Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan

thats a long name for a movie and quite a weirdly funny movie too
before i blog abt the movie,i must say the usual disclaimers - the movie is quite
controversial and could hurt lots of people / groups /countries / communities ....

so who is borat? Ali G's show describes him as
"Borat Sagdiyev is Kazakhstan's sixth most famous man. A leading journalist from the State run TV network, Borat has been sent to the United States to report on all aspects of American life. From baseball to Broadway, Borat asks the questions no westerner would dream of in his tireless quest for knowledge, telling dating agencies he will 'crush' women who are unfaithful,...., urinating on trees with new age gurus in Sedona. Borat on his first ever trip abroad presents a picture of America that only Charles Manson would recognize. "

the movie is a mockumentary on the travels of a fictitious kazakh journalist in US of AHe is sent by his govt to learn from the greatest (arguably ) nation in the world - USA

Some of the controversail/funny/... scenes are like:

• In America he watches an episode of Baywatch and falls in love with Pamela Anderson
• At the wine tasting, he asks if the black waiter is a slave
• Borat just wanders into a gun store, asking for the best weapon to kill a Jew
• At the toronto film festival stunt ,the character Borat and his donkey arrived at the
  premiere in a carriage drawn by six peasant women; he explained that there had been two more
  but they had escaped in Bulgaria."
• "Please, you come see my movie. If it not success, I will be execute." - in the yahoo trailer

No one's spared in the movie and a new cult is born. chk out his myspaces site http://www.myspace/com/borat ,atleast 200,000 direct links. Check out some really cool videos at www.boratvideos.com , many of the videos can be found on youtube as well youtube,myspaces,yahoo messenger trailers - looks like this is the first movie ever to fully leverage Web 2.0. The film was also featured as part of the Myspace Black Carpet premier promotion

Gram Vihaar - How about some Rural Tourism

We are exploring a business plan involving setting up a network of rural tourism resorts across India
We are looking at locations ranging from Kerala,konkan coast,punjab etc

The idea is : Provide simple ,clean but elegant cottages in the villagesCombine this with boat trips ,nearby beaches,massage service, some old temples or historic locations etc. We are looking at Urban cookies who can do this over a weekend / extended weekend.

You like the idea ! , please spend a few minutes to answer a few simple Qns for our survey

http://www.zoomerang.com/survey.zgi?p=WEB225T9HURJLY

Segmenting financial consumers

"The subdividing of a market into distinct subsets of customers, where any subset may conceivably be selected as a target market to be reached with a distinct marketing mix”
- Philip Kotler

Bschoolers are all too familiar with the dozens of consumer segmentations done
as part of countless class room sessions,guest lectures, projects ,group works etc etc
One complaint you can often hear among students is that marketing classes
tend to focus rather too much on FMCG products.
This can be irritating for many of us who are interested in services.
Services Managment or Services marketing as an elective could help i guess.

Anyway the point is ,here's an interesting segmentation of financial consumers done by Forrester.
Two snapshots are below, you may want to check out Forrester's website for complete PPT

KHOJ 2007 : "India's only inter business school equity research competition"

About KHOJ
Welcome to Khoj, India's only inter business school equity research competition, which rewards you handsomely for your analytical skills in the equity markets. Since its inception, Khoj has been attracting extensive participation from business schools as well as acclaim from the industry. This event brings together the brightest minds from academia and the biggest names from the industry. Khoj also facilitates interaction between industry professionals, academicians and students in the area of Equity Research. This platform provides an opportunity for MBA students interested in equity research and security markets as a career option to display their potential to eminent professionals of the industry and gain new insights and ideas for further learning. Equity Research is a highly regarded profession in the developed financial markets and is fast gaining acceptance among aspiring MBAs as an excellent career choice. With the equity markets on a roll and with the interest of retail investors in the equity markets increasing all the time, the demand for professional research analysts and fund managers is increasing. This makes equity research an exciting career opportunity for Management graduates. Khoj recognizes these new emerging opportunities and provides an incentive to you to step into the arena of financial research. Hence, the presentations and the discussions would help you to learn the intricacies of valuations and thus provide you with a fine learning opportunity.

The Purpose
Khoj invites the top minds across Business Schools in India to submit an equity research report giving a long term outlook with a Buy / Sell recommendation on the stock. So you can prepare a report not only on a stock, on which you are bullish and see value, but also a stock which you feel bearish about and would recommend a sell.

The Process
The participants would be required to register for Khoj, after which a sector of their choice shall be allocated to them. The participants would then select a company within the criteria defined and prepare the research report. The papers received then would be sent to our judges for evaluation and the top scoring teams (along with a waitlist of teams) would be selected to move into the finals. These finalists would be required to make a presentation before a panel of judges as a part of the final round. The judges would be eminent personalities from the Investment Banking field, Mutual Fund industry, Equity Research firms, Business media and top Business schools.

