Keep it Simple… Stupid

Clear and concise communication is a skill our group completely lacks. The posts in this blog are evidence :) Majority of teams in MBA have struggled to present any given topic or produce a report within the stipulated time or length. Nowhere is the lack of this skill more evident than when we ask questions. Its as if the questions have to be decoded through the maze of prepositions, adjectives and irrelevent information :) I wonder why it is that we find it hard to get straight to the point and keep it simple.

Since english is not a native language for most students, many find it hard to articulate their thoughts in a clear and concise way, especially when attempting a pursuasive argument. But this cannot be the entire reason, because its also the native speakers who find it just as hard.

The main reasons is that we love talking about ourselves. If we were to simply quit talking about ourselves with words like “I think”, “In my opinion”, “I once noticed”, “the point that I want to make” etc. we would halve the time of each question/speech. Its not just this MBA class, the problem is all pervasive :) Here’s an example of a question asked to Eric Schmidt recently(during a Q&A session in a large crowd). The question was supposed to be “Does Google fund health-care projects?” and here’s the actual framing of the question:

“Hi, my name is XXXX.. I’m from XXX… I did my Phd. in management and I met director from NSF and I was speaking to him regarding NSF lab produces like a lot of interesting projects and I’m curious.. umm. you know.. you guys offer support for project like those? For example I did a project with a freind of mine developing tele-medicine.. you know.. he developed polymer and for patients travelling abroad or something, the polymer allows the doctor… you know…. millions of miles away to transfer the medication to… terminally ill patients and things like that… so.. I was wondering.. what’s… (cut off graciously at this point)” 

Thanks for being late

One of my classmates provided me feedback about this blog. Her complaint was that the blog was baised in favor of the school. I have chosen to retaliate this claim vehemently by posting some criticism about the MBA and in doing so, I have used all of my “MBA knowledge”. The post was so long that I had to open up a new page! Its called “Thanks for being late”

Yahoo Zimbra

I spoke too soon about how yahoo would be better off sticking to its core-competence in my previous post called “Yahoo! I’m not a teenager”. It appears that Yahoo has indeed invested in an application to substitute microsoft outlook called Zimbra. Its awesome! no more unnecessary junk news… no ads, just email on desktop :)  There goes Ypops partly out of business..

Strategy

Back in November, I posted a long entry about asking ourselves the right questions and how this is the most important skill which MBA course should teach students. Apparently, there is whole course surrounding this exact skill.. the skill is asking the right questions. the course is Strategy!

Long term planning!

And this, ladies and gentleman, is called long term planning… exactly the kind of strategy Michael Porter adviced for an economic downturn during his talk in South Korea recently :)

There are a number of funny ads on the net and yet this caught my attention :)

Imagination and Knowledge

Innovation management is one of the core courses we are studying this winter. We discussed Schumpeter’s models about Innovation and it got me thinking about imagination and knowledge. So here is a post about the famous quote “Imagination is more important than Knowledge”.

From creative scientists to ordinary accountants (adjectives can be switched), from exciting cinema to dull museums and from theologies to theories, throughout our development as species, we have relied on a blend of imagination and knowledge. Evidently, both are important. What then is the relationship between them, if any?

Knowledge is a person’s range of information; mankind’s unique ability to use language and the explosion of information technology has meant that the knowledge can, be shared, stored and transmitted through time and space. Knowledge can, because of the flexibility of physical symbols, be broken and rearranged in numerous novel combinations. It is this act of recombination that underlies the power to imagine. While every living organism can put together random combinations of stored experiences (i.e. dream), it is only human beings who possess the unique capacity that helps them solve problems, anticipate change and conceive alternatives – Imagination serves ‘life enhancing’ purposes.

It might be incredibly tempting to favor imagination over knowledge; after all, like Einstein said, “imagination is colorful, creative and anti-authoritarian”, while knowledge (a.k.a. reality) is bleak, dull and black & white; knowledge binds us, sometimes, to oppressive existence. However, apart from fueling imagination, knowledge also controls it. If Imagination is the path during our journey, Knowledge is the map which guides us and warns us about the approaching cliffs. Our view about whether imagination is more important than knowledge depends upon whether we prefer an exploration or a guided tour. Let’s just say I prefer an exploration.

Life changing experience?

