high quality high priced potato seeds)to farmers and the various selling styles one needed to adopt to survive and thrive in this unorganised market. ( It reminded me of my days while setting up the distribution chain in Kerala for mobile phones 3 years ago : the time when the grey and the smuggled market thrived). Time flew by and we were in time to a great sumptuous breakfast on the outskirts of Jalander. The restaurant Haveli was a beautiful place . It was designed on the model of a palace and had a great ethnic touch . They even had a model of a truck inside the restaurant!!!!!! Nothing to beat the food : Wow Desi Ghee early in the morning. Never dreamt I would eat stuff like that in the morning ( guess it was coz of the prev nights alcohol :) ).

GOLDEN TEMPLE

We reached Amritsar by 10 :30 am with the driver screaming at every single person on the road. Phew !!! the traffic was chaotic. Bains started with his briefing of Sikhism and toured me around the Golden temple. Truly loved every lil bit of it. He ran me through the do's and don’ts of the religion, how it originated , the trauma the Sikhs went through during Indra Gandhi's period . I was totally blown by the sight of the temple and more so the grandeur of the place. ( The one thing that confused me of Sikhism was the fact that people were supposed to shed their ego's and be humble etc etc ....i tried hard but couldn’t think of any sardar who follows that or is even close to that: No hard feeling fellow Sikhs ). But all in all , I loved the place . I loved the feeling of brotherhood that was so very prevalent there .

JALLIANWALLAH BAGH

Two hours later we walked to Jallianwallah Bagh . Walking down the passage of Jallianwallah, frames from the gandhi movie and pictures from my history text filled my mind . Gaining excitement , I hurried to see the open barren land with the well ( the famous one which Indians jumped into while the Brits went on a firing rampage ) ..........at the end of the passage I WAS SHOCKED!!!! UPSET over the greenery. The officials of the place had converted into a park, which reminded me of a lovers corner !!!!! The picture of a barren land with the well which would remind us of the horrid incident of Jallianwallah Bagh, remind us of the incident when our ancestors where ill-treated and make us feel a sense of remorse ness ( like that was portrayed when one visited the Berlin Wall) was all crushed !!!!!!! I was thoroughly upset. The well was placed in one corner of the park....went around to the well shot some snaps and rushed out of the place. I was pretty upset!!! ( dunno if it was coz I expected too much )

We then drove over to a government office( Phytosanitary Department), spent some time with the officials there ( You bet you need to lick asses of these Govt officials to get work done ). Btw this department issues certificates stating that the seeds we produce are of good quality and are safe for exports . You can quiet imagine what harm they could cause if they decided against you : ZERO OR DELAYED EXPORTS !!!!!! Wagah Border.

WAGAH BORDER

I had absolutely no expectations of Wagah border, except to see our border.

While parking our car ( the govt officials from phytosanitary dept were with us and hence had no issues with parking) and seeing the number of people coming for the evening flag ceremony I was shocked. I did not expect such a crowd. Squeezing time for gol gappa's ( yummmmyy, love that stuff) and some chat's we hurried to the border. 

Walking to the stands, one had to actually go all around the seating pavilion and in turn walk parallel to the border. I was like a kid clicking my camera at once a common land. As I approached the pavilion, the sight of Pakistani’s crowded at the other end and the huge gate that was present between us was a mind blowing sight. As we managed to get a place to sit , I only then noticed the number of people who were pouring in : there would have roughly been 3-4000 people .....the excitement was in the air. A man with the mike then walked up to the audience and started screaming ' VANDE MATARAM' , and prompted the whole crowd to repeat............i could feel a blood rush and then he went on              ' BHARATH MATHE KE .........JAI'.  The Pakistanis also went on with their little jig, but frankly we out powered them ( he he , am an Indian , so I guess there is an element of favoritism ).This went on for 15 mins and phew it was one helluva adrenal rush we were all enjoying. They then played some bangara music and people from the crowd started dancing on the floors , a joyful occasion. Bains, the sardarji with me , was then telling about the much know punjabi's love to live life joyfully .... The music was then turned off and the  guards started marching to the zero tolerance zone.....the energy they displayed during the procession of pulling down the flags and opening and closing gates and marching back was beyond definable..................I TRULY LOVED EVERY BIT OF A MOMENT ....TRUST ME WHEN I SAY ' A MUST SEE FOR ANY INDIAN '  

 

For the past 3 1/2 years I have been working in my family business in Cochin,Kerala,India. It has been one helluva experience working in the field of sales,distribution and warehousing of consumer products. During my tenure there I had the opportunity to set up 2 business and was farelly successful in the same.

Being the typical restless person that I am , I got bored and wanted to explore further. My irritation of not knowing more of North India drove me nuts!!!. On April 2004, I got the opportunity to sync up with the Managing Director of an agri start up company. The kind of work they did fascinated me . I start handing over responsibilities to my managers, set up a proper reporting system and a hierarchy in place and in 4 months was ready to move on. I then took a break for a month and traveled to the US and by mid November was on my way to chandigarh.

I am currently on an assignment in a potato seed company in Chandigarh.It's been a phenomenal experience so far. I visited their R&D facility, cold storages and traveled to places in Punjab and UP ( mostly rural parts )

Ludhiana Experience :

It's amazing the way this company has married technology onto agriculture and is making a difference to the life of these poor farmers. I was also amazed by the amount of complexities in growing potatoes. Am glad that I took this decision of taking a short stint in the agriculture field, though I look it more from a managers perspective than an agriculturist's perspective.

The fact of traveling in cycle rickshaw's,scooters and having chai and samosa with local farmers and understanding their life is more than fun, though language does play a small hindrance.While traveling in the cycle rickshaw's, I had this smile on my face seeing parts of Ludhiana and then the smile dropped with the sights of the slums and the way people were struggling for food and water. During my stay there , I spoke to a number of local people trying to understand issues and as days passed I was more and more convinced that a massive leap in agriculture is the only way forward for our fellow Indians in this part of the world . In terms of agriculture , I mean higher productivity/yield and most importantly information flow. Information flow ,is one aspect I feel is the most important. Imagine the plight of farmers when middle men ( the uncouth and unkind ones) who thrive on the illiteracy of these poor folks and make a killing on the lives of these people. Its at this point that there is a need for a generational shift. Be it the existence of knowledge centers for them to learn about the various best practices in agronomy (obviously in local languages) , literacy in computers ( When I have the opportunity, I shall later share an idea I have on making the illiterate literate on the happenings of the world through the power of the internet) and other aspects of life.

If one was a capitalist with no socialistic bent , I would tell them : ' You might as well address this issue right away , before the entire proportion of your taxes are spent on these folks instead of on you and your development needs . Would you want that ?? Act on it now '. I personally believe that it's imperative for us to address the issue of our rural urban divide right away.

I have always been yapping away of my ideas and thoughts with a number of my friends , many of which went un-appreciated. Thats when a close buddy of mine : Shanker Balan ( alias Shanker Binker) told me of Live journal and told me to start writing on this journal . Hopefully this journal would let me meet like minds and share ideas....Lets see how it goes...