At ISB we sell..

The Famous Charles Revson (of Revlon fame) once said, "In the factory we manufacture cosmetics, in the store we sell hope." A better understanding of the customer is rare to find!
I thought of modifying this line for my school, the Indian School of Business. "In the classroom we are trained in business management but ISB sells us a culture."
We learn the value of questioning, structured thinking, beating or at least meeting deadlines, of being professional (do not relate to the earlier article) and of surviving and eventually thriving under continuous pressure. That is ISB's promise or to rephrase, that is ISB's 'hope'.
At the end of such a writeup, you are expected to make a normative statement but instead I would like to leave you with this food for thought:
"All of us have a moral obligation to dissent."- McKinsey credo.

Self limitation

I am sure you must have said this, I am not going to do this since I am not good at this. And some people are quite empathic about what all they could NEVER ever do. And of course it ends with "I am like this."
Well honestly I don't think they are! They are just plain lazy. No let me see WE are plain lazy cause even I have indulged in this laziness.
So here's the quote for today: "If only you were half as confident about yourself as you are about your weaknesses you would be a much better person."

Note: I should have said this earlier but I really love a healthy debate about my blog so plz plz disagree and let me know about it.

Professionalism is not selfishness

I have heard this being said many times- I am a professional hence I cannot let petty things like emotions, relationships come in the way of my work! But too often this is done at the cost of other people's emotions.
Professionalism becomes the pseudonym for greed, selfishness and often just plain indifference to people who at some time have made a major difference to your life.
On TV, I heard a woman say "We are programmed to expect something in return for all that we do. That's just the way we are programmed as professionals!" I do hope we all don't get programmed because for me professionalism is not NOT feeling anything but taking on those 'family' responsibilities and sacrificing your own happiness while still accomodating those around you.
So the quote for the day by a great man (don't remember who) "Nobody said on their deathbed, I should have spent more time at the office" (...but a lot of people do say that I should have spent more time with my family!)

Out-of-box thinking

A lot of people seem to think that out-of-the box thinking is essentially cheating or cutting corners. But think about it, how difficult is it to cheat or cut corners. Hence in all probability that route is either blocked or in some cases so over used that its now an accepted system. Either way, it isn't going to be your way to the top.
From what I seen and learnt before and at ISB, the out-of-the-box route is usually an arduous but ultimately rewarding route and most of the people who came up with those innovative ideas really knew their stuff.
So i guess: 'Out of the box thinking involves boxing around with a lot of ideas for a lot of time to finally come up with that knock-out punch.'
(Since the above quote is an original spark of brilliance, as promised, I will trumpet it!!!!LOL ;-))

While we are going strong..

Since I have just started, i thought let me carry on the momentum.
Since the interviews have started, i was wondering about the 'negotiator's curse'. If at the end of the interview, you do negotiate quite hard, does the interviewer feel that he has selected a capable candidate? esp. for procurment roles or does he feel irritated that you are trying to act greedy even though you got a great offer. On the other hand if you don't negotiate, does it mean he has got a loser? Comments?

Opening moves

'Start at the beginning, it is usually a good place to start.'

This I think is essentially going to be the nature of this blog. Some random lines, quotes- usually plagiarised and sometimes my own creations as a means to understand 'Life and other accidents'. Of course if I do come up with original ones, you will definitely know. LOL.