The story begins to unfold

I experienced a very strange feeling in the Marketing lecture today.

While discussing a case on Sears, Roebuck and Co. in the lecture today, something on the slide on screen caught my attention. It was a simple statement: “…….x% increase in associate satisfaction is related to a y% increase in customer loyalty, which in turn is associated with a z% increase in EBIT……” At that moment, I was hit by a thunderbolt of enlightenment. Is that true? Have they applied the tools of Statistics? Like Regression, for example? I was beginning to see where Strategic Decision Sciences (SDS) – another course in our Term 1 – was making its presence felt. In my career I had hardly seen the application of regression while many such claims were stated by me as well as other managers.

This brainwave opened up a chain of thoughts. My mind was running, the fastest ever during my days in Cranfield so far.

The lecturer continued, “…..confidence in this data was ….. computed 30% to 70% of its executive compensation from these measures….”

And my mind continued to speak to me, “THAT’S ECONOMICS!” And we studied this only yesterday, something under X-inefficiencies where the module mentioned that managers in companies do not maximise, they only try to achieve a satisfying level of performance that the shareholders desire.

Gosh! All of this does make sense after all. And it took me less than a split second to figure it out (although this second took a few weeks to come by).

This weird experience just wouldn’t stop. The next lecture was Accounting and we discussed a case study on Management Accounting. Somewhere I felt an eerie silence in the lecture room. But I could hear a noise overshadowing the silence. This was the “clickety-click, clickety-click” sound of our minds at work. A few moments later, there was a mention of how the manager of the company (in the case) had delivered a favourable variance against the budget and maybe, it was driven by performance incentives that the company could be giving to its managers. Again Economics floated back in my mind. Did this manager maximise profits or was he focussed on his incentive?

For one, MBA may not make me an expert in functional areas, but it does teach me how to ask the right questions. And I remembered the words of Dr John Mapes – the faculty who interviewed me during admission process – “we do not teach management, we teach how to manage!”

This intertwining of the various courses is the exact overarching objective of Cranfield MBA. And I am glad that I am beginning to catch the unfolding story. Much to my own surprise, I have proceeded much ahead from the prologue. And I had never realized this till now.

Two down, many more to go!

In the last eight days Green, Blue and Red stream have had their second WACs – and this time it was on Accounting.

It is a very interesting phenomenon when WAC is in the air. The WAC-day is like a roller coaster ride. When one gets the WAC case at 1130 hours on the scheduled Friday, there are no visible expressions. Each team gets together to discuss their views, thoughts and doubts after the individual reading period of approximately 2 hours. The volunteers for the roles of the scribe, facilitator, devil’s advocate, etc. also get their individual reading done. Post lunch the stream gets together to have the stream dump. By this time, most students are unsure if they have cracked the WAC or not. So we all look forward to the stream dump.

Stream dump has every team coming up with a basic view of what they perceive the solution to be. The experts in the subject play the role of Devil’s advocates. The minutes are documented by another volunteer and these are share with the stream after the dump is over. Then the individuals are on their own. Pizzas wait for us at 1830 hours – these are organized by the other stream representatives. Then each of us head for our favourite places – for some it is the MIRC, for a few others it is the Computer Studio and for many others back home or room is the place to curl in.

The day is a typical depiction of a normal curve. The day progress and so do we – climbing up the curve with information, understanding and knowledge. But by the night falls, the downslide on the curve has happened without any cause. Am I on the right track? Do I understand this clearly? And a few more self doubts start creeping in. The last year orienteers’ had told us “It is normal.” But…….

By midnight the submissions begin. And it is an interesting fact finding mission for the next day – who was the first to submit his / her WAC?

Plop! In goes the WAC folder and when you sign that sheet at the security desk, you are suddenly overcome with a feeling of eternal bliss and joy. The WAC has been lassoed! The two for the Term 1 are down. Now we enjoy the break from WACs; till they come back in Term 2.

Do you manage your time or is time managing you?

David Allen, California, USA - a guru in time management who has been called one of the world’s most influential thinkers on productivity and has been a keynote speaker and facilitator for many organizations. We had the pleasure to hear him this evening.

I had attended lectures and workshops on Time management earlier, but had not been able to extract useful take-away’s from such workshops. While I was unsure of what was in store today, my motivation to attend this workshop was purely personal. I have been facing severe time constraints during this Term 1 in Cranfield MBA. The fact that 125 others students also felt the same was no consolation. Something told me that I was going wrong some where. It is just a matter of identifying it.

Since I was an early bird to the lecture theatre, I got a free book - Getting things done - authored by David Allen. It was some incentive for reaching early and taking the front seat. The beginning was good.

