Travelling Soldier

Today is the last day of the break after the winter term. From tomorrow spring term would be starting off. At MBS,Winter term is considered as the most tiring and tough term for many reasons. Though we had mounting pressures from acads and internship-search,we do had parties and other events..!
Class 2008 president,muditha(see the pic in earlier post) was chosen in a democratic fashion. Even we had few mishaps in conducting elections,one of us tried to hijack the elections to prove a valid point that no election process is ideal. It was the first time MBA class has initiated election process by involving every student in the class. Last year,election of the president was more sort of voluntary process and was administration-driven process.
PMO classes,taught by Richard Phillips and Laszlo Czaban has been most interesting course.We had the opportunity to understand various management concept and organisational strategies.But the learning process was very rigourous demanding high levels of reading i.e., about 55 cases collected from various industries and markets. And in the spring term,we have an extension to this course MIBS(Managing internationally across business systems).
In the internship search process, we had our own share of crests and troughs. Past suggests that most of the studnets will get placed in the spring term. Along with these, we had team projects in every course(MIS,Ops. Mgmt,Strategy). In the strategy, apart from the text book and standard taught in every school,Gary davies taught  us about "Corporate Reputation",concept which is gaining momentum due to recent changes in industries particularly in terms of CSR,Carbon emissions etc.,

MBA Ball Party

MBA Ball 2007

Right at the end of course work and before revision week we had Latin Party,conducted by friends from southamerican friends. MBA Ball,an event which is almost a farewell event to the 2007 class and the time where Pete Naude was awarded teaching excellence award.

LATIN PARTY

Latin Party

"Again and again some people in the crowd wake up. And they demand room for bold gestures. The future speaks ruthlessly through them." - Anonymous

 

And of course there are always large masses of people and other major forces which try to bring down the morale and energy of achievers. There are many naysayers who oftern discourage bold attempts. Perseverance is the key and it is major force which helps one to be focussed on the goal. If the makers of "Seinfeld" and "Friends" had accepted the initial reviews and feedback then the entertainment industry would have missed two most entertaining sitcoms of last decade.

 

“..you can’t connect the dots looking forward; you can only connect them looking backwards. So you have to trust that the dots will somehow connect in your future. You have to trust in something — your gut, destiny, life, karma, whatever. This approach has never let me down, and it has made all the difference in my life.”

 

Steve Jobs,CEO of Apple is one person who belongs to this league. He has delivered one of the most inspiring talks to the students in the year 2006 at stanford univ. One can easily sense blend of philosophy and humbleness in his talk. His experience and life reemphasises the fact that the best lessons a person can learn is through shocks and after hitting the rock bottom.

 

Though the talk is more than 2 years old,the essence of the message is clear and loud. Steve Jobs’ intentions are very evident in his company’s promotion campaigns and product launches(check earlier post of iPhone). He makes sure that his products defies the exisiting theories within the industry segment and always bend the rules of the market and still gets away with it.

 

"Don’t let the noise of others’ opinions drown out your own inner voice. And most important, have the courage to follow your heart and intuition. They somehow already know what you truly want to become."

 

“No one wants to die. Even people who want to go to heaven don’t want to die to get there. And yet death is the destination we all share. No one has ever escaped it. And that is as it should be, because Death is very likely the single best invention of Life. It is Life’s change agent. It clears out the old to make way for the new. Right now the new is you, but someday not too long from now, you will gradually become the old and be cleared away. Sorry to be so dramatic, but it is quite true.”

COMPLETE TALK IN VIDEO FORMAT