Airlines....

A great case-study for organizational excellence can be found in the Airline industry. While stalwarts such as United were going bankrupt, two success stories were being created: Southwest airlines and Jetblue airlines. (I am a big fan of both airlines as I travel on them regularly for work).

Jetblue has really good customer service: They show that right from the start when you begin to book the ticket. Standard cheap fares, a user-friendly website, and exceptional service if booking on phone. I was amazed at the great service they provided to my mother who doesnt speak English and was travelling alone, by assisting her during boarding and follow through to the baggage claim area.

Similarly Southwest has great promotions: cheap fares, extremely good customer service and ability to change flight timings at really short notice, printing boarding pass before flight, and other great inititiaves.

The bottomline: PROFITS..translated not from gloassy marketing campaigns, but winning customers like you and me, using the human approach, reaching out one at a time. I really commend the management of both Southwest and Jetblue for doing such a good job with an otherwise hardhit Airline industry.

In India, a similar transformation has emerged, after people got disenchated with the poor service from Indian Airlines. Now there is a choice of two domestic airlines: Sahara and Jet Airways. These airlines have changed the face of domestic travel in India in a very short time span. Extremely courteous, puntual, great food (I travelled in Jet airways and was surprised that we got Ice cream during the flight).. things which didnt exist when Indian Airlines had the monopoly.

Wow..this is cool. I have been featured on the Wharton's application Blog! This seems like an amazing resource for applicants.

this is interesting, because I finished my first set of drafts on W-essays and sent it to my reviewers for reading.

I am also busy planning for our visit to Philly and Wharton on Sept 30th! Cant wait...

Lawyers and more..

Spent a good part of the day yesterday with some top shot lawyers dealing with a class action lawsuit. We were in a room with video and audio feeds from a second room which had a mock jury.

I was a bit amused initially by the lack of tech-savviness amongst the lawyers. Two things stuck:

• Lawyers do not understand computers, powerpoint and projectors
• Lawyers do not understand math - I saw 3 attorneys pulled their calculators to multiply 15000 with $3000 in claims to get a total of $45 million.

However, my notions regarding their stupidity vanished as soon as they started speaking in front of the Jury. Man, they are good. This one guy who was "pretending" to be a plaintiff attorney was so convincing that even I believed his case. His arguments were solid and his style of delivery was very powerful. Then the next guy came on stage and believe me, I changed my mind once again.

At the end, I realized: We engineers and scientists do experiments with inanimate objects, while lawyers experiment with humans. It is very challenging and very difficult job to do. Of course, that's why some of the hot shots have egos to boot..but thats another story!

P.S: I have decided to enrol myself in a public speaking course. I was reminded of my acute deficiency in public speaking.

6.50 a.m., somewhere north of L.A.

got up real early today morning...enjoying a cup of coffee and penning some thoughts. Had a nice dinner of filet mignon last night at Black Angus..alone. Was stuck in SJ airport for 5 hours yesterday for a 1 hr flight. Hmm, consulting may have some advantages, but TRAVELING is not one of them.

Lets meet up

Well, I finally got around it. Took a day off on wedensday (sick leave :)), and clunked away on my W-essays. I think I have W-1 ready, and rough drafts on the rest. My plan is to clean them up a bit more today and then put them on the side to revisit next week.

I will be in LA next week for work. It should be a nice break from office work..

I was also discussing with Aregon to have a small gathering (dinner/coffee?) in sept. for fellow bloggers and applicants in the bay area to discuss strategies or genereally hanging out and getting to know everyone. I think I know the following are in the bay area:

• Aregon
• Dave
• Riter

Anyone else I am missing. I am volunteering to host the first meet at my place..so send me an email if interested offline swoop2_2000@yahoo.com

No progress...

I have been goofing off at work and also at B-school apps. The only thing I have done is line up the people who will be reading my essays and gave them a sampler (W-1) as a taste of things to come.

