Surviving the Schulich MBA

1. At your graduation ceremony take a safety pin along. They will not provide you one as "officially" the pin can tear up the rented robe (you get to the cap)
2. Account for a lot of extra expenses - trips, dinners, graduation ceremony - $20 for the grad photo, $54 for the graduation ceremony, $108 for the formals, an insane amount for the deerhurst
3. Wireless routers are needed in the residential houses. Its better if you carry one as stuff is generally expensive in Canada
4. As soon as you land, (Schulich India) - apply for an OCWP - you are eligible for it as you have spent 6 months as a York university student already.
5. Study really well in the first year so that you get good grades and are eligible for a host of scholarships from the school.
6. If you are attending a cocktail networking event, be prepared not to eat / drink anything. (There is hardly stuff anyway) Focus on meeting people. We know that they know that its all hogwash but you gotta do it.
7. Staying in the Assiniboine Residences has benefits and perils
I. Benefits
a. We have a Santa delivering presents all the year round in the way of people moving out and leaving stuff that they no longer need in the ground floor. Be patient and soon you will chance upon - printers, lamps, chairs, microwaves and other surprises. Remember, it would be your turn to play Santa when you move out!
b. You get to see a lot of people, which is otherwise a rarity in that part of town
II. Perils
a. Frequent disturbances from people pulling the fire alarm - trust me you cannot sleep through the alarm (its an offence as well)
b. You do not get much credit in the way of tax rebate as the university housing is supposed to be subsidized ( in reality however its not so compared to the options available around it)
8. Even if the meeting rooms are booked, try some of the smaller class rooms on the second and third floors. they are usually unoccupied and open. If someone comes in, be assertive!
9. There is a combination of TTC transport that can take you from Pearson airport to York University - make sure you either have a token or 3 dollars in change for the TTC fare. The public transport stop is at the lower levels of the pearson airport. You can either take the 58A to Lawrence west and from there take the North Bound to Downsview or take the 196 to Kipling station, travel east bound to st george, change trains and then take the north bound to Downsview
10. Restaurants are way overpriced at York Lanes but you cant help and treat yourself occasionally. I dont have much idea about non veg but there are decent options for vegetarians - try the paneer wrap at Indian Flavours, the 2 veggie combo as Pagoda, Subway and the 5$ basket at KFC. There is a vegetarian plate at Jimmy the Greek which I think is the best value for money. While I personally like Mangia Mangia there have been a lot of raised eyebrows about its health standards. If you do not mind spending $5, then you may want to check out the Indian buffet options at Islington Steet. For an all inclusive cost of about $15 you can have really good food.
11. Beverages at Timothys in the college is Overpriced and I would rush to the Tim Hortons in the Seneca building for a quick sip. While the muffins and the cookies at Timothy's also are expensive, I would highly recommend it as they are fresh and delightful
12. Before the actual winter sets in, there is a decent sale on winter wear. Make use of this - you will need the extra layers of clothes.
13. If you are someone who looks forward to buy electronics on the cheap, wait for the boxing day sale. Otherwise I dont find the prices very attractive round the year.
14. There are a couple of options for groceries near the university - Food Cents (which is at a 10 minute walking distance) and No Frills (which is about 20 minutes away walking or about 8 minutes by TTC). If you do go to Islington, then you can also plan to shop at the Indian Bazaar where you will get more indian things than an actual store in India.
15. For haircut again there are a couple of options - at the University Mall (near Food cents) where the hair cut ranges from $14 to $20 and at Islington where it costs about $10 (do not forget to add $5 if you are going solely for a haircut to Islington which i think is a waste of time then)
16. Dont think twice while spending the $300 worth of print credit. Most of the students end up with a credit balance that expires just at the end of the final term (before you realize it)
17. The library is a great place for reading magazines and journals, utilize this facility well as I believe this is one of the best plus points of the school
18. There are a couple of clubs at York University which organize screening of Indian films and "significant" cricket matches - keep an eye out for it
19. Join the Schulich Connect Yahoo Groups. This is the unofficial site for selling and buying household stuff and books at schulich
20. Internet speeds are great at the residences however do not go overbound and download too much stuff. Your connection is monitored even if you believe it aint and illegal downloads attract special attention.
21. Make sure you have a nice portfolio bag and a good suit with you as you would need them for attending interviews
22. As soon as you land, apply for a credit card and try and get your driving license. You will need to deposit money for the credit card - $750 for a $600 limit credit card - and then maintain good credit as this credit history will result in a good credit score when you apply for a loan. Similarly when you apply for a driving license early on and let time pass, when you actually go ahead to get insurance, this cost will be lesser. Carry a letter from your RTO (Regional transport authority, the people who issue your driving license in India) that you have been driving with a valid passport for "X" number of years and have not been involved in any accidents . This letter will help you skip a step in between when applying for your driving license in Canada.
23. Canada's Wonderland is a great place to visit. Plan to go there in the summers as it is closed during the winters and its hours of operations are also shorter for the short duration it is open in the winters. Look out for offers here as well as they do come by.
24. When buying electronics there is no point doing price comparison between Future Shop and Best Buy as Best Buy bought over Future Shop quite a while back. The other significant brick and mortar shop is "the Source" which is quite useless when it comes to competitive pricing. You may want to explore this site called tiger direct or ITxchange where you can generally get good deals on computers
25. During the winters, due to the heaters, the air inside the rooms tends to become very dry. You may want to consider purchasing a humidifier.
26. A trip to Walmart requires you to take the VIVA Orange transportation service which costs $3.5 one way (or 2.6 if you take a 10 pass ticket). However if you can finish your work at walmart quickly, then you can use the same ticket to head back within 2 hours.