Prizes
The winning teams would be awarded cash prizes as follows:
First prize : Rs.40000
Second prize : Rs.30000

USB Missile Launcher - The ultimate fun weapon in cubicles / class rooms ?

and i wonder how about using the missile launcher in the class room especially to prevent some really annoying DCP (aka desperate class participation in B-schools)
The only downside is the range of 2.5 m could be less when we have a combined class in bigger rooms.
Apparently , there's a video of the thing in action:
here

Dear Alumni ( SPJIMR Alumni Meet on 27th and 28th Oct 2006 - Hyderabad Chennai Bangalore & Delhi )

Dear Alumni,

Following are the details of the meets that are going to be held:

Hyderabad 28th October 2006 Best Western Hotel Amrutha Castle
5-9-16, Opp. Secretariat,
Saifabad,
Hyderabad - 500063.

Bangalore 27th October 2006 St. Mark's Hotel
4/1, St Marks Road,
Bangalore - 560001.

Delhi 27th October 2006 India International
Centre, 40 , Max Mueller Marg,
New Delhi - 110003.

Chennai 28th October 2006 GRT Grand Days,
Convention Centre, T-Nagar,
Chennai - 600 017.

The meets will begin at 6:30 p.m
Thank You,
ALCOM

There's a Nomad in all of us (so where all have you been ? )

Some interesting website i found where you can make customized map of places you've been
( create your own visited country map or check our Venice travel guide )
This is obviously for the nomads out there
Ii look back at my 18 months of MBA journey - loads of learning ,unlearning , new friends ... ,I must admit one thing i definitely miss is my travels
Its been very difficult ,not just getting back to academics but staying away from travels. guess it hurts more if you are a footloose nomad like me
How i wish i could cut loose and get back to my travels ,atleast a traveling job
Am seriously planning a month or two of backpacking or bike trip post my MBA
before i get back to job ( and that too , hopefully, a job with loads of travel)

I do realise one thing , i haven't really explored India
North-east , Kerala,Andamans ,Uttranchal , Lakshwadeep and ladakh ...
the list is long and all i have is, but one lifetime
Somebody rightly said that it takes a lifetime to truly experience India (forget the entire world)
i think one day i will paint all the continents red

Hyderabadiyon Ke Naam Pe

Continuing with the Hyderabadi postings, here’s some interesting lines I came across in one of the Orkut communities (look for the community Hyderabadi Lingo in Orkut)

Woh Charminar Ke Minaaraan,
Aur Woh Niagara Ki Biryani. (paradise no more )

Woh Madina Hotel Ke Chaiyaan,
Aur Woh Azizia ki Qubani.

Woh Pista House Ki Haleem, (trivia1: used to be exported to mid-east, donno now )
Aur Woh Famous Ki Ice Cream.

Woh Santosh Sapna mein Picture Dekhnaa,
Aur Phir Softy Den mein jaa Ke khaana. (trivia2: vanilla cone @ softy 3 rs ,ragda samosa in school canteen - 3.50 rs )

Woh Swapnalok ke baar baar chakkar kaatna, ( export tee shirts ,so they claimed )
Aur Nave Nave Kapde Leke, Pottiyon Ku Patana. ( NASR ,St Anns and Rosary girls high schools.. ring a bell !! )

Woh Perfumaan, Ghadiyaan khareednaa Singapore Market se,
Aur Phir Doston ku bolna, bhai laayaa bahar se.

Woh Jagne Ki Raaton mein, doston se saath ghoomnaa,
Aur aadhi raat mein, roadon pe ke lightaan phodnaa.

Woh dostoon se saath milke Numaish Ki sair,
Aur woh bade bade baataan, jaise ser pe sava ser.

Woh doston ke saath milke ladnaa jhagadnaa,
Aur Woh potti ke liye lade bolke ek bahana.

Woh Baar baar apna purane dina yaad karnaa,
Aur phir khud hi bolnaa, parsooon hi to karne naa woh sab Kaamaaaa.

Aisaich Hai Yaaroon Hum
Haan Bhai, Aisaich Hai Yaarooon Hum.

