Whenever I take to penning my thoughts down, I usually wonder what to write about - nature, future, world issues?! Invariably it is always something which is dominantly on my mind at the moment... And this time, it is this break of one week. Unimaginable in an MBA isnt it?
But thank God for the French authorities, who for once decided that this was the 'legal holiday' week of the year, giving most of us a breather! Well, not literally, with the Marketing project still weighing down heavily, and some real time targets to be met, but all in all a slightly more laid back week than the ones that preceded it....

What I am looking forward to ? Not much, really...Just the below :

- Sleeping through 8 a.m and 9:40 am on all the five 'week' days
- Not rushing to ATAC at 19:30 hrs in an effort to pick up some last minute supplies!
- Not getting dressed in formals for another loong presentation
- Not whizzing through lunch in 15 mins - my only proper meal of the day!
- Not looking at the clock showing 20:30 hrs in the MBA building waiting for the day to get over somehow...
- Not trying to get my working group together for the next meeting - everyone's away anyway!
- Not trying to rack my head at 00:00 hrs about taking a pick - Strategy or Financial markets, which one to nail first
- Not chewing on my pencil during a cover letter workshop
- Not struggling to keep my eyes open through Management Accounting lectures
- Not trying to synergise my energies through an OB lecture - which actually leaves me wondering about the whole purpose of the course
- Not trying to hopelessly grapple with my linguistic abilities in the French class - Jees! I am still working on my Hindi!
- Not reaching on time to realise that the last FT is gone - I mean, look at the multiple uses of a newspaper, for instance, my room looks quite clean without a pile of unread FTs..
- Thinking of ways to drag in the coffee vending machine into MBA 11, right through the Corporate Finance lecture


What I will do, however, would be more on these lines :

- Try to "spot the difference" between multiple drafts of my innovatively designed CV, for updating the CV platform (Or is the deadline gone already ?!)
- Count the total no. of trees on campus and try my hand at carving some "tree art"
- Try to 'run'(jog?) for fitness purposes, and not just to class - 15 minutes behind time
- Try and figure out if I can actually spot some stars from the piano bar balcony, when not intoxicated
- Figure out the number cars that are missing from infront of expansiel during the break
- Walk down Jouy to see if there's a world beyond ATAC
- Try and finally figure out the SNCF rail system
- Complete my French homework
- Try to intentionally take 5 hours and 40 mins to 'read' the next Strategy case
- Doze off within 'Bearley' sitting right infront of me on my desk
- Open my letter box

And the feeling that elsewhere in the world, millions of people would be boarding early morning trains to office, taking flights to unknown countries, sailing ships away on expeditions and maybe even crocodile hunting! while am here a la 'good old' Jouy trying to figure out different ways to work out the various items on my agenda....is an amazing feeling by itself!!
To be honest...Looks like I have a very busy week ahead – I mean, come on! Look at the
“not to do” list, it’s longer than the “to-do” one…(Am happy if that makes you befriend the green-eyed monster;)
I guess I should get busy then…..Someone wise once said (Or was it me?) – To be able to nothing creatively is a great art in itself, and demands a lot of time and dedication… Maybe you guys should give it a try yourself. Watch this space, and when am back again, I’ll probably let you know how the much-awaited week was like…Have a great week!!!

How do you manage your up & downs?

Hi Guys,

Today, I discovered two websites www.grainesdechangement.com & www.reportersdespoirs.org (sorry it is only in French for the moment). For the English speaking people you can check www.positivenewsus.org/, www.planetpositive.net, http://magazine-directory.com/Utne-Reader.htm, www.odemagazine.com.

It was really energizing to read all these good news, all good reasons to believe that we can change the world, that solutions and not only problems exist. It is sometimes difficult to remain positive, to fight and fight again to achieve your desires when you are told everyday that it will not work, that you are wasting your time and nothing can be done about it. I think that may be, receive their newsletters with all these good news will help me to stay committed, motivated & dedicated to my renewable energy objective. A Keynesian approach somehow.

And you? How do you manage your up & downs?

Ripping Off Old Retirees

I read this amazing post by Steve Dubner on the racket that the pharmacies are running to rob old retirees... Price discrimination is obviously nothing new to us, but in this case, this is all out taking advantage of the fact that certain people are not capable of comparing prices in the market (out of habit, or old age).

After I read this post, I had a weird feeling. Of course, in business school we are taught to sell our souls to the devil and only think about the bottom line. But when do you add Ethics to Economics? Citanna clearly believed that the only responsibility you have in a business to your shareholders, and everyone else can go take a hike. Do you agree? Where do y'all draw the line? Who would you not feel comfortable robbing?

Barcelona Rocks

Amid Busy Schedule which is something very normal for any MBA students, we had opportunity to take few days off and fly to Barcelona.

