London 2000

Global classroom

The reality of international interaction really came through today in the Mergers & MBOs class. Prof. Paulo Volpin commented that ‘So, eefectively, ve see Germany has a pooor accounting seestem.” To which, immediately, a German pounced up and said, “I don’t go with this result,” and proceeded on a defence of why the system was right for Germany. A few other Germans joined in. Poor Prof. Volpin had to make a hasty retreat. Later, when making a similar comment about Belgium, he first clarified: “Are there any Belgians in the class?”

A while later, he gave an example in China. One of his friends, a consultant, told him that the Chinese sometimes picked a well-running company and forced it to go bankrupt, just to show the World Bank that their bankruptcy system was working fine. A Chinese practically shouted out that bankruptcy protection was needed, because otherwise 20,000 labourers would be in the streets, and this stupid consultant obviously was not aware of what really happened, because the Government had lots of bad companies to make bankrupt, so why would they pick a good one?

Today’s case discussion was on a Japanese company called Koito. A Japanese is in our team, and he was often asked to comment on what he felt was the situation. He didn’t speak much in class, really. During the break, he came over to me and said, “You know, I would like to speak much. But I cannot. My English is not very good.” As with most Japanese, his entire education was in Japanese, and while he did have some courses in written English, there were almost none in Japanese.

One of the slides was a comparison of market capitalizations of various countries. India was not found on the list. So the Japanese turned to me, politely, and asked “Where is India?” Naturally, I didn’t feel like telling him that the Bombay Stock Exchange had a market capitalization so small that it wouldn’t have been possible to put it on the table.

Well, so much for globalization!

The standard of class participation is extraordinary, though. For example, when we were discussing the EMI-Warner Music merger that was called of recently, one person commented, “Last week I was talking with a Director of EMI, and he said the reason was such-and-such.” I mean, we have people who’ve actually been involved in some of these deals in class! I feel like a baby when I open my mouth.

But that proved not quite the case, actually. We were discussing the Koito case and I did open my mouth on a couple of occasions. During the break, Prof. Volpin comes up to my desk and says, “So, Anand, you seem to know quite a bit about the Koito case. How come?” I mumbled something about Internet searches. Guess there’s something to be said for IIM-B after all…

Hampton Court Palace

Stonehenge is jinxed. To those who don’t know, Stonehenge its a bunch of huge rocks from pre-historic Britain, and no one knows why they’re there. I tried to visit it last week, but had to cancel the trip and lost about 50 pounds. (No, I don’t want to know what that is in Rupees.) So this Sunday, we’d planned to go again. I called up this Magical Tour Company, which offered tours for just 22 pounds, and said, “I want to go to Stonehenge on Sunday.” The guy on the phone took my credit card number and said OK.

Sunday morning, I wake up at 6AM, get ready, and go to Great Portland Street, where the bus is supposed to pick us up. I was with my cousin, Vishnu, and my classmate, Pallavi. The operator says, “Dear me, sorry, there was a mistake, and we had accidentally put you down on YESTERDAY’s tour. Not to worry — there’s place today.” Good.

We get on. The operator says, “Welcome to the tour of Hampton Court Palace and Windsor Castle.” So I walk up to him and say, “Excuse me, aren’t we going to Stonehenge?”

“Oh, I see, so that’s what the confusion is. You see, we go to Stonehenge only on Saturdays. So the guy at the desk must have put you down for yesterday. We were worried when you didn’t turn up…”

“Very nice of you. But I don’t want to go to Hampton whatever, I want to go to Stonehenge. So when’s the next tour? Can I take it?”

“Afraid not, sir.” Classic British accent. “You see, we’d put you down for yesterday, and we’re giving you seats today instead. We had to turn down 20 others yesterday. So if we have extra seats on the next tour, we may be able to accomodate you, but otherwise, it would have to be on the 25th of November.”

Wonderful. So we decide to go to these two places. The journey along the countryside itself was worth it, though. We went past the Thames (pronounced Temz) several times. Lots of boating teams were practising — probably Oxford or Cambridge. Those who read Archer’s “Dougie Mortimer’s Right Arm” in ‘A Quiver Full of Arrows’ would know about the famous Oxford vs Cambridge boat races. Then we went past a place called Richmond Hill, where an apartment typically costs 5 million pounds. Lots of famous people live there apparantly, but I couldn’t recognize a single name.

The best part, however, was the grass. The empty countryside itself was so green that I wonder what grass that is treated would look like. The scenes in Dilwale Dulhaniya Le Jayenge are no exxageration — the European countryside is really splendid. We also passed some classic English estates — with dogs and geese and all that — and the place where the Magna Carta was signed.

