The only reason a host of states is NOT keen on implementing GST is because they would be forced to tax certain sectors at flat rate instead of the totally random and ad-hoc rate at which they do now!

Show me a very good reason why would someone pay road tax @7.5% for ex-showroom price in Haryana and a totally atrocious and unacceptable 14.5% in Karnataka! Roads in Karnataka arent made of Mysore Pak or anything...and in any case Haryana roads are better.

Opponents are crying hoarse at the complexity of the whole rollout, but for me its more of a convenience since the whole rigmarole of border check-posts will be done away with, reducing haftas and the entire inspector raaj will be finally disbanded. 
The final bit will of course reduce the extra income of the political classes and their pet goons and friendly baniyas, but most people will be happy otherwise.

Long weekend drive from NCR: Notes to myself

1.Never ever plan a drive to any place of remote interest to Dilliwalas on a long weekend. The roads will be choc-a-bloc with rashly driven cars and SUVs,the public restrooms can put a refugee camp to shame and the hotels will charge you just about enough to be manageable by selling one kidney.
2.All shops and restaurants will run out of IMFL and paneer( Kadhai, Butter masala, Malai, Methi, Mutter all types). Soya chaaps will be sold out by saturday afternoon.
3. If its a hill station, road-side garages will make a neat packet patching up burnt clutch-plates and changing brake pads.
4. Prepare for dents, dings, scratches and long queues if god forbid someone blows a turbo/ tyre/ head-gasket bang in the middle of a hairpin.
5. Carry 5 litres of water, electral and energy bars. Wear comfy shorts, a nice sun-glass and drink lots of kadak adrakwali chaai.

Jobs, placements, Random ramblings.

In course of a rather illuminating and interesting session on how " The Economist" MBA rankings work, it came out that there is a criterion called " Class Diversity". I hope that diversity is more to do with national diversities coupled with work-ex and just not industries represented in class.

Further, the rankings seemed me to be a composite indicator of which the Asian economy is tilting since the Chinese( both Mainland & HK ) schools are rapidly going up the ranks, while the Australian and Singaporean school are holding on to their ranks. Only IIM-A is in the list from India, so I guess B & C didn't bother responding or feel its beneath their level to take part in these rankings. Either way, if they don't want to play, Amen.

 

For a school to actually do well in the rankings, along with other institutional factors like number of Professors with Doctorate( which obviously have a long gestation period), one simple and easy to control factor which somehow many schools seem to ignore is Alumni Relations. If your old boys don't say good about you, no amount of hard work from the school level will be enough to climb up the rankings. And this is one place where Indian B-schools, rankings or no rankings have done tremendously well. The entire process of Alumni relations is structured, controlled and a matter of " National Security" for the schools. And it is not surprising that the schools with the best placement records are the ones with the strongest and most active alumni network. If students cant help your cause and don't agree to become your greatest ambassador and advertiser, something is gravely wrong with a school and Indian B-schools have caught on this little fact of life very early in their existence. And this is one place I feel my school needs to focus on as of yesterday. Alumni relations is the first and best way to spread the good word and generate interest, goodwill and acknowledgement. Anybody would be curious to know about the school from which your best buddy at work come from. And if he has only good things to talk about, bingo. Half the work is done.

Talking to people involved with the recruitment process in India, it is apparent that most of them don't have any idea of international schools, rankings and will hire only from their own old schools or the schools in the list given by their bosses. Mind it, this is at lower HR level where the first round scanning of resumes is done. Funnily enough, the slightly senior people will always know someone from the HK or Singapore schools and even from my school. In case of my school, it seems many very senior management level staffers know all about it and actually have a  very favorable opinion. So its not a brand building for the school, but more of a dusting and polishing of the name plate.

So lessons for the day.

1. Mend the fences( if necessary ) with the old boys and girls. Talk to them about the school, the new direction, the way forward, about the new library and the canteen. Play to the sentiments, remind them of the pool-side parties and the take-home WACs. Talk to them about Greenbelt, about Washington Sycip park, the Legaspi village food-court.

2. Do it a matter of pride and not as a chore or JD.

3. Track them at their work, track changes, track career shifts, advancements, track it all. Congratulate them, show some love and they will do whatever it takes to help. That's how it works with all schools and no one can prove otherwise.

4. For ASEAN to be the next thing and growth to explode, its imperative we have managers trained to run business in this region and as a school with ASEAN focus, we should be at the forefront of it. But somehow this feeling is not permeating the system beyond a certain level.

5. Read the cases.

 

 

AM Back: Stories from BS-Chool.