The Attack of the Font Monster

After the initial shock of the news wore off I was more fascinated by the affect it had on the websites of reputed news agencies and I was not disappointed !

CNN and The Wall Street Journal had shot their website design to pieces by increasing the font size of their headline to huge proportions. Their graphic designers would have had a tough time for sure. On the other hand The Globe and Mail and The Times of India did not compromise their designs to accommodate a piece of news and I respect that. The others were somewhere in the middle.

What is the message that websites are giving when they do this ? In case you wear glasses and you cant find them, we do not want you to miss this piece of action, so allow us to blow it up for you. Maintain some dignity guys!

Killing the iPad 3g softly, from Inside

What is the most likely thing you will carry in your pocket if you are a tablet owner. I am guessing you will have a killer smart phone that can do almost everything except the dishes. No wait, it could possibly do that as well - there must be an app for it.

The leader in tablets, Apple has two flavours of the Ipad - Wifi and 3g+Wifi. You pay a cool $130 extra to get the 3G capability on your pad. But step back and think, is it worth it ? You may say yes, it is. I need to be connected to the internet when I am travelling and there may be no wifi around.

Think again and reach for your pocket and look to the skies (there would be a cell tower around somewhere). I am willing to bet your Apple iPhone has atleast 2-3 bars of signal strength (provided you are not covering up the antenna area!) and that is all you will need to connect your iPad to the Internet - the magic of wireless tethering.

Very powerful concept, that allows your phone to effectively become a router to other devices including laptops and tablets. It does not really make sense any more to pay extra for that 3G capability. I would love to see, how Apple responds!

The game now hinges on your service provider, to provide you with a plan that encourages you to use reams of data on your smartphone. This means a couple of things for service providers

1. All devices are made equal - No disparity in charges per mb depending on the device that consumes the data
2. Exponential growth of data traffic on the wireless network - Time to redo calibration of network capacity

The Business of News

Here's an interesting piece of original research by me! Sitting in Toronto during the final months of my MBA, while glancing through Indian Newspaper sites, a thought crossed my mind - Where does all the news come from ?

