Farewell Dinner

One last time the glasses were raised to honor the dream that we had lived for last twelve months. The friends we made, the tasks we accomplished, the fights we fought and forgot, the nights we enjoyed and every moment we spent around these dreaming spires. It was an elegant night. Beautiful tables embellished with glass cutlery, flowers, wines, star-lit like roof and all the MBAs with their friends and families in tux and night-gowns. Everyone was looking very familiar, very close and yet very distant. But all were at their best. Everyone knew they had earned an enormous amount of learning and achievements in past year and they had made friends all over the world. And yet everyone knew that hey have yet way to go and everyone wished if only they could have more time to know the most intriguing people sitting in that hall on that night. This Friday night was the most magical and sentimental night in Oxford. Unfortunately, it was the last night for those distinguished and utterly blessed group of people to be together. For it was the last dinner of Said Business School MBA class of 2007-2008. A Farewell Dinner.

Capstone

The last week of MBA was a Capstone Course. Four days of intensive program contained lectures, seminars, panel discussion and lots of group work. We had formed a team of seven for group. This team had all the close friends only. So we spend a lot of time arguing, fighting, laughing and playing. The course probably wasn't as qualitatively good as expected. But good chance to catch up with the class after summer. The course was concluded on Friday with the presentations by groups on what they worked upon. That was the very last time we sat in SBS as a student. Now only one assignment is left that is due on 22nd. But I guess yesterday was official end of my student life.

Portsmouth and Isle or Wight

Went to Portsmouth and Isle of Wight last week end. The primary reason was to spend time with close friends. And thatz what we did. Didn't spend much time on site seeing.... Just chill out....

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.