The fast speaking David did not spend minutes on coming to the point. He was quick to capture the attention of all with some very insightful statements. In particular, he stressed upon having “focus” on what is the desired outcome and what is the next action. His bottom-line statement was – high performers know how to focus before crisis will make them do it.

The over an hour long session was not only meaningful but thought evoking too. Quite a few amongst us were left wondering “now why did I not think of that before”. Most techniques shared by David were not some mumbo-jumbo tricks or involved high-tech gadgets. They were based on the simple philosophy of discipline, commitment and engaging in action.

The session was very useful and gave me a wake up call. I think I also found the answer to my burning question that I had walked in with – where was I going wrong? I think I knew the answer as I walked out of the lecture room.

The most memorable day at Cranfield

Imagine an old man with faded white hair wearing a long overcoat and a big hat, rocking in a rocking chair in the middle of the lecture room sipping Jack Daniels Tennessee whiskey! Or imagine a full chicken sticking out of the flip chart and menu cards kept on each seat. Or imagine the board of directors of Manchester United, Vodafone and Porsche addressing the questions from audience!

Is that difficult to imagine? Strange but true as it may sound, but all this actually happened. At Cranfield MBA, everything is possible. Whosoever suggested that MBA students cannot be creative was making a faux pas. Creativity was at its best today and shall continue for the next two days.

Strategic Marketing Success (SMS) is a part of assessment for the Marketing course. Each learning team has to select a product, brand or a company and study the success story behind it. The exercise involves first writing a 2500 word report and then presenting the story before the stream and lecturers. The stakes are high as this presentation also is considered for part of the assessment in Presentation and Communication Skills (PCS) course. Our team had got the report out of our way last week and it was now time for the d-day. Red stream had all 7 presentations scheduled for the day. Green and Blue follow tomorrow and day after.

After a suspenseful locked-out period of just 5 minutes (that seemed like an hour), the lecture room was opened and were allowed in by Red 1 team. They had made up the room up in a big way, creating the ambience of Nando's chicken - a chain in Milton Keynes. Their performance was brilliant and captured the essence of their recipe for success. With the full chicken stuck on the flip board, they shared the various P’s of marketing. And what more – they even had Moira Clark – our Professor of Marketing - dancing to their chicken-tunes.

Their presentation was followed by “Manchester United” and “Bang and Olufson”. Then it was time for our presentation on Jack Daniels. We had very little props being used – just a rocking chair and a bottle of whiskey. Andrew Cox (Britain) as Jack Daniels and Charles Sincock (Britain) as GI Joe gave scintillating performances. Despite a technical snag, our presentation drew a huge round of applause.

The next three presentations were on Porsche, Unilever Bestfoods China and Vodafone. Steve Carver – Professor of PCS – gave a brief feedback on key observations after each presentation. At the end, Steve and Moira then gave an overall feedback and summarized the presentations. The day will remain etched in my memory for the balance part of the year and thereafter. The day not only brought me closer to Marketing as a subject but also gave me valuable inputs on what makes a successful brand / product / company. Over the next two days, 14 more presentations shall be happening in Green and Blue streams. These include Google, Amul India, Harry Porter, eBay, Lord of the Rings and iTunes, just to name a few.

To be or not to be!

Was that Shakespeare at Cranfield? No. This wasn’t Shakespeare or English literature.

It was the Annual “Euro debate” between two Cranfield SOM faculty - David Myddelton from Finance and Accounting department and Sean Rickard from Economics department. The topic was “Should UK be a part of European Union?”

This annual debate is a much sought after event and a great learning experience. The two most reckoned members of faculty in their respective fields come together to stage a debate on a topic that is a source of knowledge and information. Both the faculty members put forward their perspectives that are useful and relevant for our understanding, of the subject in specific and of an economy, in general.

The lecture room was packed to capacity and the aisles were also near full. The debate was structured in the form of a 15 minute individual presentation for both faculty members. They juxtaposed their knowledge with their wit and the audience loved every moment of it. This was followed by questions from the audience. The event went on for almost two hours. Though it was late evening the audience was feeling hungry. Except that the hunger was for more of the debate and question-answer session.

If one’s learning can go up by an exponential factor, this evening must have had that effect on everyone. It was for me, at least. In those two hours, I learnt what many others outside Cranfield may learn by investing days, weeks or even a few months.

Seasons first snow fall!