So I decided to do a little research on 7 newspapers from India who have an online presence. The idea was to try and determine the source of the news - for instance PTI (Press Trust of India) , AP (Associated Press), Reuters etc. For the purpose of this research I purposefully did not include Television based news sites (as I really discount the quality of reporting on non business Indian News Channels)and I focussed this study on non financial newspapers only. This research was conducted on 1st Mar 2011 at about 1.30 pm IST.

I did consider three more papers - The Statesman, The Telegraph and The Tribune but I decided not to include them in this research. The main reason why I chose not to include them was because of the fact that they either do not do justice to the online format by trying to replicate the print news as is on the web (no, I am not referring to the ePaper versions) or they simply have a horrific site design.

For once, I am not going to include my viewpoints on the outcome of the research and I would like to invite you to comment on it. I am expecting that this post would generate different viewpoints and thats the reason why I do not want to channelize those thoughts by providing mine upfront.

A request - if you do quote this anywhere, please mention the author's name!

Enabling credit card payments

I am fascinated to see the adoption of technology. Square Inc is now offering any one with an iPhone / iPad (with an Internet connection) in the US the ability to accept credit card payments. This means cab drivers, electricians, mechanics, plumbers, flea traders and sunday market farmers can accept small transactions through credit cards. (oh, i am not sure if they would have an iPhone). I would be tempted to use one for the heck of it but the transaction fee is set at - 2.75% + 15 cents per transaction.

I think the transaction fees are slightly high but that is possibly because it is still trying to figure out proper risk management techniques. I think the image says a lot. and this is the example of only one of the companies doing it (the coolest one by far) there are other Payment Processors engaging in this niche area as well - Sage Payment solutions (looking at mid to small sized merchants), PayWare Mobile processing. Cool stuff overall...

I am so angry with ICICI Bank...Money Manager account

I am so angry at ICICI Bank for trying to force its customers to use the Money Manager software on its Internet Banking offering.

Ok, so a little background first....around New Year's time (or atleast thats when I noticed it) ICICI Bank introduced a service called Money Manager on their Online Banking system. The way I see it, it is a personal finance software which aims to help with your day to day expenses. I think its quite neat as a concept and its bound to catch on with other banks having a substantial retail base.

This is fine but there is a catch to it. The Bank has decided to charge for the software (25 rupees per month) after an initial trial period of 90 days. So far so good, the Bank can do what ever it pleases as long as it makes the rules clear upfront. Obviously, I am not interested in the software as I dont want ICICI Bank to charge me Rs. 300 a year for a software that I personally will not use.

So, whats the way out? Thankfully there is a way out! Customers can unsubscribe from the service. Hey but, whats this. I cannot unsubscribe before 31st Jan 2011 ? Really !? Weird. So I put a reminder on my phone to unsubscribe from the software on 1st Feb 2011. When I visit Money Manager on 1st Feb 2011, surprise - surprise. The unsubscribe date has been postponed to "on or before 28th Feb 2011". What a cheap, underhand trick.

They think, by forcing people to remain subscribed to the service they can induce customers to use their software. No it does not... It makes people mad. And it makes them write a blog about the horrible experience and let their friends know about it.

And oh yes, I have updated my calendar and shifted the date to 28th Feb 2011.

Lets have another round on personal Integrity!

Its legal! So what do you think when you hear this. It means that the laws of the land have said it is ok to do so or the laws dont have any explicit opinion about it, hence its legal.

Think about it. Where do the laws come from? They definitely do not originate from human nature, otherwise we would not go about breaking so many of them on a regular basis. These are created by people based on their judgement about right or wrong at the time of framing the law.

Now this does not mean that the law is all encompassing. In fact laws are created when people find ways to do things which are not right but the law at that time did not object to it. Think about hoarding. Inherently it means that you are utilizing your resources to stimulate market demand without exerting direct compulsion. This would have been perfectly fine if you were not dealing with food.