Hampton Court Palace is where Henry VIII lived. He’s the one that had 6 wives, and here’s what happened to them: beheaded, divorced, survived, beheaded, divorced, died. The Palace in itself was beautiful. But even better was the garden behind it. Lovely green, as usual. Had a fountain and a pool. There were geese, swans and ducks all over the place. These animals look extremely well fed. They weren’t the least bit scared of people (though I was fairly apprehensive of touching one). So I happily ended up finishing off a whole role — mostly filled with close-ups of these birds.

The Hampton Court Palace also boasted of a maze. So we went in. It’s just a maze made of bushes, and fairly small. So we went in at 10:55AM. I of course knew that if we kept the opening wall to our right, we’d get back to the starting point. But after all, it’s a small maze. So we explored. It was all fine until about just past 11, so we decided to get back. We turned, and followed what looked like the path we came along. No. Dead end. 11:05AM. OK, other people are lost. So let’s just walk around. Another dead end. Walk a little more. Pallavi’s commenting that the path looks very familiar. So what? Walk on a little more. We ended up in the same place we were about 5 minutes ago. 11:10AM. Turn around, walk on a more promising path. Pallavi again comments that we’ve been here, and it turned out that it was exactly the same spot she’d mentioned earlier. We’d been walking around in circles. Now panic begins to set in. We got to a place that was just one bush away from the entrance, and wanted to scream to be let out. But that would’ve bruised our egos too much. Besides, there were some people who had been with us in the maze who were walking outside. So let’s give it another try. By hit and trial, we kept trying path after path, until we were out at about 11:20AM. Whew!

The crazy part is, the maze was amazingly small from the outside. But inside, it gave ‘labyrinthine’ a whole new meaning.

Then we went to the Royal Tennis Court, where someone was learning something that looked like a cross between tennis and squash. Then to the Royal Kitchen, which at its peak would have empoyed about a 100 people and fed 600. After that, it was on to the Windsor Castle.

The Windsor Castle is the largest inhabited castle. That’s where the Queen stays on weekends (not this one, though). We walked past the roads, which looked exactly as they were in the Georgian times. The grass, as always, was terribly green. We didn’t go inside the castle, though. We chose to eat at a pub and visit the Eton school. Apparantly, that’s where the Royal family sends their children to study, and it’s the poshest school in England — perhaps the world. It was closed to visitors, but I took a snap of some of the boys. Who knows who’s royalty?

A day well spent. But I intend getting to Stonehenge. Someday.

LBS vs IIMB

How would I compare LBS against IIM-B so far? Let’s see.

  • Faculty: LBS probably wins marginally. More famous faculty, more industry experience, better communication. But like I said, marginal.
  • IT infrastructure: IIM-B wins!
  • IT management: LBS wins. They manage what they’ve got extremely well.
  • Companies coming for placement: LBS wins.
  • Placement process: Debatable. IIM-B definitely has a more student-friendly process.
  • Library: Books-wise, IIM-B wins. Electronic resources-wise, LBS wins.
  • Students: Comparable. Too early to tell the difference probably. The point is, however, that everyone in LBS has a lot of work-experience.
  • Campus: IIM-B wins hands down. I mean, LBS faces Regent’s Park and all that, but it doesn’t really have a campus.
  • Lecture rooms: LBS wins marginally. Slightly better rooms, better equipment.
  • Hostel: IIM-B wins. LBS doesn’t have one.
  • Location: LBS wins. Heart of London.
  • Exchange programmes: LBS wins.

LBS is ahead, but not by far.

Today, I saw a train coming late for the first time. The British Rail comes to the Ilford station at minutes ending in 3 (11:03, 11:13, etc.) Today, the train was TWO MINUTES late. Two whole minutes. Probably because it was raining. I hear people complain about the punctuality of these trains.

Well, most of the day was spent at the computer center doing assignments. If you want a flavour of what I’m doing, check out my report on Koito, which is about Pickens trying to take over Koito.

Another day at LBS

We made some vatha kozhambu at home this morning. Now, you’ll have to take my word for it, because we ourselves weren’t very convinced. But it was hot. It was thick. And though it had too much tamarind, it tasted great (or so we say). After that heavy bruch, it was time for LBS.

I think I’m the slowest typist at LBS. The speed at which the keyboards chatter around me is incredible. So fast, in fact, that I lose my nerve and tend to make mistakes or type slowly. The guy to my right, for example, is glued to the monitor and is typing about 3 characters for every keystroke of mine. So far, he hasn’t pressed backspace. Luckily, the lady to my left is using the mouse more than the keyboard!

We had the second group meeting of our ‘Dynamics of Strategy’ group yesterday. The group has 2 Indians, 2 Germans and a Mexican. The first meeting of our ‘Mergers & MBOs’ course was today, and that group has 1 Indian, 1 German and 1 Japanese. Actually, the accent is the least of the problems. It’s getting to figure out a way of working that’s the real hurdle. But the good part is, everyone’s focused, willing to take initiative, and follow guidelines. No problems so far.

