I have not been diligent in my blogging of late, the reason is my parents are visiting me. I am doing a juggling act on the life and work balance rope..it has been difficult to say the least.

On another note, I am seriously exploring an entrepreneurial venture as well. It seems to have a very good potential and the project team is planning to enter some business plan competitions. In case any one of you know of a good site which has free business plan writing software (like Business plan pro), please let me know!!

Recommender No. 2 (and 3)

As some of you may know, I was grappling with the issue of telling my Manager about my Bschool plans. I was a bit nervous about this.., well a few days back, he came into my office and started telling me about his own plans to leave the company and join some other firm. I was kind of excited to hear this, because this means that he would not care so much that now I will be leaving and can surely give me a recommendation. So looks like things are clearing up on that end.

For my third recommender, I will select my Graduate school professor. Three recommenders are only required at Stanford (I think), and they are okay with academic references. Since I worked with this professor, he is in a good position to comment on my academic and interpersonal skills. He is an alumni of MIT, which is a good thing too..

My First recommender is all set..Sitting in middle east, working,..And hopefully will churn out those recommendation letters fast once time comes!!

Kellogg

This weekend, I spent a good chunk of time going over Kellogg website for information and other statistics. Kellogg is a great school with an excellent campus and a really good student body.

I was grappling whether I should apply for the regular MBA program or the more manufacturing specialized MMM program. The MMM program gives you an additional Master of Engineering Mgmt degree, and you can take some courses in the McCormick School (which I wish to do). However, I think you can do that in MBA as well. Admissions-wise, it may be easier to get into Kellogg if you apply via MMM (higher acceptance rate). However, it is difficult to revert back to regular MBA once selected for MMM.

Current students, please comment..Which one is better?

Day in San Francisco..

Spent a quiet afternoon in golden gate park. This was the first time I had been there, and was surprised at the all the cool things one could do there (best of all for Free or a very minimal charge). Arboretums, flower conservatory, golf courses, restored windmills, japanese gardens, and more.


Flower in bloom 



Wind Mill 


On a beautiful day, How can a visit to SF be complete without a trip to the Twin peaks...

View from Twin peaks 

Office space


The Bobs... 

Here are some memorable quotes from the all time CLASSIC!! More quotes are here..

Bob Slydell: I'll be honest with you, I love his music, I do, I'm a Michael Bolton fan. For my money, it doesn't get any better than when he sings "When a Man Loves a Woman".

Samir: This is a fuck.

Drew: I'm thinking about taking that new chick from Logistics. If things go right I might be showing her my O-face. You know: Oh. Oh.

MBA competition

I was at a local Borders with my wife last night. My wife is normally not into books, so we do not go into bookstores a whole lot together. I, on the other hand, just adore books..love their smell, love the rows of neatly stacked books (you get the idea). Okay, say it, I am a NERD.

Anyways, picked up some books on MBA strategies. Wow, this is an industry in itself. I mean, any person planning to apply to the World's top B-schools should be at a level of competence that he/she can go to the School's websites, and few clicks later, be able to judge the school's culture, the focus, the student pool, compensation statistics, leadership focus, technology focus, etc. Then why the hell are all these books being published? I like Montauk's book, but so does 7000 other applicants to Wharton. I have stopped reading that book for now, because I want to chart my own identity and my own ideas about each School. I will reinforce those ideas after visiting each school, and that's that.

Anyways, I saw atleast a couple of guys studying for GMAT in the Borders coffee shop. Hmm, a lot of competition. But somehow sitting and typing my thoughts in the computer for essay ideas, my wife sitting and reading a COSMO, I began to feel good about the whole forthcoming application process. I think, I am ready!! Bring it on...

Leadership

What defines leadership? Is it lofty degrees from prestigious Business schools?

