I got a few more questions today. If you have any questions, please feel free to send me an email at Sampath.Narayanan@gmail.com and I'll help you as much as I can.
Regarding the placement, a few of my friends who came directly from India had this wrong notion. Seems like our anonymous friend also had this wrong impression that B Schools will arrange for a campus placement since they invest so much.
Myth #1: Companies pick 10s and 20s of people.
Reality: For starters, it is very different from the way our software companies wait in Engg colleges to pick 30s and 40s of candidates. Here (US/UK) the placement is very selected - many of my friends went through 8-10 interviews and still have a long way to go - There are multiple rounds with Dir, VP, MD, etc. and a variety of interviews.
Myth #2: I got into a top school. I will get to buy a Ferrari when I graduate.
Reality: By getting into the top B school, I would say you have got into trouble. This is the first step of 99 more steps that you have to cover before you reach the Ferrari-dom. I am not discouraging folks, but want to make sure that road doesn't end when you get an offer from Oxford.
Myth #3: The campus placement comittee will get jobs for all.
Reality: Campus placement center will arrange for companies to come and present in the campus. They brand the school and relentlessly look to support the candiate (sector consultants, et al). Almost NO companies accept resume or conduct interviews in campus. The companies come, present their company and requirement, you can ask questions and thats it. After that you apply thru their website along with the 100s outside your school. Most often companies select people just for the Oxford brand name and call for interview. It is upto the candidates to make or break the case from thereon.
I hope this clarifies some of the doubts of propsects atleast. These are just my thoughts and I, as you can guess, do not get paid for raising the Oxford brand.
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Kill me, kill me.. I have to write so many assignments and here I am, writing this blog... I should really reduce the blog time. Its bye for a week I guess.
Thursday, January 25, 2007
Wednesday, January 24, 2007
Martil Sorrell, CEO of WPP
There is a guy called Sir Martin Sorrell. And why am I telling you about him? Well, he was here at Oxford yesterday to give a speech, and a good speech it was.
Who is Sir Martin Sorrell?
He is Chief executive of WPP, one of the world's largest communications services groups. More on him below:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Martin_Sorrell
http://www.time.com/time/subscriber/2005/time100/builders/100sorrell.html
http://www.thehindubusinessline.com/catalyst/2005/12/08/stories/2005120800200100.htm
And why is he special?
Starting as wire basket (?!) company, the company is now one the largest communications (?!)group... the man is all about all M&A... Just see the list of companies here, and you should have you mouth open..
From Time - "Advertising legend David Ogilvy didn't mince words, so when Martin Sorrell's WPP, a London-based former manufacturer of wire baskets, launched a hostile takeover of Ogilvy & Mather in 1989, Ogilvy denounced CEO Sorrell as an "odious little jerk."
How was the speech?
http://www.science-enterprise.ox.ac.uk/html/activities_event_details.asp?eventid=221
Well, the topic was "Why making money is about a lot more than making money?".. Now why wouldn't I attend this lecture? The room was overflowing; somehow everyone does the same research that I do...hmmm. The speech was fast and breezy; the room was at pin-drop silence all along.
He talked about everything, from Media wars in China to Indian IT companies to growing markets in India/China. He also covered the nowadays-most-famous topic - Corporate Social Responsibility. Not surprisingly, the MBA folks had tons of questions; if not for the facilitator's intervention, he would have gone for long. A great guy to listen to anyday.
I learnt somewhere that he paid quite a lot of money (nearly $54m) for his divorced wife as alimony. Hmm, I hope my would-be wife is so rich.. ;) not that I will divorce for money ;))
Who is Sir Martin Sorrell?
He is Chief executive of WPP, one of the world's largest communications services groups. More on him below:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Martin_Sorrell
http://www.time.com/time/subscriber/2005/time100/builders/100sorrell.html
http://www.thehindubusinessline.com/catalyst/2005/12/08/stories/2005120800200100.htm
And why is he special?
Starting as wire basket (?!) company, the company is now one the largest communications (?!)group... the man is all about all M&A... Just see the list of companies here, and you should have you mouth open..
From Time - "Advertising legend David Ogilvy didn't mince words, so when Martin Sorrell's WPP, a London-based former manufacturer of wire baskets, launched a hostile takeover of Ogilvy & Mather in 1989, Ogilvy denounced CEO Sorrell as an "odious little jerk."
