February 24, 2009
I reach back from Singapore and I get a mail from NUS (National University of Singapore) saying that I have been shortlisted for interview for NUS MBA and that it will happen in March-April. I really wanted to visit the campus when I was there, but heavy thunderstorms made sure that I got stuck in Chinatown and missed the opportunity to be at NUS.
Lets see how it pans out…
February 23, 2009
The “Vote for Change” campaign by Obama was probably one of the most successful marketing campaigns in recent times. The campaign was so successful, it got him to WhiteHouse and the Obama keychains and flags and stickers are still selling like hot cakes. Now looks like the church wants the ride on the success of this campaign too…
Here’s a poster I found near the Dhoby Ghat MRT station in Singapore… Note the font, the colors, the font size and the logo 🙂
February 23, 2009
I’m sitting relaxed at my friends place in Singapore (a first after a long time). Haas interview is over, updates to my Ross application has been sent; I finally get some time to check my RSS feeds, Twitter, FaceBook and other assorted social networks that I am part of.
What does social networks really mean to a business or a cause? Today, I had a 2 hour long discussion on the same with Arul (an old friend) sitting in front of the Singapura Plaza Mall in the evening. FaceBook (FB) becomes obnoxious with wrestling requests and vampire bites, Twitter is annoying with people tweeting about how bad a stomach they had this morning… etc
But social media is definitely a great way to get your message out. The fact is that, if your target audience is in the range of 15-30 yrs old… you cant ignore social media. But social media is not the traditional marketing channel. It requires a different approach and a different norm. It is a way to create customer evangelists, a way to gather early feedback, a way to spread a message to millions of potential customers.
I found this cool article on “Why Big Brands Struggle With Social Media?” on Mashable. But more importantly the article has some good pointers to the use of social media as a marketing channel… Enjoy!
February 21, 2009
Its over and it was fun… Not something you say about an interview, but it was. I walked into the Centennial Tower in the Tamasek Avenue today at 10:00 and sat in the coffee house sipping cold coffee (Singapore is sultry, just like my hometown Trivandrum), reviewed my notes and entered the McKinsey office at 10:50. My interview was scheduled at 11:00. I sat in the lobby reading the days paper when my interviewer walked in.
After exchanging pleasantries, we spoke at length about my journey to Singapore and I apologized for the confusion that had spewed on my interview schedule, flip-flopping my decision between doing it in India Vs Singapore.
Contrary to the usual, he started by telling me his experience at Haas. What he did and what he enjoyed… Then came the interview. It was really more a discussion than an interview. It lasted a bit more than an hour and was very conversational. He asked me a lot of questions including:
After this we had a big discussion on his days at Haas including his work with BSG (Berkeley Solutions Group). We discussed a case that he was involved with and the recommendations. Quite fun… It reaffirmed my belief of Haas as a place of “Confidence without Attitude” or as he put it, with “Humble Leaders”…
Now just praying that I become part of the clan… Ross & Haas were the top of my list to begin with and now being considered for both is awesome… Now its time to wait and watch! Come March, its decision time…
Update: Just found this – Berkeley’s Haas School Expands Haas@Work Program
February 20, 2009
After sitting in the apartment for a day and preparing my notes for the interview, I decided to venture out today. To the Temasek Avenue near the Singapore Central Business District (CBD) where my interview is to happen tomorrow noon. I found the Centennial Building and confirmed the address where I need to be and then walked around for sometime before walking back to my place.
Yeah the good part is that the place I stay, on Waterloo Street is walkable from the CBD. Now a jittery peace until tomorrow. Will keep you all posted. Here is a small video I shot today…
February 19, 2009
I just got to Singapore today morning 05:00 IST. Then realized its already 7-ish here 🙂
I have been to Singapore before, but that was on transit from the US. This time here till Monday night, so planning to explore the city. But all after the Haas Interview. Interview is on the 21st in the afternoon. Singapore looks like a city without much traffic problems and a good metro system.
I’m staying in Waterloo Street and very close to the SMU Campus. Nice skyline all around… Hope the interview goes fine, so that I can enjoy this FINE City 🙂
February 11, 2009
Update: I got my visa today…. Singapore, here I come!
Its final (unless my visa-application is rejected). I have booked my tickets to get to Singapore on Feb 21st for my Haas Interview. Since the India leg is still undecided, I decided to do it in Singapore.
Haas says it will have an interviewer in India, but at this point it is unclear about the timelines or cities where it might happen. Since my work requires me to travel quite a bit (as I write this, I am packing my bags to Mysore) it might be difficult to accommodate an interview in my calendar on short notice. Also, flying to Singapore might work out cheaper than say doing my interview in Delhi 🙂
Its a great chance for me to meet up with my friends in Singapore. I’ll be there from 19th to 23rd Feb. If anyone wants to meetup, we can. Let me know! I might also try to visit some of the campuses in Singapore – NUS, INSEAD, Chicago… etc. But hope this trip is worth its weight in gold (well platinum) for me…
On another note, here is the link to transcript of the Haas Waitlist Chat that happened on Jan 30th…
February 7, 2009
Yester was Tuck’s decision time and not being offered interview, I wasn’t optimistic. I received an official ding. My first one… Here’s what my app page said:
Thank you for applying to the Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth. After much thought and careful consideration, I regret to inform you that we are unable to grant your request for admission to the Tuck Class of 2011.