I am planning to convert this dormant blog to a series of anecdotes about my experiences at a BS-chool. I say this without any prejudice and without trying to malign the school I attend. I just feel a great disconnect  and have this theory that  coming to a school to learn how to run a business and dissecting Harvard and Richard Ivey cases are fine and in real life Googling can  get you ideas but  you still need to have basic native intelligence and IQ and EQ to put it all together, all of which seems to be at a premium.

So I will start by introducing my theory of how partying and getting laid JUST don't go hand in hand, or in QA-speak there is no direct correlation and the regression index R^2 is very low. I notice bunch of my classmates going out and partying hard and getting smashed and doing the dirty-dancing with random people ( Indian Dirty dancing so think of 80s Mithunda films mixed with Govindasque pelvic thrusts) while the real Khiladis just follow Nike. They do it. So while fucktards do their bit for the balance sheet and cash flow of San Mig Corporation, some of the other grade A lotharios just walk the talk. Or lay the laid.

Our basic theory is called the B-J Non-Regression Theory of B-School inter-mixing, named after the two people who discovered and postulated the main tenets of the theory over cups of pressed coffee and instant noodles.

Here is the First Commandment : Never go to a party or a booze-session in BS-Chool until and unless you are absolutely sure that it will make you fitter, faster, richer, gets you laid or at the minimum gets you an internship at McK, BCG, Booz or AT Kearney with the possibility of a PPO.

So this is mantra one. Follow it to the T. And use a condom, preferably Durex. ( my first product endorsement plug-in here).

Jonga:Joyshib

Looking at the pics of an old Nissan Jonga on T-BHP, I felt like buying one.

And realised its the easiest way to get a divorce.

So will settle for a Gypsy. Will still get a divorce.

So maybe a Scorpio.

But its a blooody wallowing fat mis-handling bucket of bolts.

So... an ALTO... K10... thankfully...

Amen

Chelsea and the art of non-footballing fame

To regular football watchers it is defnitely not surprising that the alleged racism complaint against Mr Clattenburg has come to nought. It was supposed to be. The entire incident smacked of a classic cry-baby attitude which some of the clubs are resorting to these days.

To call Mr Clattenburg is a racist in my opinion was a good diversionary tactic to take some heat away from their first home loss to United in the last 10 years. But whereas earlier someone like Jose Moursinho would close ranks, create a siege mentality and win the game, the new Chelsea " Project" relied on the totally wrong strategy.

As an United fan, I would not say it was a good match or that we won because we played much better. It was a grind in the cauldron of Stamford Bridge and well we were just the team with the better stronger mentality that day. But to say that United won cause the referee was biased or racist or anything is totally preposterous. Chelsea as a team lost tactically on the pitch and then to complicate matters complained about racism on the part of the referee. A complaint which has based on the interpretation of a non-native English speaking footballer who thought the referee had been using racist language to demean his colleague ( who incidentally was closer to the referee, in fact was spoken to by the referee and in the closed confines of the referee room, not during open play).

Chelsea Project has cost their owner almost a Billion Dollars and after 6 managerial changes and 1 interim manager in the form of Guss Hiddink has managed only 1 Champions League and 2 leagues wins in the last 10 years. That is decent by any stretch of imagination but not enough to satisfy the ego of their Oligarch owner who is perhaps used to things getting done in a jiffy back in his native Russia. His dream project has not managed to deliver the goods in terms of a flurry of trophies nor has managed to create an effective academy system which can challenge United for the top slot every year. While United and Arsenal run like a old but well-oiled Automatic watch, the Chelsea project seems to be like a flashy battery-operated chronograph, efficient initally but prone to getting jaded around the edges soon.

The glory-seeking Owner and his overtly hands-on approach has just not worked for Chelsea and now they have painted themselves into a corner with this unneccesary case. Losing at home to your bitter rivals is no excuse for coming up such a preposterous allegation expecially at a time the entire soccer fraternity has been under the microscope and even the smallest of the details are available on camera. By trying out a totally school-boyish crying wolf tactic, Chelsea has made sure they remain in the bad books of each and every match official in the future. Its a sad day for football when someone like Mr Clattenburg who seems to officiate matches with quite a bit of passion and fairness is wrongly accused of  heinous racist behaviour. If it were a tactic, Chelsea has just made a massive strategic blunder. A blunder which will reverberate around football stadium at home and abroad for quite some time to come.

Life as B-School.

Life at B-School seems to be massive commie effort to roger up our weekends. Jokes apart,the first two months the School wants us to shape-up and come up to speed. Guess by end of Jan, we will be moving into a much more relaxed schedule. Or probably we will just be spaced out totally and would not bother about missed classes, unread cases and dirty clothes.
P.S: Case method rocks.