Last night while working at home, a friend called me and said in a poker-voice, “come out, it is snowing”. I told him to stop playing jokes on me but he insisted. So to satisfy him, I looked out of the window and my eyes went wide open. IT WAS SNOWING. Shouting at the top of my voice, I ran down the stairs to catch the first snowfall at Cranfield. We danced in the falling snow like children, excitedly shouting and trying to catch the flakes in our hands.
I just could not contain my excitement. I called up many fellow students and like me, they were caught unawares.

Today morning, it was a beautiful sight (insert picture snow capped houses.jpg) White snow capped houses, cars, grass and trees looked so pretty and calm. For many like me, snow is a rarity and it is a treat to see the beauty of nature in its pristine form. The snow added charm to the already beautiful Cranfield campus that I am in love with.

Italy came to Cranfield

Although the dotcom boom may be over, internet based operations are now integral to almost all retailing companies of any size. This session explored an Italian internet/home delivery service based in Milan. It showed the promise of the web-based “front end” of the service, and then contrasted this with the “low-tech” operations of the picking process behind the scenes. This case study presented some of the trade-offs to be addressed by these organisations, particularly looking at the cost of the “last mile logistics” inherent in home delivery.
During this session we were able to:
 Understand the need for a coherent customer service strategy in order to manage the key operational decisions in developing and managing an e-logistics strategy
 Practise our ability to analyse an operations management case and to present our findings and recommendations
 Identify the key elements of an e-logistics approach and to understand how front office (web pages) must be integrated with back office (order fulfilment) processes
I have worked in Operations for over 7 years and it was like creating a movie out of my past experience. In my opinion, a subject like Operations Management (OM) has to be taught through different interactive pedagogy rather than a “follow-the-text-book” method. The simulation exercise was a case in point and today’s lecture was another example. Adding flavour to the lecture was the subtle and not-so-subtle humour used by Alberto. He kept the class gunning for more with a few cheeky jokes as well – which was like an oasis for us students!

Say what you want to say

Tony Suckling was back. This time he was armed with his “Top Ten Tips” for our team presentations scheduled later this month.

“Death by Power point” is a phrase that I had heard occasionally, but I never really paid too much attention to it. Now, when I am going through these sessions on presentation skills, I realize the follies that most presenters commit, including myself. And the tips were very basic, simple but profound ones:

Enthusiasm (no presentation can ever be successful without this from the presenter)
Stories (people love it)
Impact points (easy?)
Keep it simple, stupid (obvious?)
Build rapport (really helps, as we have seen when Steve and Tony present)
6. Confident appearance – dress for impact (you need to see Steve to understand this)
7. Structure (really helps)
8. Use of time: shorter, the better (who has it anyways?)
9. Edit material (else you are dead)
10. Set clear objectives (tell them what you’re going to tell them; tell them; then tell them what you told them. Clear?)

It will be our endeavour to apply most of these learnings’ in our SMS and OM presentations in the coming weeks. I am looking forward to it.

Festival of lights lit up the Forum

Happy Diwali! The greetings were all around in the forum this evening. All Indian students in the school of management and engineering were dressed in our traditional attire. Bright colourful sarees and immaculately ironed kurta pyjamas were to be seen. And the aroma of Indian curries and dishes was in the air. It was a beautiful evening!

Though Diwali was on 12th Nov04, we had to tackle WAC and hence the celebrations were finalized for Saturday evening. The Indian students from last years MBA batch had organized a wonderful Diwali night and we had to live up to their reputation. So almost two months ago, the Indians in our batch on campus had got together to work out the agenda. In our packed schedule full of studies, lectures, reports and WAC’s, it would not be easy to squeeze in the various tasks involved, and we were aware of this. But motivation can get the better of any challenge, and our motivation level was unparalleled.

This evening, the Forum looked at its colourful best. Paper streamers, bright hues of dupattas adorned the pillars and the stage. A colourful motif “Rangoli” of flowers rested in the middle on the floor. We greeted the audience with the traditional red powdered tilak as they entered the Forum. And what pleasure it was to see James Peer (Britain), Veronica Tapia (Mexico) and Tanya King (Britain) students dressing up in Indian dresses.

We have made it!