Believe me every moment of the trip was worth it. Our NPV of happiness have increased at the end of the trip so the project was worth taking. The options to go to Barcelona payed off well as we take the coming weeks with better poise and relaxed mind.

This entry is to share our experience with batchmates who due to personal or professinal reasons could not join us.

We took Vueling from CDG to Barcelona. Thanks to IESE host, he volunteered to take 4 of us to 4 different places at 1 am in the morning . IESE Barcelona host students clearly reflected the culture of the school and great initiative.

The weather in Barcelona was great , like sunny summer where one might be tempted to go to beach but no we had to attend the conference. The next 2 days were quite rich in content and topic.

We could attend 3 conference each day and each conference had 4 speakers. There were 3 conference going parallely. Therefore at the end of 2 days we had 9 panel sessions with 72 speakers.

The topic ranged from micro-finance to wind energy. I was fascinated by the social enterpreneurship initiative by Ashoka and Endeavor and some other organization such as Habitaem and Trestle group.

Lot of networking went during 2 days, we not only met with students from IESE, LBS, ESADE but also could network with professionals from industry such as Citibank, Deloitte etc.

We were lucky as we could be part of festival in which sellers from Gracia area distribute candies to people living around.

Barcelona is known for its night life, specially restaurant, discos were full and peppy with flamboyant music. We had a chance to hurt our legs during the 2 days of intensive dancing :))))

Globally it was well organized conference and Barcelona welcome was great during this part of the year. We could feel during and while leaving Barcelona was one common thing and that was
this city does rock!!!!! That compelled me to keep the title of the post as ''Barcelona Rock''.

Please see the video of our trip and enjoy!!!!!!!!!
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-4989272418180913477

Cheers
Gajendra

International Women's Day 2007

In honor of International Women's Day 2007 on today March 8th, I would like to express my appreciation to all you beautiful and exemplary women of the January 07 intake.

MBAs' Leadership

As the end of my MBA is looming in the future, it is time to think about things I learned. And one recurrent theme during the year has been Leadership. Vision of leadership, virtual leadership, leadership awards…..and this is what I understood.

Introspect yourself, Expose yourself, Be courageous !

It seems that in our narcissist societies people are eagerly looking for recognition, visibility, and seeking for 15 minutes of celebrity. Some of you want to be a leader, and then, do you really think that you will become a leader only by learning tips and tricks from your professors and from their guests ? Of course not ! Leadership is not to be found outside but from inside. Each of you, what ever your age & background, is a potential leader. You were born with it , now you have to make your passion surface through a meiotic experience, in your job, in your family, today or later, with the help of the great people you will meet.

Why your passion ? Because, for me, a leader is someone passionate, a person who wants to change the perception of reality or ideas of others, makes them dream, makes them achieve things they never had thought possible. Someone who is different, someone who is courageous.

Have you noticed that our perception of reality considerably influences the way we react when facing problems ? Imagine yourself driving your car on the highway. Suddenly, a car accident happens just 100 meters ahead. Most of people will hit the cars as they focused on it instead of looking where they could drive their car. It is the same thing with issues that seem impossible to overcome to many people. As a leader, you have to step back, control your emotions to analyze steadily situations, and then go forward, be passionate and use your emotions to bring others with you. Expose yourself, be courageous.

Can you lead people without making decisions, without taking any risk ? Definitely not. A leader is to change the world, how could it be done without choosing? You can fail, but who has never failed ? What is important is to bounce and try again, to change your objectives, but never your values, your believes. Act, do not undergo change. Do not be afraid, change brings opportunities to learn, improve and grow. And what is true for you is also true for people you are responsible for. A leader needs to make them responsible for their actions, be in charge of their future and at the end, help them to grow. Expose yourself, be courageous.

Why would people die for you ? Trust, security, presence in hard times is what is required from a leader. You have to bring people security, like a father with his kids. Be honest, tell the truth to people as strong and lasting relationships rely only on trust. Just imagine a CEO facing and fighting with his employees against low cost labor companies competition: “Yes some of you will have to leave, but imagine you after company’s reorganization, enjoying your success in our fierce competitive world!” “ I will be there with you, we will fight together and succeed”. Expose yourself, be courageous.

Emotions are a double edge sword for a leader. You have to control them in order to make the right decisions, but you also need them to convince, motivate and fill with enthusiasm your team, your friends, your family. When you are angry, when something is revolting you, say it! Words remains words; Your ideas, your convictions might just go from your mouth to their brains and not from your heart to their heart. Only emotions achieve that! Again pay attention to the fact that people will believe you only if you are really passionate, only if you are completely, definitely, deeply convinced by what you say. That’s why you must discover what drives you and where you want to be as you will convince others only if you are convinced yourself. What do you really want? Change our world? Leave a track? Teach others? Bring others with you?