My point is that even if the basic values of a person are in the right place, he cannot always depend on the legality of a situation and decide accordingly. He may end up violating his values without even knowing about it, unless some one explicitly points out to him. So it is necessary that you question your own move and be comfortable with it personally, cause if you seek solace or justification externally, you probably will twist the message to suit your frame.

These thoughts are not mine. They are credited to my professor, Dr. Mark Kamstra from the Financial management class at Schulich. I am really glad that they have shaped my thoughts in this manner and the experience has compelled me to pen my thoughts down...

Integrity - by Michael Jensen

I attended a talk on "Putting integrity into Finance - A positive Approach" by michael jensen on the 17th of September 2010 at Schulich School of Business and was propelled to share the ideas discussed.(http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=876312). Michael had a very interesting way of defining Integrity which was void of morality or ethics.

Drawing from the field of ontology he said that integrity is such a basic quality of a being that it cannot be termed as good or bad. An entity has integrity when it is whole and complete. For organizations to have integrity it is important that the design, the implementation and the use of the organization - all three are carried out in a manner which was intended and planned for.

He goes on to further say, that integrity can be maintained in two ways :
A. When the person (or organization) honors his promise in timely fashion.
B. If he is not able to honor the promise, then inform the other party well in time and be ready to accept consequences. There have been numerous cases where companies have gained customer loyalty at times of service failures just by ensuring that the company does everything in their power to amend their shortcoming.

Integrity comes when a person follows the rules and abides by the law of the land. Interestingly, integrity can also be maintained if a person chooses to not follow the rules but let everybody else around him know of his intention of not following them. He should accept all consequences openly and not have anything to hide. A shining example in this regard is Mahatma Gandhi who openly defied the government with his non-cooperation movement and accepted all the hardships.

Some of the interesting analogies he drew were :
1. Integrity compared to spokes of a bicycle : If some of the spokes of the bike are missing and we keep on adding weight onto it then the bike would eventually give in and fail.
2. Integrity as compared to gravity : Like integrity, gravity is neither good nor bad, it just is. Gravity keeps the atmosphere together or it is instrumental in causing death when a person walks off from the top of a building.

These ideas seemed revolutionary to me when I heard them.. I know I have been able to convey only a fraction of the enthusiasm I had when I attended the seminar itself but I would love to hear thoughts of people around this.

Have you been using Windows as well ?

You have probably heard a lot of things which Microsoft does that are not exactly approved by the masses, but are you really bothered by them ? I mean, if IE comes preloaded in Windows and not with Google Chrome or Firefox I do not care personally. I can pretty much download Chrome and start using it.

Then there are those few things which start bugging you. You are the admin of the laptop and even you do not have access to some folders. I agree, system files hence probably in some weird imagination Access Denied.

So far, it is livable. But Windows really gets to me when it comes to installing updates. First every time you connect to the internet there are some updates waiting for you - as if I have won a lottery and am privileged with them updates. These are essentially fixes for goof ups that Microsoft could not iron out and now is attempting them in parts. Had it been something actually beneficial it would definitely not be available as a free update!

The point that really psyches me out is that Microsoft has the temerity to assume control of my PC and do an automatic restart of Windows so that its updates are installed correctly. I mean, what gives it the confidence that if the user has not specifically authorized a restart of the OS, it should just go ahead and assume it within a 5 minute countdown ? I could have programs open and some unsaved work.

Well to hell with them says Microsoft, we need to get that update fixed!

I wonder if this kind of programming talks about the mindset of a company which has held a death grip on the software industry. I have never used a Mac but I doubt whether its users have a similar gripe.

Small Miracles!

Small miracles! We three brothers - Me, Anant and Anupam went bowling in Kolkata after a long time...In the first game itself Anant scored three strikes in a row in the first game. In the second game I performed the same miracle...! Wow...

Living in Kolkata

I think this picture defines Kolkata for me..sadly....its a group of men passing in front of my building shouting slogans, in essence - "cholbe na and korte hobe". I dont get it...What will not do and what needs to be done...!