How was the speech?
http://www.science-enterprise.ox.ac.uk/html/activities_event_details.asp?eventid=221
Well, the topic was "Why making money is about a lot more than making money?".. Now why wouldn't I attend this lecture? The room was overflowing; somehow everyone does the same research that I do...hmmm. The speech was fast and breezy; the room was at pin-drop silence all along.
He talked about everything, from Media wars in China to Indian IT companies to growing markets in India/China. He also covered the nowadays-most-famous topic - Corporate Social Responsibility. Not surprisingly, the MBA folks had tons of questions; if not for the facilitator's intervention, he would have gone for long. A great guy to listen to anyday.
I learnt somewhere that he paid quite a lot of money (nearly $54m) for his divorced wife as alimony. Hmm, I hope my would-be wife is so rich.. ;) not that I will divorce for money ;))
How is Oxford SBS?
Well, someone anonymously left a comment requesting for more info on Oxford SBS..
"Sam How is placement so far from the last SBS batch?I am very interested in knowing how indians faired so far?What is your opinion of classes so far? Style/content/etc.Mind posting a response?"
I wish they had introduced themselves... anyways, here goes.
Placement for SBS: the last year SBS batch results aren't out yet... mostly to accomodate people who took the 15-month (they finished in Dec, 2006/Jan 2007).. From what I know personally the placement has been very good. Still SBS is focussed on Finance and Entrepreneurship as its focus.. Consultancy and High tech follows in placement counts... every year, we hear of someone starting their new company (I met someone in india who started an energy conversion company).. many folks here are sponsored by their company too, so they go back to their respective companies.. Overall: Trend is good.
Classes: Diversity and intellectual discussions are plus points. There are a few world class lecturers.. Moreover the admin is trying relentlessly to learn and excel; I read somewhere the dean saying that SBS will try to compete with HBS... good to aim high, huh? The number of Indians this year was a tad high; nevertheless, it was diff countries (like US citizens, UK citizens, singapore indians, etc.).. with 1B+ population, Indians and chinese are everywhere anyways ;)
Style/Content: I would say 60% of classes are taught in case basis.. the exam model is still the medieval Oxford way (with Sub fusc and double corrections)... we are now in the second term and we have to read atleast 2 cases and 2 reading material a day before going to the class... its a lot of work, but you've to do it, otherwise you will be the only one blinking in the class. Notable mention is the number of electives - 30+ electives to choose from (we have to choose 6).. ranges from private equity to real estate to networked media.. By networked media, I mean the blogs, wikis and facebooks - how cool is that to read abt a trend that has just emerged.. however I did not elect to that topic since I had strategy preferences...
Well, I hope that clarifies. I hope it was a MBA prospoect who was willing to learn more - All the best!
"Sam How is placement so far from the last SBS batch?I am very interested in knowing how indians faired so far?What is your opinion of classes so far? Style/content/etc.Mind posting a response?"
I wish they had introduced themselves... anyways, here goes.
Placement for SBS: the last year SBS batch results aren't out yet... mostly to accomodate people who took the 15-month (they finished in Dec, 2006/Jan 2007).. From what I know personally the placement has been very good. Still SBS is focussed on Finance and Entrepreneurship as its focus.. Consultancy and High tech follows in placement counts... every year, we hear of someone starting their new company (I met someone in india who started an energy conversion company).. many folks here are sponsored by their company too, so they go back to their respective companies.. Overall: Trend is good.
Classes: Diversity and intellectual discussions are plus points. There are a few world class lecturers.. Moreover the admin is trying relentlessly to learn and excel; I read somewhere the dean saying that SBS will try to compete with HBS... good to aim high, huh? The number of Indians this year was a tad high; nevertheless, it was diff countries (like US citizens, UK citizens, singapore indians, etc.).. with 1B+ population, Indians and chinese are everywhere anyways ;)
Style/Content: I would say 60% of classes are taught in case basis.. the exam model is still the medieval Oxford way (with Sub fusc and double corrections)... we are now in the second term and we have to read atleast 2 cases and 2 reading material a day before going to the class... its a lot of work, but you've to do it, otherwise you will be the only one blinking in the class. Notable mention is the number of electives - 30+ electives to choose from (we have to choose 6).. ranges from private equity to real estate to networked media.. By networked media, I mean the blogs, wikis and facebooks - how cool is that to read abt a trend that has just emerged.. however I did not elect to that topic since I had strategy preferences...