In my current role as a Project manager (a recent development), I am having to manage 10 people and assign them tasks and subtasks. The PM is the main catalyst for the success of any project, any body will tell you that. The bigger challenge is getting the work done in an optimal manner. The budgets assigned for each task can very quickly run dry in a consulting setting, given the high billing rates. The PM therefore, has to show Management skills- by assigning, setting expectations for final work product and trouble shooting problem areas.

However, I do not like the idea of micro-managing people. Although in some cases, this depends on the person being managed. In some cases (and this is where you differentiate stars from the crowd), some people have the knack of completing all the tasks on time and exceeding your expectations on the work product. And there are some, who produce a lousy work product or do work which was not of value to the Project. Its these people, who need to be micro-managed, but in a way that you do not make them hate their jobs. Getting people to do work is called managing, getting people to do work while making sure that they are loving what they are doing is called Leadership. And that is one heck of a difficult task!!

Bowling for Columbine and other trivialities

I just finished watching Bowling for Columbine, an excellent documentary on the effects of guns on society. It was hilarious, and poignant at the same time. Moore seems to have a knack for getting people to say the very thing they should keep quiet about. And he is not afraid to say it like it is. These are times of pseudo-patriotism, when free speech is being painted as anti-Americanism. However, Moore himself is an object of great scrutiny.

I am an Immigrant myself to the United States- This country has been very good to me and I owe a lot to the people, the amenities and the system. However, I do get concerned over small things. One of my friends in the Midwest was hanging out in a parking lot of a restaurant when a man came to him and said "Don't you dare touch my Car". After arguing in vain with him and to trying to undertsand why he would mistake my friend for a burglar, the man said "F*** you, go back to your country". My friend, who has spent the majority of his life in the US, could not believe his ears...The man shouting at him was no red-neck hilly-billy, he was a seemingly well to do, educated American.

The trouble is that many people do not want to talk about these things. These issues get repressed in the fast paced life which most Americans lead. For e.g., The Iraq prisoner torture issue has been convieniently forgotten, in its place are Reagan's funeral and NBA finals. Of course, most people are more interested in watching who won "American Idol" than current world affairs.

I am sorry to be saying all this. But I strongly believe that one of the things which makes this country unique are all the talented immigrants who come here from around the world looking for the American dream. Their contributions to Arts, Sports, Science, Technology, Medicine and Culture are hardly insignificant.

Developments

I was out on project work site this whole week. The worst thing was that I had to get up really early every morning. I am a bit of a late riser so it was tough on me.

I talked to a potential recommender today. He is leaving for the middle east on a project so I had to tell him about my B-school plans. He gave me an emphatic thumbs-up on being my recommender.

I also started using Microsoft notes for assembling school information and research. It is a neat way of organizing data from the internet in a easy to use fashion. I also will start making hard copies of the stuff I have gathered so far. I need to buy a printer, any one have suggestions on a good one (maximum budget of $100)? I would also like to use it while I am in B-school, so please give me ideas!!

Carbon Nanotubes 


Carbon nanotubes show promise for an extraordinary variety of products IBM recently demonstrated a carbon nanotube that produces infrared light. Motorola and Samsung are working on carbon nanotubes for flat-panel displays. Nantero is developing nanotube-based memory. And researchers at the University of North Carolina have shown carbon nanotube batteries to hold twice as much energy as conventional batteries.


Nanotubes have aroused great excitement because of their unique physical properties. They are very lightweight and extremely flexible. When a tube is bent it does not fracture like most materials but buckles like a drinking straw. When the strain is released the tube straightens out again. Carbon nanotubes are also predicted to be by far the strongest fibres that can be made. All of these factors mean that carbon nanotubes could be used for all kinds of interesting things in the future. Ideas include aeroplanes that are so lightweight that if the engines failed, they would simply glide. Buildings could be made earthquake proof. It might be an ideal material for bullet-proof vests. And of course there are applications in electronics with wires that could be kilometres long but only atoms thick.



More information on Nanotechnology can be found here.