Hope this is the last one too. I was really upbeat after my first interaction with Tuck, but the enthusiasm ebbed due course as I started discovering Haas (My Ross app was already done). I felt Haas was a place I would fit in better that at Tuck. I think that reflected in my essays…
Now awaiting other results. Hopefully they’re different.
February 6, 2009
Sorry for the delay in posting this. There’s been too many things happening too soon to me.
On the 14th January 2009, I made my way to the Taj Gateway Hotel in Bangalore and as usual, I had budgeted for heavy traffic which wasn’t there so I ended up a bit early. There was some confusion at the hotel as the reception didn’t know that such an event was happening. But then I decided “Hey, its a coffee chat, so should be in the coffee bar at the hotel”. I checked the reservations and they said they didn’t know of any MBA event, but a gentleman had booked a table for 10. I decided that must be it and waited there, preparing my notes for the chat.
At around 06:15 pm, I had another person join me. A fellow applicant, a doctor from Kerala who ran his own family hospital, looking to go to Haas for an MBA with focus in healthcare. We were having a chat when Vijesh and the rest of the pool arrived. At the end we were exactly 10. That’s what I call planning 🙂
Mr. Vijesh Unnikrishnan is an NRI, brought up in Kerala (that’s where I come from) and Tamilnadu and been working in the US for quite some time, I think about 8 – 10 years. He is a Mechanical Engineer by education and worked at Guidant Corporation, a healthcare company part of Boston Scientific.
We went through introductions around the table, a healthy mix of men and women, most from IT, but also banking, healthcare and in family-business. Vijesh was very genuine and enthusiastic in his approch, one he said is the hallmark of Haas. The chat was very informal and soon he was been bombarded with a ton of questions.
Referring to my notes, here were the main traits that came out:
An interesting point he made about South-Asians at Haas
In his batch, South-Asians (India + Pak + Bangladesh + others from SAARC) form about 20% of class. Of this, a lot of them are American Citizens with South Asian ethnicity and others are Non-Residents. Only about 30% of them, i.e. 30% of 20% = 6% of the class = 10-15 are from South Asia and lived there most of their life. Hmm… Interesting!
Vijesh also spoke about the points and bid system at Haas for bidding for electives and how International Business Dev is a popular but costly (in terms of points) elective. How you need to manage the points to make sure that you cater to your needs and interests as an individual. I quite liked the approach, management in practice at the school. Managing your meager resources… Sweet!
And there were a couple of funny/tough questions that Vijesh had to answer:
But, I was really impressed by the way in which Vijesh dealt with the “Stan Vs Haas” question. He acknowledged that Stan was a good school, so was Berkeley. The major difference is that Stan is a private school with deep pockets, while Berkeley is public. The way he spoke, I could hear the Golden Bear growling at the Cardinals. He made sure that the “Big C” trumpeted loud and clear over its traditional rival. Reminded me of the time I was in Stan in 2006 and how the Stan grads talked about Berkeley. 🙂
Here’s a video Interview of Vijesh that I did after the chat… My Flip acted up, so I had to turn to my E71 to do the job. The audio is feeble as there was too much disturbance in the hotel lobby. I will try to post a processed audio link below it soon:
* this is not an official Haas Video!
Thanks Vijesh, Thanks Haas it was a great night. Had fun, made new friends and cemeneted my reasons to have Haas high on my list. Now for “fingers-crossed” time 🙂
February 4, 2009
Some time back, I had posed a poll on What would you like to see in a BSchool Software?. As an Adobe Evangelist, I used Adobe technologies (Flex, Flash & AIR) to try and create a unified experience for users to discover the school.
Here’s presenting:
Discover Ross – a software to discover the school’s presence online in a single user experience…
Discover Ross
The application even has a mini-mode so that it the main menu is tucked away to the side while you Discover Ross :). Use the arrow near the top of the application to toggle between the modes.
Mini Mode
You can get the software here – [http://raghunathrao.com/AIRApps/DiscoverRoss]
The software requires Adobe AIR 1.5 which will be installed along with the software as you click the Go Blue! badge on the page…
The application currently has the following features:
Some features that can be added:
Please install the software and try it out. Just a disclaimer:
I created this software as a proof-of-concept and not as a full fledged product release. It might have bugs and errors 😀
I would like to hear from you on various fronts:
Mail me any more features than you want to see on the software, that what I have mentioned in the above list.
February 4, 2009
I have been having an awesome time interacting with fellow applicants on the Ross Waitlist group. Aravind came up with an excellent idea of maintaing an online spreadsheet of our credentials so that we can see where we are.
What I saw there was a validation of something that I thought might happen on the waitlist. There is a overwhelming majority of IIMs…
IIM – Indian IT Male
I saw this acronym on some blog, cant remember where…
There are a lot of people from the Tech background from India who are working in IT. This cements the fact that the pool is way too competitive on the demographics front. And conceding to the fact that the school looks to create diversity in demographics & backgrounds, differentiation is going to be the key.
That is what I plan to do. And sure, that is what each and every one of us are planning to do too… All the Best 🙂
I am a Product Evangelist turned MBA delineating his journey through BSchool
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