ethics, business and wrong side drivers

In B school you come across terms like business ethics and corporate social responsibility quite a lot. I remember doing a certain case study which had you decide between selling a faulty product at the cost of jeapordising lives or not selling the product and losing out on sales revenues. At the end of it, only 2 teams actually opted for the former option: selling the product though it would risk lives.

However, if you think about it, its really easy to come up with the "appropriate" conclusion in  a case study but how many of us actually have an truly ethical, corruption free bent of mind?  Oh come on, I think weve all slipped a Rs 100 note in the pocket of a policeman to avoid paying a fine for some wrongdoing or other.

I guess thats why this weekend was quite a refreshing change for me! I met an old ISB classmate who actually put his money where his mouth is! :) seriously, this guy was on a one man crusade. From stopping vehicles that were travelling in the wrong direction on a one way road and taking pictures of their licence plates to ensuring that none of us drove drunk, he was really on a roll! He is not even on facebook due to his allegiance with google and his loathing for Marc Zuckerberg's underhanded ways!

Honestly speaking, his behavior seemed borderline ridiculous at times but thats just the point!!!! Even after 20 lakhs and one year of ethics, and corporate spocial responsibility, we still feel least inclined to make a difference. In fact, when someone tries to do the right thing, we feel its an aberration!

 WHOA HOLD IT!!! So lets go back to the paying off the corrupt policement once again! What is going to ensure that you, who are now just paying off a policeman, wont eventually extend the chalta hai attitude to noting that a product may have a 1% probability of causing injury and just approving the product right along. "Chalta hai yaar, production mat band karo 1% hai sirf"...not so unlike "yaar eki to red light jump kara Rs 100 lelo"!

So as i get ready to go to work, I have decided to start small, start early...wrong side drivers beware!!!

revisiting ISB

I will soon, in about 6 hours, be getting on a flight to revisit the exact place that this blog has originated from! Am I excited, well definitely! I am curious to see what it will be like seeing the campus from the eyes of a person whose head is finally set firmly on their shoulders, well somewhat atleast! I am not sure why but the desire to go back has been building up momentum in my system for some time now.

Truth is I had a hard time in ISB...Dont get me wrong i have many fond memories from the place, but I somehow couldnt rise above this one incident that occurred there....yup it was a boy...pretty trivial huh?..i completely and wholeheartedly agree! With people starving, being raped and murdered and all sorts of sordid things, a boy was the reason I cried or atleast felt seemingly profound grief!!!???###**

You know at this point, id like to quote Elizabeth Gilbert "There were these refugees from Cambodia that my friend had to counsel. She was worried about how she could possibly counsel them on the horrifying ordeals they had gone through in terms of rape, murder, being left homeless etc. But when the refugees came into her room they didnt want to discuss all that. Their complaints were things like 'i was in love with a guy and my cousin stole hi from me blah blah"

So, I'd like to think I m not alone in feeling bad about trivial miseries! HMPH!

But going back to the point, I am revisiting a place in my past, which held some painful memories for me. And I cant help but think that my most important takeaway is that:

It may not stop hurting today, it may not stop hurting tomorrow, but the day will come when it will stop hurting and you ll be able to revisit the past and not feel anything!

ISB walks

The ISB campus is, without a doubt, one of the most beautiful places I have ever visited in India. With wide, sprawling landscaped lawns and lush nooks and corners you can escape to when you just want to be alone, its truly a scenic treat. When in college, i used to take a lot of walks. Some of these, much to the dismay of my closest friends, were in a state of complete inebriation. i used to simply walk rounds and rounds of the ring road listening to soft slow romantic songs on my ipod, yes, half drunk!!!! Yes, it was totally a healthier form (trust me walking rounds of the ring road was definitely a calorie burner) of wallowing in self pity but I truly miss it!

There were sad walks: walks taken while endlessly analysing and dissecting why the boy i loved couldnt quite make up his mind between me and his other lover (dont ask)

There were happy walks: walks taken while congratulatiing myself on a project well done or an awarde won or receiving a noteworthy praise from a noteworthy classmate!

There were taking a stand walks: walks taken while telling myself to finally take a stand on something and make sure I dont go back on it

So many walks...

But i guess the walks i remember most were the ones that i took with another, sharing views, arguing heatedly, or just walking silently taking comfort from each other's presence...walking home with a friend after a study group meeting, walking back with the boy i liked after a party, walking with a visiting girlfriend to just show her the sites in ISB, walking with whiskey cup in hand with a friend discussing whether the girl he is dating right now is truly "the one".....