Could it be that after all? Will you be a leader just because you are passionate? No, again. There is no leader without the others. How will you address their needs, their fears if you do not know these? A leader listens to his/her feelings, of the others’ feeling, as a leader proposes a vision, a solution to people difficulties. You need to be prepared to listen. Introspect yourself, be courageous.

Now that you have found this alter ego, passionate, willing to fight to protect and to help your people…you have to realize that being a leader is also being responsible. What about Milosevic? Yes, he and his people committed atrocities! But he was a leader who stood up against harassments Serbian communities suffered in some parts of the country. He was there and made their pain his, and promised to protect them. Therefore beware of your responsibility ! Again, you need to understand why you want this authority: to manipulate, to humiliate, or to change the world for the benefit of Human being. Introspect yourself, be courageous.

Your life is not only professional, you have also a family. Too many professional success stories are counterbalanced by family disasters. Home leadership is less valued by our developed societies, but this remains the core of our responsibility. As a father and mother you are leaders for your children. Stand by them, be present, make them grow, make them be passionate and be the leaders of the next generation (or do not conceive them!) Introspect yourself, be courageous.

Today, I wrote this and I do not even know how you will perceived it. I took a risk . Do you believe it was easy ? I was passionate, exposed myself and I hope, convinced each of you that you will find this alter ego inside, willing to do the good, willing to change our world.

Barcelona....and our Social responsibility

This month started with the Doing Good Doing Well conference.

It was great to meet people who share the same expectations. I regret that some interesting conferences were overlapping, but wait and see as IESE might broadcast the videotaped conferences.

I attended the conference about Nuclear Energy. I guess that IESE wanted to generate a debate about energy source. But this conference was a little bit controversial. I ma not a pro nuclear, for sure, but the charismatic anti nuclear panelist was a little bit to "emotional" for us. It might be interesting for a show but what about MBA students. We have our convictions but we are also businessmen "trained" to take decisions based on figures. I do not mean that we should take our decisions only based on figures but at the same time it helps to dispassionate the debate and solve the problem together instead of wasting our time and energy in debates.

My personal opinion is that you can not avoid any solution.
Coal is necessary for developing countries even if this create pollution. 7 out 10 most polluted cities are in china due to their Highly sulfured coal, but at the same time they need an increasing energy capacity today to sustain their growth. I do not want to stigmatize China or Brazil deforesting, but if they are not part of the solution we will not be able to solve our GLOBAL warming problem.

To come back to the Nuclear conference, guest argued on figures, about probability...and at the end most of the attendees where confused. Sunk cost, financial cost, marginal cost...were mixed and not justified or explained. On one hand we must admit that for Areva or utilities, production and distribution of energy is their business and they re not prepared to commit suicide. On the other hand if you not part of the solution, you are part of the problem. What does that mean, Well, instead of blaming utilities or big energetic group, we should encourage them to be part of future, through investment in New technologies, thanks their knowledge of their customers and thanks to their financial resources. Imagine Iberdrola developing a new business consisting in installing and managing in each home a 20 m2 solar plant. Decentralized and secured source of supply....no need anymore for costly and unaesthetic hyper grids. Investment that you could dedicate to grounded European grid interconnections or Offshore wind farms (www.airtricity.com). To the guest from Greenpeace I would say that I appreciate is charismatic convictions, his high dedication and desire to change people perceptions, however It is time to work together to get something done now.

I believe that he tremendous financial liquidity is a chance as many investments can be done in environment, but remember the Internet bubble. After the crash it was impossible to finance any internet project. So what about the Global warming/renewable energy bubble? We have to be wise in our investment and select only financial institutions that are used to long term investments. If not all what will have been done, will have been done for nothing. We need to invest on new technologies to improve renewable energy efficiency. But remember, the technology is tool and a tool needs a vision. A vision that Government, Corporation but more surely entrepreneurs have and accomplish. (www.igniteinovations.com)

I would say that Nuclear energy is necessary for now. Wastes (represent a cost and bet on future), security (zero risk does not exist), decommissioning cost (not know for sure), financial cost (3 Billions€ each),...are necessary drawbacks we have to live with today, may be not in the future. I will not give more figures here as people from both sides might disagree with. You know how we can cook easily figures and let them demonstrate whatever you want (remember you management control class with professor Hoffjan ). But I would like to share with you one website as you might find there some food for thoughts : www.efcf.com/e/reports/...One question, what is the cost of batteries - energetic and environmental. Again it is all about externalities....What is the safest, cleanest and cheapest energy ? It is the one you do not consume! I guess that building every day more power capacity is as clever as creating an anti-anti missile...This is a long term vision. Indeed today we do not have the luxury to invest all our investments in education or close all the State Owned Entreprise in China.

If I could conclude this first post I would say that we need an energy mix, a decentralized and flexible production system which means that we can all contribute to our future. Areva is buying RePower (German Wind mill manufacturer), well great! Let's work all together.