Well, I hope that clarifies. I hope it was a MBA prospoect who was willing to learn more - All the best!
Tuesday, January 16, 2007
A few software terms
As a Engagement manager, I have used the below terms quite frequently, but not being a core techie, I had not known the clear text book definition ;). Here they are (thanks to wikipedia):
Enterprise Resource Planning systems (ERPs) integrate (or attempt to integrate) all data and processes of an organization into a unified system. A typical ERP system will use multiple components of computer software and hardware to achieve the integration. A key ingredient of most ERP systems is the use of a unified database to store data for the various system modules.
Service-oriented architecture (SOA) [pronounced "sō-uh" or "es-ō-ā"] expresses a perspective of software architecture that defines the use of loosely coupled software services to support the requirements of the business processes and software users. Resources on a network[1] in an SOA environment are made available as independent services that can be accessed without knowledge of their underlying platform implementation.[1]
Enterprise Application Integration (EAI) is defined as the uses of software and computer systems architectural principles to integrate a set of enterprise computer applications.
Three-tier is a client-server architecture in which the user interface, functional process logic ("business rules"), data storage and data access are developed and maintained as independent modules, most often on separate platforms.
Distributed computing is a method of computer processing in which different parts of a program run simultaneously on two or more computers that are communicating with each other over a network. Distributed computing is a type of parallel processing. But the latter term is most commonly used to refer to processing in which different parts of a program run simultaneously on two or more processors that are part of the same computer.
Web service[1] is a software system designed to support interoperable machine-to-machine interaction over a network. Web services are frequently just application programming interfaces (API) that can be accessed over a network, such as the Internet, and executed on a remote system hosting the requested services.
Enterprise Resource Planning systems (ERPs) integrate (or attempt to integrate) all data and processes of an organization into a unified system. A typical ERP system will use multiple components of computer software and hardware to achieve the integration. A key ingredient of most ERP systems is the use of a unified database to store data for the various system modules.
Service-oriented architecture (SOA) [pronounced "sō-uh" or "es-ō-ā"] expresses a perspective of software architecture that defines the use of loosely coupled software services to support the requirements of the business processes and software users. Resources on a network[1] in an SOA environment are made available as independent services that can be accessed without knowledge of their underlying platform implementation.[1]
Enterprise Application Integration (EAI) is defined as the uses of software and computer systems architectural principles to integrate a set of enterprise computer applications.
Three-tier is a client-server architecture in which the user interface, functional process logic ("business rules"), data storage and data access are developed and maintained as independent modules, most often on separate platforms.
Distributed computing is a method of computer processing in which different parts of a program run simultaneously on two or more computers that are communicating with each other over a network. Distributed computing is a type of parallel processing. But the latter term is most commonly used to refer to processing in which different parts of a program run simultaneously on two or more processors that are part of the same computer.
Web service[1] is a software system designed to support interoperable machine-to-machine interaction over a network. Web services are frequently just application programming interfaces (API) that can be accessed over a network, such as the Internet, and executed on a remote system hosting the requested services.
Sunday, January 07, 2007
Impressionism and Pointillism
I am sure that title would have had you puzzled. Well, these are painting techniques.
I used to be a small-time painter during my school days. There was a next door girl (6 years older J) who used to my Guru. Mostly I imitated her and other’s paintings. I had to fight with my parents to buy different types of brushes; I saw oil paint only when she gifted to me her set when they left town. I remember some drawings still – some rajastani traditional women, goddess Lakshmi with a tilted head ;) et al. But given the nomads we were (my dad worked in Tamil Nadu government), we lost all the 20 some drawings in transfer between homes. Then came the 10th standard which dropped a full stop to all my creative activities.
Why do I suddenly remember this?
Hmmm… I was off to London last week to visit the Cognizant London office and the Country manager. I had a quick presentation/discussion with him for an hour in the morning, after which I had the day to spend in London before I returned to Oxford. I was roaming around and stumbled upon the National art gallery near Leicester Square, Central London.
