Taking stock

Starting off with a pic has become a habit. So, in continuing with what has now become tradition, this is a pic of Student Village 3 at night. This is where I stay.

Sitting in the atrium with a cool evening breeze blowing is almost the perfect setting to be in since the mid terms for this term got over today. 2 exams - total of 3 hours - done!

Not blogged for ages, so here are a few snapshots of happenings, perspectives, thoughts over the past few days -

1. Watched a couple of movies - 'Barbarians at the gate' (takeover of RJR Nabisco via an LBO (leveraged buyout) by Henry Kravis and his group), also 'Wall Street' (excess greed of Wall Street legend Gordon Gekko played by Michael Douglas in his Oscar winning role). Anyone even vaguely interested in stock markets, equity, finance has to watch both of these movies. Very highly recommended.

2. Change of guards - Prof. Krishna Kumar (Global Economics) finished his 2 week tenure with us. Amazing guy, very approachable. Showed us parts of a 6 hour documentary called 'Commanding Heights' - a tale of economic history and analysis of issues from the early 20th century to the present. Will very very strongly recommend anyone and everyone who aspires to know even a wee bit of what has shaped our past to get us to the present economic condition to watch this documentary. In terms of application to real world scenarios and correlation with current and past real economic issues, this class has had the maximum takeaways so far at ISB.

3. Guest lectures - One of most fascinating guest lectures we had was by the Mumbai Dabbawalas, a group of people with average literacy levels of class 8 functioning at 6 sigma accuracy (1 error in 1.6 crore 'dabba' deliveries, approx 9 errors in 1 year) with zero technology. The simplicity of their approach is bewildering where they use a simple combination of alphabets, numbers and colours to denote the source and destination of each 'dabba'. Please do not confuse the 'simple' approach with an 'easy' approach - some of the most simple things are often the toughest to execute.

4. Exchange program - ISB has an exchange program with around 30 b-schools across the world like Wharton, Kellogg, Fuqua, Darden, London Business School. I wish to go to one of these schools, however it would clash with placement prep and interviews. Need to take a call on that one.

5. Grades - Got grades for 2/4 subjects for Term 1 - economics and statistics. Got a 'B' in both. Not too much to be read into the grades. Almost 2 in 3 students get a 'B'. So, not much differentiation in that sense.

6. Finance Club - The fin club activities have started. I will be heading the focus group on equity research. Am extremely passionate about that, always have been.


In other news, the Admissions task force for the admission activites of the class of 2008 has kicked off. Intend to be a part of the application evaluation team. We will be carrying the ISB brand for the rest of our lives. The number one thing that builds a brand for a b-school is the quality of students. And I hope that as far as getting into ISB is concerned, the bar is raised higher every year, the next batch should be much better than our batch.Maybe I'm too passionate about ISB. But thats the way I've been. If I dont believe in an institution, idea or person, I will not be a part of it. 'Compromise' is an addiction once you're hooked on. I dont want to be.

Warren Buffett donated about $ 37 billion of his wealth to the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation @ $ 1.5 billion every year. See the video of to the 2 smartest (incidentally, the 2 richest) men in the world dicuss about it here. Apart from the fact that Buffett is my personal 'God' as far as investment styles go, I do share a common belief with him - viewpoint on inheritance. I'm firmly against any form of inheritance. Let each generation earn its own success. Providence (of being born in a particular family) should not give you the right to wealth.

Although this is just in the 'kicking around ideas' phase, I'm thinking of starting a weekly column/email letter on 'value investing' - concepts, techniques, approaches, practical examples of in depth company valuation, etc. - all from my personal perspective. Of course it would be biased since these would be my learnings and beliefs. Lets see how that works out. Enough for today I guess. The grind starts again on Monday. Song in background - 'A Hazy Shade of Winter' , Simon & Garfunkel.