36300 students, 12100 teams, 125 countries, 2190 schools registered in the L’Oréal e-Strat 5 Challenge.
Now there are just 1500 teams left in the game! Round 1 is underway – it’s time to put theory into practise, put our heads together and come up with the winning strategy. And we’d better not forget that every decision counts!
This is the L`Oréal e-Strat 5 Challenge. Three teams from Cranfield School of Management have made it. And our team comprising of Amol, Divya and myself are part of the 1500 teams that now participate in the challenge. It is an internet based challenge wherein teams of three operate in the cosmetics’ market against 3 other virtual teams. The team that creates maximum shareholder value, through an increase in stock price index, wins. So over the next few months, we have to balance our time between lectures, team meetings, WACs and reports, personal studies, sports, social events and this competition. Last year a Cranfield team came first in the UK and this adds pressure on all of us.
Many colleagues tell me that this should be easy for me, since I have already studied for my MBA in India. How I wish – this is a different ball game altogether. The orbit is different – it is global. While I experienced a good amount of learning during my previous MBA, what I am acquiring now at Cranfield is that “extra” bit which got missed out. The extras can be described as cultural sensitivity, real team learning, internationalism and divergent persectives.
L’Oreal is another element in these add-ons – a challenge of a global nature. While it may have been simplistically stated that we fight against virtual companies, the truth is we are going to fight against 1499 companies. And in reality no organisation has ever fought such a large number of players in the same industry.
As Amol, Divya and I don our thinking caps and give our best shots, we need our collective wisdom to extract the vast amount of learning we’re enjoying and to then convert it into practise – the true test of knowledge.

Your scores have been pigeon-holed!

Today was an eventful day. We got the results of two tests. So there were some happy faces, but some seemed disappointed.
One subject that we study in Term 1 is Organisational Behaviour (OB). I had studied this subject prior to the start of MBA programme, and I had been wondering if this would turn out to be as boring as it was then. I was in for a surprise when the course began early in October 2004.
As part of our curriculum, we use numerous tools in OB. These tools enable us to identify and understand ourselves, our personalities, behaviour, emotional intelligence, etc. We experienced “ladder of inference”, MBTI, learning styles, Johari window, FIRO-B, and a few other aspects. But how does a student get objectively assessed in such a subjective course?
We have QOITs for this – Quick Outline of Interpersonal interaction Tool – a unique instrument that is used by each team member to capture his / her thoughts during team meetings. To ensure consistency, these are rigid in its structure and frequency. All QOITs across the term are divided into weeks and every student has to fill it and get it stamped by the Grad. Admin. Office.
Four weeks into the journey it was time to write our individual reports. With the WAC report format, we submitted our individual OB reports on 29th October 2004. And today we received the reports back, duly assessed and graded. Imagine going through 126 individual reports, assessing the 8-9 QOITs attached in each of these reports (that’s over 1100 QOITs) and to top it all, giving written feedback on each of these reports in a matter of just under two weeks! Such is the capacity of our faculty.
As the news spread that the OB assessment was out, one could see students rushing to their pigeon-holes to pick them up and douse their anxiety. Some were happy faces, some weren’t.
It had been less than half an hour after the OB results, when we heard “Accounts results are out!”. Accounting is considered as a subject that can give sleepless nights to some students. Hearing that the results were out, a few hearts would have skipped some beats. One could see some students rushing to the school building with flaying arms, running (with weak) legs, rapidly beating hearts and twitching lips. Some others walked coolly. A fact now insignificant was that we had written the Accounts only last night and hardly 16 hours had passed away!

The campus is silent

strange silence prevails in the campus today. The Halloween party was last week when ghosts were seen flying across on their broom sticks. But this silence has nothing to do with it.
Today, Green and Blue streams got their first WAC (Written assessment of a Case). As I write this piece for the Diary, I am aware that 85 students are busy typing on their laptops. Team meetings are going on to figure out the possible angles to the assignment. My Red stream gets their WAC next week. So we breathe easy as of now.
WAC is a very interesting part of Cranfield MBA. In fact, for a few subjects WAC is a major part of term assessment. So what is WAC?
WAC is a written report on a case or problem, which calls for an integrated, rather than a functional solution. There are three important observations on the use of WAC in the curriculum. For one, it is about testing one`s theoretical knowledge and applying it into practice. So the concentration is on the problem, not the details of the technique. Second, it is about team play and yet is an individual assignment. Third, it is about reality of corporate life. I explain each of these a bit more.
We have had five weeks of lectures so far and are mid way in the Term 1. As part of the rigour at Cranfield, we get a business case in the morning hours of a day announced in advance. We get slightly over 24 hours to work on it. Each student has to then understand what the case is about and what is it asking for. It is the same case for every one. So, for example, in the WAC for Economics, depending on the case, we may be evaluating the application of Game Theory and predatory pricing or some other model, or even a mix of a few models. This enhances our understanding of the subject and hones our knowledge too.
Each student understands the case and then the learning teams meet for a “team dump”. Differently explained, each member puts on the table his / her understanding of the case and possible dimensions as well as questions they may have. The objective is to share knowledge with as well as learn from each other. This is one of the many reasons why we do not “compete against each other”. Instead we compete with ourselves, trying to get the best out of us. Once the team meetings are done, then the stream meets for a “stream dump”. Here a few teams volunteer to put forward their ideas about the topic. The object is to create a pool of ideas and thoughts and made available to all.
After team discussions and sharing of resources, each member then works out his / her own written report. The written report is an individual matter, in which you make your own presentation in your own words.
In my view, WAC is testing many things. There are times when a busy executive gets a sudden work and has to do a good job of it. Therefore, we have very tight timelines. A busy executive often places a strict upper limit on the length of report that they are willing to read. Similar discipline is imposed for WAC. We have a word limit and a defined structure to follow. This is very close to reality, isn’t it?
Once the reports are submitted between tonight and tomorrow afternoon, the students wait for about two weeks. We will then get back the WAC report with a grade and comments. These comments form the main element of feedback in assessing our analytical skills and written presentation skills.
So, I have to now wait till tomorrow afternoon when the party begins at The Social when the clock strikes 2:00 p.m. – the deadline for WAC!

