Category Archives: schedule

So much to do, so little time…Term 6

Ok, so this is going to be summary of the fast paced Term 6, simply because I don’t have much time to write a detailed post on each event. And that’s the whole point of this rant, time!

Term 6 started off pretty slowly with not much to do except all the events that we had this time. We had the Venture Capital Investment Competition, in association with the Kenan-Flagler Business School @ UNC. This was an internal round and the winner from ISB gets to participate in the Asia Round that we are organizing for the first time sometime in Feb. The winner of the Asia round then gets to goto UNC to participate in the finals with students from among the top B-Schools in the world. So this was kind of a trial run for us in preparation for organising the Asia round. I was handling all the logistics and I can tell you, it wasnt an easy job. It did go off without a hitch though, so no complaints.


VCIC Internal Round
Parallel to the VCIC, we also had the Energy Conclave organised by the Energy and Manufacturing Club on the same weekend!

Next, we had the RBI Governor, Dr. D Subbarao on campus to talk about the impact of the recent crisis on India and our future growth.

Dr. D Subbarao @ ISB

Then we had the ISB Leadership Summit, ISB’s flagship event with over 30 speakers coming over to speak on multiple panels, all on a single day. It was an interesting experience, with the sad part being the choices we needed to make on which discussion to attend. I settled for a very interesting panel discussion where Mr. B S Nagesh, the MD of Shopper’s Stop, spoke on his experience with Indian Retail and its growth over the years.

Mr. Nagesh on Indian Retail

Then of course, we also had ISB Day celebrations as ISB turned 8, with a cultural program over the weekend as well, with some great performances by students, staff, families, you name it!

ISB Day- The Acapella Band!

In between we also had the finals of iDiya, the social entrepreneurship competition, with teams of working professionals from all over India competing, and the top 6 teams attending mentoring workshops at ISB. One of the highlights of the competition was the session on Responsible Leadership by Rahul Bose, who besides being an actor, is involved in a lot of different things, from the Indian rugby team to his NGO.

In addition, pre-placement talks have started, with companies coming to campus almost everyday to deliver their pitches. There are some really interesting roles up for grabs, and resumes are being polished, and interviews being prepared for.

And last, but definitely NOT the least, we have Solstice 2009 this weekend. The biggest fun event of the year, when ISB alums from all over come back to school for 3 days of partying with the current batch.

WHEW! So much for being short, I am already out of breath.
Oh, and this is just a single term at ISB!

PS: Originally posted at http://isbweblog.com/2009/12/15/so-much-to-do-so-little-time-term-6/, and edited by Amit Goyal, our friendly ISB weblog admin.

Contemplation….old friends and the world outside ISB

Theres nothing like sitting in front of the 24hr CCD (yes, we have one on campus…) in the cold, at 1AM at night, coffee in hand, doing nothing, but talking on the phone to a really really old friend. I know there are deadlines to meet, people to see, but theres nothing like talking to someone after such a long long time, someone whos not from ISB, someone not bothered about what assignment needs to be finished this week.

It makes one think about the world outside ISB, about old friendships/relationships, things to do that dont involve pre-reads/cases/assignments/speaker series/case competitions/resumes.
Yes, I know I am supposed to be busy, working away, but you know what, the one thing you can always adjust in ISB is time, with sleep the only thing thats going to take a hit, the only thing one can compromise on here in ISB in fact!

Visitors @ ISB and hectic schedules

The one great point of studying in a top college like ISB is the amount of industry interaction you can get. Its not even been a month since we have come here and already we have attended presentations/visits from so many people who are among the very best in their particular fields of business.

A round up of the various people who have already been to ISB since 10th April!

Goldman Sachs has initiated an initiative called 10,000 women. ISB is the Indian partner for the initiative which includes top business schools all over the world, such as INSEAD, LBS, Columbia, Harvard, Wharton, Stanford, Yale among others.
10,000 women is targeted towards providing a management education to women entrepreneurs all over the world in order to encourage and educate them. Video here.
Post the presentation, we had an interactive Q&A session for students and media that focused equally on the initiative AND the financial crisis.


Mike Christenson visited ISB for a discussion on the current environment, and shared his experiences with current students. I couldn’t attend this one because of schedule conflicts.

Mr. Navtej gave an interesting talk on ‘Media and its role in diplomacy’.

Professor Mullins gave an interesting talk on how VCs evaluate entrepreneurs and what it takes to be a good VC.

  • Atul Singh, President & CEO, Coca Cola India:

Mr. Atul Singh gave an interesting talk yesterday on how global companies have adapted to growing countries like India with respect to marketing, growth and social responsibility.

This workshop cum session was held today.

The point I am trying to make? Its a simple one. There is just so much to learn and take away from this place. Its been less than a month, and the above were NOT as part of any specific event etc. Its kind of part of normal routine here at ISB.

The funny part? I have personally attended only 2 of the above presentations. Why? Mainly because they ran concurrent to other stuff, classes, blogging meets, and other stuff that we have going on in addition to all this as well!!!!
Everyone has to manage their schedule. Theres just so much to do here, and thats in addition to studies, which IS after all a 2 yr MBA course condensed to 1 year as it is.

We have classes from Mon-Thu, with Fri-Sun for various workshops/assignments/quizzes etc. Heres what tomorrows (Friday) schedule looks like for me (Thank God for Outlook!):

I have removed the details, but you get the general idea. This is in addition to an assignment and a quiz as part of coursework that needs to be submitted by Sunday. Not to forget that these are ONLY events I am interested in. There are lots of meetings requests etc that I delete since I will NOT be attending. And before someone thinks I am taking up too much stuff, I am one of the people involved in least number of ‘initiatives’ etc here.
By the time I pass out, I will either be very good at time management and prioritizing stuff, or a completely burnt out shell after continuously running around here and there for the whole year. 😀