ISB: walks to remember  :)

loneliness: emotional hypochondria

Its really difficult for me to admit that I was lonely in ISB. Of course my closest friends know this as they have heard me complain about it over and over again. But to put it up on a public platform like this one! Honestly, I am just writing this in case someone stumbles upon it. A someone who is also in a college setting with 500 other kids, but still just feels painfully alone.

I remember walking to my quad at night alone. Coming home and turning on the light to an empty room. Making Maggie in the kitchen, just craning my ears and hoping that one of my quadmates would come home at that moment, run into me and keep me company for a little while.

I truly respect and admire people who can return to an empty room without any qualms. I certainly had a tough time doing so. Perhaps, I still have those qualms.

Having lived at home and always returned to a full house, I suppose I was spoilt.

Many of you will probably wonder why I couldn’t just go to a friend’s house, if I felt that bad about it! Its true, I could have. But the difference between friends and family is that you cant impose on the former. Maybe you can, and I truly hope that you can, but I never felt like I could. Too many inhibitions I suppose.

 Anyways, in term three, I thought I found a solution to the problem. Again, very difficult to admit on a public forum. What was it? Well, I thought the best thing would be to find a partner, a boyfriend of sorts. Why? Because, traditionally lovers tend to spend a lot of time together and if they are not physically together then they are usually connecting in some way through the phone, chat or some such modern communication device. Moreover, and this is important, you can take quite a lot of liberties with your lover! You are not likely to impose on them since they, well love you, and should want to be with you anyways. Right?!

WRONG! This was my first major mistake in ISB and I will remember this for the rest of my life.

Loneliness is not a disease that requires some sort of medicine/solution (boyfriend, friend, family). Don’t get me wrong, a hug is nice now and then and important for a healthy state of well being. But, loneliness is just a state of imagination. It’s a belief that you need something that you don’t actually need. Its emotional hypochondria!

You are designed to be alone, to survive alone and most importantly be happy alone. You really don’t need to find anyone else for it. Infact, if that is the reason you are dating someone right now or going on endless social excursions then it is equivalent to taking medicines for a disease that you do not have.

The best way to rid yourself of loneliness is to stop believing that such a state of mind can exist because it is actually truly not real!  

party planning: a noble affair

Party planning: A Noble Affair

In term 2, I opted to be the student life council representative for my section. Truthfully, I did it because a) I thought it would add color to my cv and b) I was under-confident that I would not get into the core councils of any of the key clubs (namely consulting club). So since the position was uncontested, I thought, why not. Besides after a week of hearing that one should step out of their comfort zone, I think I got somewhat brainwashed as well.

So how was the experience? Again, the harsh truth—painful. Stepping out of ones comfort zone is immensely uncomfortable, to say the least! I found myself organizing cake after cake for birthday after birthday that would fall very unstrategically on days before exams. I could almost never get sleep the night before a party since there were n number of things that could go wrong and the thought of 50 odd unsatisfied section mates, who were unhappy primarily because I couldn’t manage to throw a good event together was extremely nerveracking. Being responsible for ensuring that enough people participated in section sports was also hard since I myself am least interested, note uneducated, in sports!

But, the feeling when a party went off well or when I turned on my computer and was inundated with thank you mails was truly unbeatable. I still remember this one time when I organised a cake for a section mate’s birthday and there was a great turnout (he had a lot of friends) and he said “this is my first birthday away from my family thanks a lot guys”. Damn, it felt good!

All I know is that event management is perceived to be a not so prestigious profession. Definitely not in the ranks of say social work, or being a doctor. But all in all, you do get to make a difference, a non-monetary difference. You do get to elevate emotions and maybe make someone’s day. Or enable someone to go home with a couple more happy memories to fight the drudgery of their mundane lives!

So here is to you student life council, thanks to you, someone will have a story to narrate about the first time they drank at an ISB party or the first time they kissed a boy on the dance floor or the first time they really truly let their hair loose! J

the date auction

Did you know ISB had a date auction party? Pretty cosmopolitan eh? I mean, Ive seen movies, Im talking about the US teeny bopper shows like Saved by the Bell or Full house, that have featured date auctions, but never a real lIfe date auction! A part of me really really wanted to do it. And a part of me really didn't. Being auctioned I mean. But seriously hats off to all the girls and boys that actually went ahead and did it. I mean standing up there and being valued, literally valued!! THAT TAKES A LOT OF COURAGE!

