Significance of Planning..!!

...it's been a while, since I wrote ..., apologies to those who visited these pages lately and found no updates. I don't wanna write for the sake of writing using few quick minutes, but i hope to write what i wanna write atleast once in a week..!!

Our term-2 is over, and now we are 1/4th MBA grads :) Just returned from the term-break, slept a lot, and ofcourse got ready for term-3, supposedly the toughest of all and which is beginning tomorrow. We've exciting courses lined up for this term with some cool faculty teaching those - Corporate Finance, Operations Mgmt, Entrepreneurship, and Managerial Accounting. Entrepreneurship is my favorite, but not sure if it can be taught - let's C.

Coming to the title of the topic - Planning - there won't be any individual on this planet who doesn't know its importance in getting many things done. It's a proven empirical fact that just by the act of planning people would accomplish many tasks than they would have if they had not planned. Then, why would everyone not indulge in daily planning? I guess the answer is -because for majority, planning is not sustainable and so it is not worth spending time on it.

Everytime I started planning my day or week, i could complete many tasks - yet, I drifted as time progressed, lost in daily pressures, inadequate time, catching things up etc, etc Planning definetly takes time, but the time spent is many times less than time saved out of irregular schedule of activities. So...how does one go about commiting oneself for 'regular planning'?

I guess I am not the authority to answer this question - but, I believe self-discipline and persistence are the two keys that unleashes the power of planning in one's life. Think thru the questions - when was the last time you planned? what made you stop planning? what are the successes you had? Are you disciplined enough to restart the planning process? Will you be persistent enough to continue planning despite inevitable obstacles...? Honest answers to these questions will lead one to 'effective, yet regular planning'.

Other well-known examples of planning myths are ' New-year resolutions', 'New Job/Career resolutions', ' Marriage/relationship resolutions' - all these can be good; but, one must realize that planning is only a tool, which must be backed by solid discipline and dogged persistence.

Tata.. Satish.

P.S: I will probably write about " Strategy - a precursor to planning" next time.

Intra Vs Entre - preneurship

When someone asks -"what do you do?", it sounds cool to say "I work for myself", but it takes guts to make such good things happen to you. Only entrepreneurs can boast of such nerve, but like any other good field, it is a high risk/high return effort. Though there are a variety of successful entrepreneurship stories, the basic essence of creating one's own company boils down to: identifying a reasonably prevalent and unmet pain area, identify the best possible and cost-effective solution that alleviates the pain, feasibility study (Economics, finance), and finally implementation of solution (product/service) thru effective marketing.

Intrapreneurship, a newly coined word to imply entrepreneurship while still working for somebody else, could serve as precursor for many souls who wanna try the real thing. However, intrapreneurship is more of a buzz-word than reality in most firms, primarily because of flat hierarchies and bureaucracies. Recently launched start-ups can provide the opportunity for intrapreneurship.

We are fortunate to have "Wadhwani's centre for Entrepreneurship and Development" at ISB, which is a renowned research centre and they are conducting a forum, "TiE-ISB Connect", a joint initiative with The Indus Entrepreneurs (TiE), Hyderabad Chapter. It is a forum that brings together early stage venture capitalists, start up and growth stage entrepreneurs and academicians, on a common platform to interact and help build successful enterprises. (For more details visit: www.tie-isbconnect.com)

Tata..Satish

Calm before the Storm...!!

This weekend has been really calm with just two MarkStrat decisions to make after two mid-exams last friday..!! First term grades are out for two courses, and as expected there was tough competition...(remember Relative Grading...) Things have pretty much settled down, and now everyone is carving niche for themselves, realizing that grades aren't an end in themselves...!!

Events - there is no dearth of these at ISB - come what may, you'll have bashes, culinary delights, frenzied sports, and with clubs formed, we are hosting insightful seminars by eminent Industrialists, Editors, Business professionals (CEOs etc) - recent ones being - " Google in India", "Role of Indian Youth in Politics", "Successful Entrepreneurship". We've Aikya meet tomorrow, where students will be interacting with eminent Business personalities in Hyderabad (ISB's host family network Program - http://isb.edu/pgp/life/society_host.htm). And, ofcourse, we aren't missing Worldcup football either....(sad :( that Argentina kicked itself out yesterday)

We had a brief session for the students involved in admissions task force, and admissions process has kicked off (dates and details at ISB website) - one thing to note is advancement of dates to enable early transition for working junta...

Aurevoir..Satish.

P.S: My french is going at frantic pace, and soon I'll write one full blog in Francais..:)