I was very happy I visited this place. It had hundreds of art works (I mean, real art works, not miniatures/replicas) arranged in sections 1500-1600, 1600-1700, etc. I had known and appreciated modern artists (1900+). When I visited this section it was a real learning experience, you could really appreciate these artists, their thought process and their painting techniques only when you see the picture so near.
Impressionism
Impressionism was a 19th century art movement that began as a loose association of Paris-based artists. In impressionism, short, thick strokes of paint are used to quickly capture the essence of the subject, rather than its details. Rather than drawing it all, it gives an “impression” to the viewer.
You could see the difference in the pictures below. The first one (Art name: WishtleJacket) is a conventional painting and the second (Artist: Edgar) is painted using impressionist technique.
I used to be a small-time painter during my school days. There was a next door girl (6 years older J) who used to my Guru. Mostly I imitated her and other’s paintings. I had to fight with my parents to buy different types of brushes; I saw oil paint only when she gifted to me her set when they left town. I remember some drawings still – some rajastani traditional women, goddess Lakshmi with a tilted head ;) et al. But given the nomads we were (my dad worked in Tamil Nadu government), we lost all the 20 some drawings in transfer between homes. Then came the 10th standard which dropped a full stop to all my creative activities.
Why do I suddenly remember this?
Hmmm… I was off to London last week to visit the Cognizant London office and the Country manager. I had a quick presentation/discussion with him for an hour in the morning, after which I had the day to spend in London before I returned to Oxford. I was roaming around and stumbled upon the National art gallery near Leicester Square, Central London.
I was very happy I visited this place. It had hundreds of art works (I mean, real art works, not miniatures/replicas) arranged in sections 1500-1600, 1600-1700, etc. I had known and appreciated modern artists (1900+). When I visited this section it was a real learning experience, you could really appreciate these artists, their thought process and their painting techniques only when you see the picture so near.
Impressionism
Impressionism was a 19th century art movement that began as a loose association of Paris-based artists. In impressionism, short, thick strokes of paint are used to quickly capture the essence of the subject, rather than its details. Rather than drawing it all, it gives an “impression” to the viewer.
You could see the difference in the pictures below. The first one (Art name: WishtleJacket) is a conventional painting and the second (Artist: Edgar) is painted using impressionist technique.
A few famous arts I explored are from world-famous artists including Claude Monet, Camille Pissarro and Pierre-Auguste Renoir.
Pointillism
Pointillism is a style of painting in which small distinct points of primary colors create the impression of a wide selection of secondary colors. For example, instead of using green paint, they would drop two dots of yellow and blue together - and you get the "impression". The result is sometimes described as brighter or purer since the eye does the mixing and not the brush. (Brilliant, isn't it?)
You could see the difference in the picture below (artist: Seurat). This one is painted using Pointillism technique.
Pointillism
Pointillism is a style of painting in which small distinct points of primary colors create the impression of a wide selection of secondary colors. For example, instead of using green paint, they would drop two dots of yellow and blue together - and you get the "impression". The result is sometimes described as brighter or purer since the eye does the mixing and not the brush. (Brilliant, isn't it?)
You could see the difference in the picture below (artist: Seurat). This one is painted using Pointillism technique.
The gallery also had a long sequence of Vincent van Gogh pictures. Well, it was a great experience and I spent an unplanned 4 hours there before my stomach pushed me to go home. I would say, even if you do not know much, go to such exhibitions and galleries; you would slowly be able to appreciate their techniques.
Friday, January 05, 2007
Wines - White or red?
Well, here goes the next puzzle..
You have two urns. One is filled with red wine and the other is filled with white wine. You take a cup, fill it from the red wine urn, and tip it into the white wine urn. You allow the wines in the white wine urn to mix completely so they are fully diffused in the urn. You then take a cup of this mixture from the white wine urn and transfer it to the red wine urn. Is there now more red wine in the white wine urn or white wine in the red wine urn?
You have two urns. One is filled with red wine and the other is filled with white wine. You take a cup, fill it from the red wine urn, and tip it into the white wine urn. You allow the wines in the white wine urn to mix completely so they are fully diffused in the urn. You then take a cup of this mixture from the white wine urn and transfer it to the red wine urn. Is there now more red wine in the white wine urn or white wine in the red wine urn?
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