The Angrez / The English

'The Angrez' Disclaimer: The movie / just like this posting may not make sense to you if you haven't lived in Hyderabad or you don't appreciate the hyderabadi lingo.


you still with me !!!, go ahead ,chill out
I actually watched loads of interesting movies over the long dasara weekend and one movie i strongly recommend is "The Angrez" , literally means "The English" Not to worry , it's not another movie against the british empire. This one is a low budget movie ( 7 million Rs budget i was told) , set in hyderabad
The movie shows the clash between the two worlds - NRI and Old City
NRIs (referred to as angrez ) and a small time gang from old city form the main two groups and then there is another group of kidnappers to add to the fun ...
the movie is absolute yummy , esp if you love the taste of hyderabadi hindi,life,food etc

Hyderabadi hindi ??? - A fantastic mix of Hindi, Urdu and Telugu spoken, of course, in and around Hyderabad Hyderabadi lifestyle??? - a chill out life as I call it , one of the character in the movies puts it perfectly "in Hyderabad 10 minutes means 40 minutes"
the movie even got a rap solo called Hyderabad biryani , by a Nigerian singer ,on Hyderabad
pretty interesting lyrics like:
“Check out a Telugu movie to see the heroine,
figure out a pub where I can zero in,
DJ cold rocks the joint and everybody's hearty...
but cops already at the door and wanna stop the party... "

Nikkil the director says he had spent two full years doing the rounds of the old city gallies in search of the Hyderabadi humour. "Film's dialogues took shape during these trips — in an Irani hotel, at the bus station, in the sabzi mandi. Even those who acted in the film are true blue Hyderabadis and never forayed into films before." http://www.hindu.com/2005/12/07/stories/2005120718480200.htm

I was desperately searching for 'angrez' VCDs in mumbai last month and could'nt get them there.
now that internship brings me to Hyd,i could get the CD finally
Many of you must have seen "Hyderabad Blues" , and Angrez is another chota-budget movie on the same theme ,what else , Hyderabad ,but a lot better and closer to the hyderabadi dhadkan.
While Blues takes an NRI view of Hyderabad , Angrez takes a Hyderabadi view of NRIs and i must admit i just loved "Angrez"
The movie is basically about clash of two worlds - the old hyderabad or the old city as we know and the new Hyderabad (call centres ,discos , NRIs ... etc ) The old-city gang of salim ,ismail etc steal the show with their slang,attitude to life ,..
To me, it reminded me of my school days (All Saints High School ) at abids, ( arguably ) the heart of hyderabad as we used to believe, some may claim its charminar !
and the dialogoues feature best of hyderabadi hindi
others in bollywood like mehmood and govinda did try a bit of hyderabadi hindi in their movies ,but it never felt authentic - and any hyderabadi will tell you that
just watch this movie for a glimpse into the lives of hyderabadis

Gentlemen and Ladies , a true blue Hyderabadi movie !!

Large company Smaller Profile vs Small company Larger Profile

A friend of mine , a freshly minted MBA ,mailed this to me last week, "What strikes me about #xyz inc# is that one can actually feel the size of the organization in everything that happens there. Security guards at every door, people don't take interest in others, crowd too large for that, long queues everywhere from cafeteria to SodexHo coupon counters. People work for a decade and are still new faces to so many in the organization...."

If you are about to finish your MBA and you are at that cross road ,called the placement season, you should ask yourself - "Large company Smaller Profile or Small company Larger Profile ?"

Off late, this one question worries me more than anything else
In fact, to the extent that i envy all those batchmates who are pretty clear (apparently! )
that they want to get into big companies - MNC or Indian or Hybrid(that would be CTS etc )
Ok, to simplify,let us consider the davids to goliaths of IT world alone
On one hand , we have the Wipros,IBMs and Cognizant's ...
and then the medium sized firms like ,say,Kanbay,Mindtree,Tech Mahindra etc
so whom do you pick ?

Am kind of at that cross road right now and the way i see it

Large company Smaller Profile gives you
Learrrning - mentors to learn from ,excellent past projects and experiences,functional experts - the real gurus of domains ...
Established process ( Assumption # 1 )
Brand name to sell to clients,potential employees (and potential employers ! )
What if its a large but a growing company - more clients and more projects and hopefully better profile 4 u

David and the Goliath - All the discussions on the imminent consolidation of Indian IT space and how a handful of big 4 to 5 may survive !

Lost in the crowd !

Job security - probably applies to some Indian companies

Small company Larger Profile gives you

No learning curve / Deep Sea diving from Day 1

Process - what's that ?

Lose out on Brand name ( generally yes )

Riches in Niches - there will always be niches for medium companies to grow

Career growth - the greatest attraction , do well and hope that the company also does well

Risk - Definitely on the higher side

Lesser job security

Visbility - You are not lost in the crowd

Visibility of success/failure is huge in a small firm

Risk premium - premium on pay for accepting the offer

The eternal question remains - small-big ? or big-small ? :(((