I am disappointed at being in Kolkata, I find it depressing. Could this be because I am not studying here and have relatively nothing to do ? I like the fact that I am with my parents here and Chandni and that I am able to play huge amount of TT but overall I find a sense of prolonged gloom in this city...Anyways on to Toronto...!

Financial Dilemma - The question of nominee and heir

In a landmark ruling the Bombay High Court has granted ownership of shares belonging to the deceased to the nominee instead of the legal heir. This was done basis the interpretation of the Companies Act and Depositories Act which were deemed to be different from the laws governing insurance companies and housing societies.

It was made clear that in the case of insurance companies and housing societies, the nominee was just the guardian of the property and rightful owner was the legal heir.

I wonder what would be the case when it comes to Banking. My understanding and experience in this sector says that a nomination is essential so that in the event of death, the bank can discharge its duties by transferring the money to the nominee and then the nominee and legal heir can battle it out for ownership. Though I think the legal heir should get the ownership.

There is a bigger question - how can we have different laws defining the role a nominee across multiple financial sectors. It is a sure fire way to increase the case backlog of the already overburdened courts..

Stroke of Strategy

One of the recent masterpieces of a strategy implementation can be found in the Direct to Home (DTH) market in India.

There have been a lot of instances where technology was "lifted" from the west and implemented in developing countries like India. Some of the examples have been straight forward like - cellular technology (both GSM and CDMA) and large format shopping stores and supermarkets, while some have undergone an adaptive transformation to suit the Indian palette - for example the localization of the Mc Donalds franchise with a Happy Price menu. (Though I admit, it took some time for Mc Donalds to figure out this winning strategy).

Coming back to the domain of DTH, there was a fair amount of controversy with the launch of this service in India. The local cable operators almost took up arms to destabilize the launches, government officials being iffy about the format. There was obvious support from the channels as they could finally have transparency in viewership figures. My post however does not deal with these strategic issues as they affect the DTH industry as a whole.

The first DTH service was launched by the TATA group, in association with the Star group as Tata Sky. This was a phenomenal development and the customers started warming up to this idea. The point to note is that when the market developed enough, then the other competitors stepped in, notably - Dish TV, Big TV, Airtel. I personally think that some one who can judge the experience of the various services, Tata Sky stands out way above others. But the point is that people had options and there was no real reason to choose Tata Sky over others.

Have you wondered why do soap companies keep adding one thing or the other to their products and re-releasing their product constantly? Why is it that your shampoo bottle is in a constant run to get facelifts and present a more slick and appealing outlook every season ? Differentiation.

So again coming back..what was it that Tata SKY could now do to counter the plethora of service providers crowding the market? And bang - we have Tata SKY Plus. Not only do you get dvd quality reception, you can record it now as well! This is great strategy in play.

At the time of launch, TATA had the option of launching Tata Sky Plus right away, instead it decided to leverage the novelty of DTH first and then sweep the market with PLUS. This is because it anticipated that the world will copy and follow its first approach and it would NEED to have a second "brahmastra" to regain the market. Till date, no one has been able to counter this service with a similar offering but it will be interesting to watch the TATAs counter copycat moves!!!

The Blind Side

Finding Forrester, To Sir with Love, October Sky and now I think The Blind Side. Fantastic film. There is something delicate about a struggling student story and it chokes me up totally when I see something great happening on screen.

Sandra Bullock plays her part perfectly as the care giver in the movie. There is a certain resolve in her eyes which comes through brilliantly. Another interesting character was Michael Ower's younger brother. Totally awesome outlook. Must watch.

A new blog

I have always had a fascination with ads and I remember some time back talking about doing something about it. Well I have done something about it. Stuff happens, they need to be reported.
I have created a new blog - http://ad-addictions.blogspot.com/. Lets see, if I can do justice to this new venture.

Peace.