Just before we went off for Christmas vacation, one of my classmates asked how we have changed since the time the MBA began? The more I pondered over the question, I must admit, the more I grew anxious. Its not nice to realize that we have not changed at all during a year that is supposed to be “life changing”!

But then, there is difference between “no changes” and “unnoticed changes”. I noticed a few today! One of my complaints at the beginning of the year was that students expected MBA would provide ready-made business solutions on a platter.. now, I notice we emphasize more on application of knowledge to find our own answers rather than expect ready-made solutions. I’ve also noticed a few students have grown in confidence during class discussion and presentations.

But what amazes me most is what has not changed. There are hardly any two consecutive days when I have lunch with the same person. Anybody who knows any group of 45 individuals knows this is not normal. Its not normal that we still remain as one single group of 45 students : )

An imaginary retrospective

If there was an article I’d have to call “my kinda article”, this would be it. Its An Imaginary Retrospective Of 2009 by Niall Ferguson. Its creative, insightful, grounded in (as much as possible) logic and facts.

Ever since I read this, I have been wanting to type down (its interesting that “pen down” is almost a redundant phrase) a similar post but simply a retrospective about my life in 2009 rather than of the whole world. Thanks to the MBA schedule, I still have not even begun on that project… but soon, I hope to post a page… I bet it will be fun : )

Three reasons to love Vlerick

I already mentioned about networking oppurtunities in vlerick. This indeed is one of the highlights of this MBA. Since the time I blogged about networking, I have had the chance to have a one to one conversation over dinner with the cheif economist of the one of Belgium’s largest banks and with the CEO of a large consulting firm and as I have become closer to students in class, I have come to realise that most of them have something unique to offer.

Here are the other two reasons (I’m only writing about reasons that aren’t obvious.. the obvious once are a good faculty and course material etc).

If Vlerick school were a man, he would be the best listener in the world. Every feedback the students provide are considered and acted upon. There were many instances when students themselves forgot about the request they made and only later realised that the request was made becuase the school already took action! Excuse my lack of imagination today, but its like you married a super model and jokingly told her that she has put on some weight and you already notice she is running an extra mile everyday : )

The other reason is intimacy. During holidays, my classmate and I decided to watch 30 hours of lectures on an open course ware. Since these were holidays, we weren’t able to gather more students to join us. We ofcourse had the option to stream them LEGALLY through our laptops. But we thought, the expereince would be better if we used the auditorium. Guess what! One email is all it took to book the auditorium for two students! I’m not sure if this happens in other schools, but I would doubt it. This is just one example apart from the fact that the faculty and administration knows each and every student in the class including probably each students strengths and weeknesses!

Yahoo! I’m not a teenager

There was once a time when I signed into Yahoo mail, all that I would see is that I have four emails in my inbox and a few more in the Junk mail folder. This is what I would call “the age of relevant information”.. Now, when I sign in, what I see is news about Gaza’s latest civilian toll. This is Yahoo’s “value added” service for using their email service. Here’s a secret that I think yahoo should know… Times and Economist is one lousy click away from Yahoo… The last place I will go looking for news about death toll around the world is the place where I go to open messages from my friends and family!

Forcing users to view news around the world is nothing but the opposite of achieving total customer satisfaction. My experience deteriorates as I sign out! at least after signing in, I have the option to choose the category of news that I’d like to bear… as I sign out, I’m denied even that miniscule pleasure.. Now, I’m forced to view the news which only the most disillusioned teenagers would be interested in… for example news about Hilton’s (you know which Hilton!) burglary which might have been an inside job! or about Britney Spears’ rumoured Indian boyfriend. I sometimes wonder if there is a revenue source for Yahoo by publishing this news on their site.. I hope they do because if they don’t, this is quite an immature way of attracting customers.

The counter argument might be that the only segment yahoo is targeting as new customer base is the teenagers. I hope they will then follow Google’s strategy of giving the choice to the customer about which news they want to view like in iGoogle.

I have been loyal to Yahoo mail for the past 10 years and I truly hope they do well, but I feel they have totally missed the trick. Not sure about the other email providers because I haven’t used any other ever! Wouldn’t Yahoo be so much better off sticking to its core competence by creating a application like iTunes (but to rival MS outlook) or to let people embed YouTube videos and Flickr snaps into email or simply provide a service which lets users sort messages by importance! If none of that, the least yahoo could do is treat the whole world like a bunch of teenagers still trying to fit in!