After sending W-1 to my reviewers,.. I realized that I have a serious flaw in flow of essay from Career progress to Why MBA.. I think I have handled the why Wharton well...but there needs to be a more compelling argument about why MBA..why now. This is the crux of the application and needs my utmost attention...so its back to the drawing board again.. AARGHH! Britchick, Aregon23, and the rest...I hear your pain of rewrites!

I have made a deadline of August 27th for Wharton essays to be completed..and I mean "completed" from my end. Then i really need to concentrate on Kellogg and finish them by 1st-2nd week of Sept. Then i take a break and get my recommenders with information and resume. This is the plan anyways....

I enjoyed reading Bala's diary on Wharton Journals...I was freaking out about moving from california to east coast if I got admitted. Here is a guy who moved from India with his wife, kid and his dog. Truly amazing...B-school is a very important LIFE decision..and I hope I remember the stakes as I delve deeper into the process!!

B-school apps are so VERY different!

I remember my old M.S. applications..I was so naive back then. I had essays starting with "i used to tinker with electric toys and clocks, hence i decided to become an engineer" type of logic. Its good that my grades were good, and I was accepted..

I think B-school essay process (and the entire application) is much more introspective and really calls out for personality and maturity which can only be gained after working in organizations and taking a few knocks along the way. I think there are very few people who really know what they want in life early on in their life. In a way, B-school is sort of a leveling game, because once you are in, your passion for a particular industry and your focus will carry you through the maze!

Essays..

I put my final touches to W-1 essay today. I think it is now in a state that I can show it to people for reviews. I will not work on W-2 for now as its tied to something I am involved in at present. W-3 seems to be two short essays, which I will work on next. I am almost done with the optional essay (W-4)..so looks like I am almost 50% (considering words) done!!

My next target to work on is Kellogg. I did a rough draft of K-1 essay, but its needs a lot of revisions. I will work on K-3 after that (the essay where you pretend to be part of the admissions committee, I like that one!).

Yes, Stanford app is out...and looks like there will be a lot of work just filling out forms. I think I will enlist my wife's help in filling out the basic information!!

The way my applications are looking:
ROUND 1: WHARTON, STAFORD, KELLOGG
ROUND 2: MIT, HARVARD, and No.6??

Class visits: Mid sept: STANFORD information session
Late Sept: WHARTON, MIT, HARVARD (our east coast trip!! gotta plan this one carefully)
Nov: KELLOGG (as part of compulsory interview!)

Leadership: what kind of a leader are you?

Read an interesting book written by some Bain consultants on leadership called "Maximum Leadership 2000" on the flight. The book basically categorizes Leaders into 5 types:

• Strategic leaders
• Leaders with human resources approach
• Leaders with technical edge
• Leaders who are change agents
• Leaders who follow the closed box approach..

I think my leadership style would have to be a mix between technical and human approach. I strongly believe that an organization can flourish only if the employees respect you and if the employees are happy working for you.

Journey continues..

I was out of blogging action as I was visiting Canada this past week. I really had fun attending a wedding in the family. I also took the oppurtunity to renew my Visa at the US consulate in Toronto. Oh Boy, the guards at the gate were really paranoid..they even reprimanded a couple whose kid had ventured to about 5 feet from their gaurd area. I dont know if they were thinking that the kid may be suicide bomber or something. Anyways, this whole terror alert thing may be causing everyone to be ultra-paranoid.

I also found everyone at the consulate to be extremely rude!! At one point, I got into a small argument when I politely asked the cashier to give me a receipt for the fees I was paying. She said abruptly "Did I tell you that I am finished with you?" I felt like taking her and her attitude to her boss! Why do these people in public offices think that they are doing you a FAVOR by giving you a basic service. If they dont like their job, they should just quit!

Anyways, i caught a funny movie last nite called "Harold and Kumar go to White Castle".. interesting that an Asian and an East Indian are the main protagonists in a popular American movie. The media have never cared for this segment of the population before and had always potrayed them with some amount of stereotypism (if thats a word!). I guess media will (have to) change with times....

Well i got to run and catch my favorite Canadian coffee "Tim Horton's" Aye! See ya all later Aye!