And the winners are....

This was the AT Kearney 2004 Global Prize Consulting Competition – an annual event in which Cranfield MBAs participate.
Acting as management consultants in teams of four, we take on case problems that simulate actual client engagements with A.T. Kearney consultants acting as the client. The occasion is an exciting competition that offers future business leaders the opportunity to demonstrate the quality of their thinking.
The competition, now in its eighth year, consists of two stages. During the first stage, up to fifteen teams from each participating school vie for a chance to compete in their regional finals. First and second place teams share a significant cash prize and the winning team will move to the competition`s second stage. During the second stage, the local winners share a trip to the regional competition. At this stage, school teams compete for the satisfaction of being the best in their respective region, plus another shared cash award and a share of the Global Prize.
Every year the hypothetical scenario reflects a current and compelling business issue. Last year’s competition asked each team to make strategic and operational recommendations for a global goods’ manufacturer.
The competition began this year in the second week of October 2004. Teams of four were invited to register for the case competition and the first 15 teams were selected from the school. A case on a start-up automotive venture was provided with some pieces of information. The first part of the competition involved brainstorming within one’s team and preparing a set of questions to be put before AT Kearney consultants (who were to enact the roles of the characters given in the case). Each team got a fixed slot of 15 minutes per interviewee and the objective was to put insightful questions to them. For any question, if the interviewee had more details to share, s/he would hand over a slide. So the first stage of the competition was to extract as much information (and slides) as possible. And believe me, it was not an easy task.
This was the first simulation for me and it was a great learning experience. In real life too, one may not have clients who are forthcoming and keen to share information. It is the skills of the consultant that are needed to approach the task and client with maximum effectiveness.
In the evening hours after the interviews were over, one could see anxious teams trying to figure out how they fared. Did any other team manage to get more slides than theirs? Our team had managed 7 slides, some other teams had more, and others had lesser. Thereafter, each team had another few days to prepare their presentation and submit to AT Kearney.
Three teams made it to the finals scheduled for today. The panel of judges comprised of two AT Kearney consultants and John Glen, our FTMBA Director.
It was a nerve wracking, nail biting exercise with very close competition and tough moments for the judges. Ultimately there had to be only one team. And that was Blue 4. Amidst thunderous applause, Arvind Gupta (India), David Stark (Britain), Theodore Papakonstantinou (Greece) and Miah Tolha (Britain) walked up to accept the congratulations and a cash award of £2000. And from here, it only gets tougher.
The team now proceeds to Netherlands later this month to participate in the regional finals. Good luck Blue 4. And they have a huge task ahead – not only to prepare for the finals, but prepare for this while going through the rigorous Cranfield MBA!

Group Presentation Skills

As part of the Personal Communication Skills (PCS) we had a lecture today on group presentation. This is part of the build-up to our upcoming Strategic Marketing Success (SMS) assignment. This is a sample of how various subjects get intertwined with each other.
Tony Suckling from Tribelink was our coach for the lecture. Tony produces corporate conferences and events and also coaches board level presenters and speakers. His company organises presentations for companies.
Tony greeted each student individually as we walked into the lecture theatre. While we were settling down, music started playing and pictures of each of us started rolling across the screen. We were eagerly searching for our own pictures.
Tony had succeeded in grabbing our attention in a very unusual manner (and I guess, this was his first lesson to us, conveyed discreetly).
There were numerous pointers in store as Tony took us through a step by step approach to group presentations. Some of the observations were quite unique – for example, while preparing a group presentation, get a sample of the audience to sit with your team. This will enable you to understand what the audience needs.
It was another very useful session and we received many useful tips. It is now down us to transport this learning into the presentations due in December 2004!