BCG gave their presentation today. Extremely impressive. About 3 managers, 2 partners and 5 consultants came for the presentation. 2 of them presented, and the presentation was entirely about the life of a consultant. Not the technical life — no. It was largely insights into the social life. They explained why they came to consulting, how they felt the thrill in consulting, how they balanced their family life, had to make compromises, etc. It seemed very balanced. The best part was a video which involved BCG’s clients, family members of BCG consultants, and ex-BCG employees, but no BCG employees at all. That proved an excellent way of telling us what it’s really about. I’ll hand it to BCG for doing things in style.

My first Oxford Street suit

After a group meeting, we went to ‘The Biz’, a restaurant inside LBS. They served some kind of rice with curry containing lots of vegetables. I ate rather well and found it quite edible, until I heard the price. 3.50 pounds, or about Rs. 233. Roughly what my sandwich cost in Tokyo. Very nice.

I needed a suit for the Boston Consulting Group presentation tomorrow, so the afternoon was largely a shopping exercise. I took the tube to the Bond Street station, and walked along Oxford Street. It’s something like the Brigade Road of Bangalore, I guess. The first shop I walked into had been strongly recommended by my cousing (Vishnu) — Ciro Citterio. Luckily they had BIG brushed aluminium signs outside saying “Sale!”, and had 99 pounds written boldly, so I had the guts to walk in. (Of course, I didn’t convert. I don’t fancy buying suits for Rs. 6,650).

A salesman walked up and said, “Hey, my man! Can I get you a suit?”

“Uh, yes please. Actually, this is the first time I’m really shopping for a suit, and I’m a complete social moron, so why don’t you help me?”

He walks me up to some hep-looking suits and says, “You should be about 38, my man. So how about these?”

“Wonderful. Excellent. Are they 99 pounds?”

Stops on his tracks. Turns around. Says, “Oh!” and walks me down to another section. Points at a whole rack of suits, says “They’re all 99 pounds.”

“Why are they on sale?”

I must admire his sense of self-control. He probably mentally awarded me the ‘Naive Question of the Year’ award, and said, “Because, my man, no one bought them for a long time, and we’re clearing them out.” Suits me fine. So I try out a couple of suits, decide to try other shops, and then come back.

The next visit was to Marks & Spencer’s on Oxford Street. Nice place, but I don’t know what the fuss is all about. Looks pretty much like Stopper’s Shop to me, and considering that this is London, probably a whole lot cheaper. There were quite a few suits for 99 pounds too, but Ciro Citterio was offering a shirt and tie for free (upto 30 pounds) along with it.

From there, took the Underground to Notting Hill gate (yes, the same Notting Hill as the movie) and then to High Street Kensington. (If all the names sound familiar, you’ve been playing Monopoly.) There’s a shop called Amazon there which had a suit for 79 pounds. Yes, I said ‘a suit’, because they had one. But I didn’t like it. So it was the tube again, this time to Fulham Broadway. More shops, and none with what I wanted. Back to Bond Street station and Ciro Citterio. Now I’m the proud owner of an Oxford Street suit.

A day at LBS

Well, apparantly LBS has just had its lecture theatres (LTs) newly made! Which is why they look so good, I hear. At least, the Professors keep commenting about how new the LTs are, and how they’re unused to it and all that.

This afternoon, Pallavi, another exchange student, an MBA 2001 student and myself, got together and ran a series of mock interviews. LBS’ consulting club has some very good material on case interviews.

Today we had a lecture on ‘World Economy: Problems and Prospects’. Professor Andrew Scott was awfully funny. We discussed the reason for the growth of the US Economy today. Well, we’re still not too sure why it grew, but IT may be part of the reason. Following the lecture, Nick Craft, a guest lecturer from the London School of Economics, came and gave an interesting talk on the same. Bit of a problem with his slides, though. Self-admittedly, he failed arts in school, and his combination of a bright green gradient against a purple background can leave no stomach unturned. Looks like this course is going to have guest lecturers in each class, and they all look like big shots.

Deloitte PPT

Deloitte Consulting gave a presentation today for campus recruitment. Apparantly, we have to be in business suits to sit in any of the presentations! But luckily, since Deloitte has an informal culture, they said ‘business casual’ was OK. I squeaked past with just a tie. Need to buy a suit!

The hall could seat about 100 people, and was full. Of course, you had to sign 24 hours in advance to get in, and they take attendance outside the hall. I took a copy of their annual report (which they were distributing outside) and sat in the front row. A huge contingent had come for the presentation: 1 big shot from manufacturing, 1 senior HR person, the liason for LBS and DC, 3 managers, 2 senior consultants, and 2-5 others who had recently joined!