Signs of aging

Was attending a guest lecture from a Ms. Shira Abel-Shvo at Schulich India. The topic of the lecture was quite offbeat (from my initial perspective) - Social Media.

I am guessing that every one will be able to figure out the content of the presentation but the reason why I am writing this blog is the revelation which I had about my increasing experience level...!

I was attending a lecture about how to network on the digital media...Facebook - linkedin - twitter - friendfeed - blogs etc. I was transported 30 years back in time, sometime in the early 1980s, when managers would have been put in a similar room and introduced to the Personal Computer.

I think social networking is a hard thing for the people of my generation to adapt to but for a couple of generations below me, it will be second nature. I would be very surprised if it is not. The tools may change, but the idea will be around for sure...

A different spin on Digital Piracy

There is a whole generation of young and middle aged people who have got used to enjoy things for free. Software, latest music and movies. Companies and governments around the globe are going crazy in developing technology and regulations to stem the growth. Pressure is being exerted on Internet service providers to filter sites or report on their clients. Individual pirators are being sued and made example of. And lets not forget about the attempts of the media to demonize roadside DVD pirators in India by linking them to Dawood Ibrahim's gang. ( I personally think that there is some truth in the last point)

While all this is being done, I am compelled to think of an immensely positive development with the spread of piracy. With the advent of piracy, the market size of these digital products has grown immensely. Why am I saying so ? I dont have numbers with me ( my Schulich professors would insist on getting some though) but when I meet people on the street having internet access- they listen to the latest music from Bollywood, watch latest Hollywood and Bollywood flicks. 95% of them are not paying for it. Data is being downloaded day and night, aided by the packages of ISPs (Internet Service Providers) like - Unlimited download for a month for Rs 999 only.

Every one knows what we are going to do with unlimited download but the industry is not doing anything about it. Its like with the introduction of VCR after the VHS on which you could record stuff off the television. Its like introduction of the cassette recorder where the purpose was to record voice, but it was usually used to create mixed tapes from CDs- fuelling countless love stories !

The previous paragraph was a slight digression from my main topic...Anyways, imagine the day when we are able to control piracy...When we are able to change the mentality of the people to make them voluntarily pay for digital entertainment...That day, these media companies will discover an expanded market, ready for consumption, beyond their expectations.

What piracy has done is that it has hooked the people on the culture of consuming. The "free but illegal" hook has jump started countless people to get on the cheap entertainment bandwagon. I have a strong feeling that when the free tap is turned off, people will still need their daily fix of entertainment. And thats when the cash cow will start mooing...

India's stand on climate change

The two cornerstone's of India's policy on climate change are :

1. Historic responsibility of developed nations versus the developing nations

2. Equity on per capita carbon emissions.

The Copenhagen summit is going to start the process of unraveling the complex issues related to climate change responsibility and in my opinion is a start of something good and concrete.

While I agree with the historic responsibility angle I am not content with the per capita carbon equity stand as I dont think it is correct. It gives an unfair advantage to over populated nations like China and India. I think instead of a per capita approach, we need to have a land mass based approach which includes a component for green cover. There are a number of reasons why I think this is a better approach :

a. This approach penalizes countries who have allowed population to grow beyond control.

b. If a country manages its greens well, then there is more room to spend carbon

c. Land represents the quantum of natural resources available to the citizens of the country and gives a better picture of the capacity of the country to support the emissions.

While on the topic of emissions, I have for long felt the ineffective way airconditioning systems are implemented in residences. A/Cs are switched on mainly during the nights when there is absolutely no movement apart from the occasional turning and tossing! Then why the need to cool up the entire room ? Like our cars and airplanes, we need to have personal climate control at homes as well...

Pyromaniac at work!

Entries submitted for the db Logo competition...Few people know that I have an addiction to fire..!

Shocking movie timings

I am left speechless by the movie timings in Mumbai.

Its like Get up, expunge, brush teeth (or not) and go for movie. Have popped corn for breakfast!