I remember the first girl attracted something like Rs 4000, whIch is quite a bit if ure on a student budget if you ask me. But the second girl, she got Rs 8,000!! So, I was standing there and I wondered is the first girl was feeling bad that she was essentially valued at half the price of the other girl? One girl was valued at Rs 11,500!!!

So how were these valuations made? To be honest, it had a lot to do with how many friends you had made by then. I believe one guy was forced into bidding for a girl, he was "not even remotely interested in" which was just controversial and weird and not so cool!

But watching the girls that night, I felt nothing but the utmost respect for women who were so confident of their own self worth that any number ANYONE ELSE attached to them would not phase them in the least bit! thats what B school confidence is all about! No matter what other people think, you know ur own worth and r not afraid to stand up be valued by others and then be able to go home with your own self valuation still intact.

Coming from a girl who would never have been able to pull off such a feat: HATS OFF LADIES! :)

Economics of Women

There is one definite plus about being a girl in ISB! Your market value rises significantly. Whhooooosssshhhh. What does that mean, you ask? Well, due to the 74:26 male-female ratio, each girl automatically becomes more attractive and subsequently more valuable, a very sought after commodity. It is the demand supply equation. High demand coupled with low supply increases the price of the product. Well extend this funda to the situation in ISB and you essentially have a situation where a bunch of average looking women have been catapulted to supermodel status!

So, you can just imagine what happens to a girl who is actually really significantly beautiful. Well there was was one such girl. She was undoubtedly absolutely gorgeous! Tall, fair, light eyed, long silky browish black hair....And the cherry on the cake was that she knew how to dress. She was a typical "Delhi"girl! Carrying her Louis Vitton bag (yes somehow it did manage to fit in all her books, course packs etc), pedicured feet adorned with Prada chappals and donning her gucci/chanel sunglasses on her head, she looked like she was ready for Ayesha Thappar's garden party.

But yet, here she was, in her full glory, a treat for all the men of ISB. A walking talking aphrodisiac. 

Now going back to the supply-demand equation, you can only imagine what HER market value would be like. The Kohinoor of ISB. :)

The Kodak case: definitely NOT a kodak moment

Assignment: Develop a marketing strategy for Kodak Films, which is losing market share!

Tarun. Tarun. Tarun. Aaaauuuggghhhh. He speaks and frustration prevails! This is the one thought that kept going round and round in my head. Exactly who is this Tarun, you may be wondering! Well, he was my study group mate. A silver medallist from IIT Kharagpur, he is definitely someone you will read about in a couple years in some business magazine. the headline will read "Youngest CEO turns around company" or something like that.

BUT THAT REALL WASNT THE POINT THAT NIGHT!!! He droned on and on, ok, rather sped on at the speed of lightening with his calculations. "So, the break even is this xyz xyz xyz. Right you guys." 

We all looked on aghast. Each study group has 5 people. Somehow, ISB ensures that in this group of 5, they put in one, "calculator", basically a super brain who can pull the study group through even in the hardest fo subjects. Essentially in hard core quant subjects, the calculators of the class go up against each other, dragging their study groups, or support systems along. Our calculator was Tarun.

"you have 3 IItians in your study group!", an alumni had exclaimed when he heard the composition of my study group. Besides tarun, my study group comprised shukti (IIT-female-married), sanjeev (IIT-male-committed to both girlfriend and spirituality) and Rajat (non IIT-male (resembling bear)-committed). Tarun was himself IIT-male-brilliant-annoying-committed (yes shockingly enough there was a girl out there who actually understood what this guy was saying ). Sadly enough, at this point I definitely didnt!

Honestly, the bitterness was coming out largely from the fact that I just did not get it! And looking around, out of my 3 IITians, my beacons of hope that would guide me one day to the path of glory, only one was talking.

Shukti, wide eyed was asking doubt after doubt. Now this was downright confounding since I had to struggle to understand the doubt in additon to everything else! EEks! Sanjeev seemed to be following since he would actually make points that Tarun, the self proclaimed leader, didn't brush off ( unlike me who could say no sense apparently). Jealous, I thought perhaps tarun was favoring him since they had the IIT bit in common. Rajat seemed somewhat disconnected but The Self Proclaimed Leader was also nodding at him when he made points. Jealous again, I thought perhaps Tarun was favoring him since he was, well I dont know, male. (i know i was totally running out of excuses) Hmmppphhhh :(
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All I knew about the Kodak case that night was that it was definitely NOT a picture perfect moment for me. CLICK!!!!