TTC Geographically

By geography I mean two things. First is actual geography. I was thinking I have fair knowledge of geography. But this year opened my eyes. I didn't know part of Istanbul is in Europe and part in Asia, or Singapore is the south most point of Asia or many things like that. Well now I know better about both Europe and Asia. And now I know that I don't know many things yet.


But the primary motive of this post is the second meaning of geography. I mean the new meaning of geographical locations for me. Last year, for me HK was place of Jackie Chan and Dubai was for Mumbai underground exiles. Taiwan was a semiconductor manufacturing country and China was just a country that was like India but doing a lot better now. Even EU countries like France and Germany had no emotional attachment from me. US was a place where Indians go. But now everything is changed. Each of these countries now is associated with one or more faces of close friends. I know how they live, what they speak, how they eat and what they play. I can not imagine any single year when I will ever learn about so many different people from so many different places. And the best part is they are not just people. They are friends. This might sound niche and you would say any international student will experience the same. Well, yes and no. I mean yes, many get the same experience. But I am glad I did too. And I am sure not really many can make friends with so many diverse and still highly talented group of people. This is something I don't expect to happen again. And I am immensely grateful for the opportunity.

Completion of SCP

On Wednesday we gave a formal presentation to team of 10 from our sponsor company about our work. That officially marked the end of the SCP. I have already talked about it. So nothing more. Unfortunately one of our team Estel member Nilanjana couldn't join the presentation. So just three of us. Bdw Team ESTEL was the name of our team. Estel is the land of hope in Lord of the Rings. So Estel could meant hope. I used this word for team where were hoped to get the SCP at least in the second round after a hell-struggle in first round.

Here are some snaps in company. No photography allowed inside. So....

TTC Team Work

I already had very good experience of working in teams. This includes the experience of working as Magazine Secretary way back in college. I had to handle about ten teams of students and communicate with ten professors who were guiding the teams. This was one large team of about 140 students and it certainly taught me a lot. Same thing next year working as Cultural Secretary. Even in job I worked in virtual teams spread all over the world.

But still these teams are very different. They generally have different skill sets and expertise and there is some hierarchy in the team. On the contrary, working in MBA teams is very very different. For there is no hierarchy here, everyone is smart and many times egoistic, Everyone has their own way of doing things and the skill set might not vary a lot. This might result in either direction. If you could get along with it, you work in a team of some of the smartest and mot efficient people. The accumulative skill set, knowledge, experience and sheer brain power of such team could be astonishing and might create wonders. While if by any chance there is substantial difference in working style, you could spend hours and hours in pointless battle just to set the order within a team. Mountain goats are famous for fighting for hours to set the order. within the hurd. And this fight could be duet or even three or four goats at times. I am Capricorn by sun sign which is represented by goat. So even though unwillingly, I was involved in some of these battles. While other times I enjoyed the knowledgeable discussion and creative outcome from it.

Overall this experience enriched, if not changed, my understanding of team. I am more capable of working in team than I was before. And I have better understanding of when and why of people behaviour. I am still not able to handle certain situations as smoothly as I should. But at least theoretically I know how should act then.

By the way today is right time to talk about team as our team gave the presentation of our summer work. This is the team I worked the most with in my MBA. And today I could happily say that I liked it.

TTC Academically

First on the list is must be my understanding of business and corporate world. I was below average of my MBA class in terms of understanding or the corporate world. And in a year I learned immensely about companies, people inside it, customers outside it and how theese comapanies work. There were few companies that I didn't even knew are existing last year this time. And today I not only know about them, but I also understand what is going terribly wrong or impressively well about them. Being a software developer, I knew comparatively less about some aspects of business such as marketing and finance. Enen nNow it will be stretch to say that I have mastered them. But I at least know what people mean why they talk about marketing of finance.

And the SCP we did this summer was the best opportunity to apply what we learned to reality. I am quite happy with the SCP and the work we did. And this just confirmed how much I would love to work as a consultant.

Now here I must confess that I did terribly wrong in the MBA program. I mean I still passed with good marks and all, but I know that I have made every mistake in the book. I managed time badly, misunderstood the concepts, skipped very essential readings, slept in classes, applied wrong concepts or right concepts at wrong places and many others. But I know from experience that making mistakes is the best way of learning (very expensive though… but still… the best). So I guess I could proudly say that I learned a lot in this program. And in future, when I will be required to work in real time scenarios, I would knowwhat NOT to do…. And that, as this MBA has taught me, is half work done.So I guess I am good to go :)

So my final comment will be I absolutely, perfectly, 100 % got what I wanted academically from this program.It has substantially enhanced my knowledge about this business world and has given me the new perspective to look at the corporate world.

Towards the Finish Line

Yesterday we took the prinout of the SCP report. That means the SCP is academically over. We still have to give the presentation to the company on Wednesday. but the major part seems to be done. With this 'done' thing the reality or greater 'done' that started an year back and the preparation for which started about five years back is becoming more and more tangible. This is almost end of August. September used to be very relaxing month in India. It generally is the time in India when schools / colleges are open since couple of months, so you are already settled with your new friends and new course. Monsoon is almost ending. The land is still ornately green, but the October heat hasn't arrived yet. You j enjoy the college festivals and cultural festivals like Ganesh-Utsav, or Paryshan (Jain). It is very settling month...

But when I will start this September, I will have no idea where and what I would be by the end of the month. This could be the most unsettled month in last 26 years. This is not a complain. In fact I am glad about this little uncertainly as I hope that it will hold a nice surprise for me. But to look at it in another way, the MBA is ending.

So what I want to do here it to look back at the things once again and see what this year really meant to me. I am going to write few TTC posts.... Things That Changed posts that will be the result of simple subtraction of me right now and me an year ago. This is more for me than for you so be patient!!!

Yearbook

So here is the final yearbook we created. Actually it is a photobook rather than yearbook. but still good record of an Oxford year. Click on the image to see the same. Warning: The link is slow at times.

Refill!!!

From Monday summer electives are starting. People who have chosen electives over SCP have started to return to Oxford now. So great to see familiar faces again after two months of only a dozen people around. And so bad that when many people are here and have time to go around and enjoy last few days here, I am facing which could potentially be the busiest week of Summer. Nonetheless hope to work hard and..... well, I can't say party hard, as after a year of testing and retesting, I am finally convinced that I am not a party person no matter what.... So work hard and try to spend more time with fella Oxonians.

Thatz all for today.