Day 5: Account books are not as straightforward, as I always thought them to be

*** Day V ***
Friday, 10pm - And you would think, that the week is finally over...nope... nada. We just finished the week's wrap-up for our group, created a working document, then converted to a PPT - of what we learnt/did not learn. And - we have a classes, starting 8 AM tomoro. Faculty reception/dinner in the evening, and back to studying the case studies, from Sunday evening 1930 hrs... ok this was not exactly fun - but then, to be honest, this is what I expected it to be - and would not have wanted it to be any other way.

What did I learn today.

1. We were introduced to the concept of mind maps and their benefits in understanding. Today, made the extra effort to learn making one, as notes of the HR lecture. Must say, I liked it - specially when using a software for the same.

2. COMPLEMENTS: (opposite of substitutes) are things, whose availability increases the demand for your product lines (itunes is a complement to ipads - Michelin printing restaurant reviews, an example of complements)

3. Bill Gates: "I always look for only "Network products" to sell". Network products, are those, where availability to a set of users induces use in other set (direct) or availability to suppliers, induces other users to buy more of my product (indirect network). Facebook is a networked product - all my friends are on facebook, and that induces me to be on it (Direct), Facebook also has indirect effect on application developers to develop applications (farmville, birthday), that further induces users to be on facebook. Similarly - Microsoft products have created a network effect by compatibility of their OS and applications on the OS.

4. Challenge, every number on the accounts books - and leverage each of the entities that can potentially hide behind number sheets - Depreciation (Example, of how a $2bn empire can be built, by just exploiting Sub-chapter S, which to normal people will appear a loss making proposition), Tax liability, Discount rates - all add vagueness to the accounts statement, but extremely important.

Later in the evening we had a Weekend Dinner by HBS. Must say, they have kept us pretty well fed - throughout the tenure so far. There is a lot of bonhomie in our living group - and I suspect, we deserve a bit of the same. Weekend is approaching (a good 29 hours of weekend - yes, we now measure weekend by hours... not days :( ), so time to get hold of Washing machine soap, stock up for the coming week - and most importantly catchup on reading - every day, they keep sending more and more assignments, books to read.