N-i-ro

I've seen and listened to Niro, the one with an 'i', the one that doesn't burn and one whose lectures are brilliant! We were fortunate to get two standout professors for the OB course this term.

The first impression

Yet again I witnessed how important the first impression is and how, on occasion, it can blur people's objectivity. A great first time success story at an act not easy to pull off will result in continued adulation for durations longer than the act merits. If one can make a good first impression, people respond by giving more credit than is due.

The Rajni cult !

A couple of weeks into term 4 and the faff courses are actually starting to get interesting! Is it really the courses or is it just me getting indoctrinated?

The OB professor had us indulge in a fun exercise in the session about culture. We formed the Rajni cult!

Sustainable Marketing - Really?

As an engineer by education and profession, it's not surprising that I am at ease with quantitative content and am a fish out of water in marketing. Marketing comes across as a bunch of paradoxes, too fluid and amoeba like to put any meat around anything or have any sort of structure, sometimes too obvious and sometimes brilliant too. For instance, I came across this line "Marketing questions the assumption of rationality by classical economic theory by factoring in fairness". Often times, I also see that it relies on "fooling" the customer or creating a misplaced perception. This in my opinion, is not something that is sustainable. Even if it can't be said that people are getting smarter every day, one can't deny that mankind is advancing every day and with increased computational power at the disposal of a customer (read internet, mobile phone yada yada...), marketing will become an increasingly harder game to play. Numerous pricing models will break down if there is information sharing amongst customers. With word of mouth advertising in social networking and increased technology penetration in everyday life, the game just gets harder. With the non-linearities that exist today, can marketing successfully factor in consumer behavior and be sustainable?

And some more...

In some kind of weird bacchanalian orgy, I have decided to write after quite some time. For the next year, I will mostly be writing about my time at the Indian School of Business (ISB). Yes, student life ishtarts again.

There, I said it, now, Google, do your thing and make sure you direct traffic to this page.

Golden temple at Sripuram

On the way back from Yelagiri, I stopped with family at the Golden temple at Sripuram. The usual followed - tickets for a fast lane and a regular lane, information about more pujas for pay etc. However, it wasn't hard to notice that this temple was a little different from the rest once I walked in. The temple was spic and span with a nice wide walk way and neatly trimmed grass all around and very quiet. What impressed was the first billboard to the right of the walk way which in effect said one might question building a temple as opposed to a school or hospital and went on to say that the temple provides the wisdom to build many schools and hospitals. Though I don't necessarily subscribe to the logic, what impressed me was that they were willing to accommodate questions about the construction of the temple. Many more billboards I mostly rated good to impressive followed and touched upon integrity, hard work and the importance of giving. I enjoyed the 20-30 min stroll to the main sannidhanam and back the most. The founder also runs a correction centre, a hospital and doles out water from the temple to the city of Vellore during summer months. I haven't seen his balance sheets or any of that kind of stuff online, so I can't say much more than this - When people are willing to accommodate questions about their own faith, it discourages extremism and promotes peace.

Silver Strand Half Marathon 2010

All my limbs and joints held up okay after I ran slightly shy of 13.1 miles the other day. I think I can go ahead and update this space now.

Please consider supporting me as I run my first half marathon and more importantly the bigger cause - AID San Diego's many projects in areas such as education, women's empowerment, agriculture and much more. I tell myself that a 2 hour session in "pain management" is not in any universe commensurate with the throes of the underprivileged. I am grateful that through AID, I have found an avenue to contribute and make a difference.

Visit AID San Diego's project page for a list of projects and initiatives supported.

All donations to AID are 100% tax-deductible, under section 501(c)(3) of the IRS code.

Ranga.