After about 20 minutes of a snappy presentation (the usual stuff, telling us about the companies), I took out my notebook. I wanted to see if LBS was really as ‘aggressive’ in asking questions as all these people made them out to be. Once the floor was thrown open to questions, no one jumped up. Slowly, one guy stood up, and said, “I’m in the Masters in Finance programme. I want to know how you can use us people in Deloitte Consulting. Or are you here for recruiting MBAs only?” To which they said they’ve got financial services consulting, their own corporate finance department, and they value the analytical skills & valuation capabilities of finance people anyway.

The other questions (and answers) were:

  1. When you joined Deloitte Consulting, you must have had an impression about consulting. How has that changed? (“Good question.” Then they proceeded to give a vague answer.)
  2. How are projects and consultants assigned to each other? (I asked this. They told me their system. Sounds pretty much like what we had at IBM. Meaning, you know the right guys, you get what you want. Apart from that, keep trying.)
  3. Do you really do implementation? (Yes, yes, yes. They were emphatic. Seems to be their key point.)
  4. We’ve heard the same thing from all consulting companies. What distinguishes you? (End-to-end consulting, willingness to listen to customers. The same guy then said, “It sounds the same…”)
  5. How do you segment your services? (They’d covered this in the presentation, and went through it again. Basically, by function, by industry, by geography.)
  6. Could you comment on your turnover? (It’s 20%. It’s shot-up, largely because of the dot-com fever. But lots of people who left are coming back. They handled this question extremely well.)
  7. What will the SEC say to your staying together as a firm? (Good question. DC believes there’s value in staying together.)

My observations are: no, they’re not that much more aggressive. But their questions were better. In the sense, they were asking stuff that they really wanted to know, and they wanted to know a lot. Secondly, the good questions were either those that addressed something a lot of people wanted to know, or pointed out something interesting about the company that might affect our careers. Guess research pays — both into the company as well as into ourselves!

Anyway, today we had a class on ‘Advanced Financial Analysis and Shareholder Value’. I don’t know why, but Prof. Chris Higson reminded me quite a bit of Dustin Hoffman in ‘Hook’. The same accent: something to do with the way he held his teeth, I think. Anyway, the class was interesting.

One thing about the classrooms is, they’re closed and sound-proof. So sound really travels. Which means, of course, that there must be pin-drop silence in the class. The lecturer is heard even when mumbling, and so are the front-benchers (who thereby avoid cries of ‘Loudly, please!’ ๐Ÿ™‚

Incidentally, Prof. Higson mentioned that Gary Hamel (whose room I walked passed and nearly fell at the doorstep) has patented the word ‘core competence’. So every time we use it for non-academic purposes, he can send an invoice!

Projects are starting up. We’ve had 3 classes so far, formed 3 groups, and are looking for 3 companies to do projects on. Some things never change!

Infrastructure at LBS

The session on Mergers, MBOs and other corporate reorganizations by Paulo Volpin started 5 minutes late. Reason: They had a problem with the computer projector. Fixing it turned out to be a hi-tech exercise, though. A guy came in with some kind of a hand-held device, pointed it around like a remote control, and the projector was on. 6:05PM — 5 minutes lost.

5 minutes later, “IP address conflict”. The Professor gives up and moves on to trusty slides. He came prepared.

Their IT isn’t all bad, though. In fact, it’s rather good. They have mail terminals scattered around the place for people to check e-mail, without having to go to the Computer Center.

The computer center isn’t far away, though — just across the road — about twice the distance from the IIM-B hostels to the Computer Center.

What’s lovely, though, is their audio-video system. They have one in each room, and the control panel looks lovely.

Their chairs are awful, though. The seats are cramped. There are no arm-rests. They don’t move. They’re too close to the table. (OK, I’m fat.) They aren’t shaped to my back. Anyway, to sit there for 3 hours on those chairs for a fidgety guy like me is tough.

Couldn’t tell much about the Professors. So far, they look just like IIM-B professors. The students on the other hand, are something exceptional. Each has tremendous work experience (a prerequisite for getting into IIM-B in the first place). There’s

  • a Russian consultant who used to work for BCG for 5 years (before you ask: he wants to become an I-Banker — that’s why he’s here)
  • an English lady who started a company called WorldCom (no, not that one: she sold the name to THE WorldCom ๐Ÿ™‚
  • an American IBMer who worked at Lehman Brothers for summers (his name is Stephen, and he’s not me, and I’ve never heard of him)
  • an English VP from Lehman Brothers
  • a French film production expert about to join UBS Warburg

and lots more.

Placement magazine

LBS’ placement cell publishes a magazine called Target, some of whose pages I’ve scanned. It gives an idea about what consulting and finance is, what companies look for, how to prepare for interviews, alumni feedback, etc. Sorry about the small size of scanning, but I had to conserve disk space. I’ll bring the book to IIM-B when I come back.