The day was almost as warm as Delhi... a few degrees here and there... but all through the morning, our spirits were high and there was a natural cheer, upbeat mood all around. The reason - a missing 50 minutes class for today. The HBS staff, had mercifully decided to give us a new lease of life and thus decided, we could do with ONE CLASS OFF. This was hotly debated, what if scenarios created, and for most of the pessimists in us - it was viewed as one of the surprises that HBS will come up with to shock us and in their own sadist way, slave us back to classes.
Well, as it happened, there was indeed no class from 13:10 to 14:00 hrs, a mere 50 minutes of spare time, that seemed so precious, that Kolar gold mines could not buy. You could hear it in the loo, in the corridors, in the cafeteria, about how each of us planned to spend the freshly available 50 minutes. The fantastic ideas ranged from - calling home, doing laundry to taking a nap - yes, the basic things of your life start to feel exotic, when you do this program.
Anyway, much before it was made available, our group had decided that we must utilise this time, to get over the hump and discuss some of the case studies for tomorrow.
And that exactly what we did... a hurried lunch, and we were back in our living rooms for getting our heads around the case studies for tomorrow. The idea was to skip the evening planned session, so that we can go an enjoy the Wednesday "Rotational Group Dinner" - a time, we spend with folks from other living groups, something that we do every Wednesday.
On the day, I first entered HBS, I knew living group was a part of our mandate - something, we HAD to do. During the course of the first week, I was extremely courteous to these sets of folks from different parts of the planet. But, sometime during the first week and now, they have turned into my personal BOARD. They are the people, who I would like to have as investors into my life. They should feel invested in my growth, my success, my aspiratations. I hope, they are the folks - who will have the determination, to pick up the phone and tell me, Alok, this is not the right way for you, and this possibly is the right direction for you.
At the cost of sounding pretentious, I would think, I have found the magical mix of talent, experience, wisdom in this group. We have a person - Rafi (his short name), he has tons of degrees, (and to rub salt into my poor qualifications) a DOUBLE PHD degree in Physics. He hails from Israel. Thailand's Wanlop, is based out of US, but an extraordinary bright lad. Anne, from Trucking industry has an interesting past out of Montana and Canada. Impressive to see her tweak out the subtle issues of emotions, psychology on the case studies which we simply missed..... who would have thought, Yellow color is manly and gray is not ??? She did. !! Knut, from Norway is also a PHD in economics.... I don't care which - the minute you say you are a PhD, you are from a different planet for me... something, that is on a very high pedestal. You would want to be always on the right side of David, he has been the champion wrestler his life... and when you hear the stories about his college days, you feel so good, he is a part of your team. Rocco, the banker, can always be found giving you complex for not studying. His sincerity to do the assignments and case studies, masks his deep set understanding and nuances for picking up small things - that you would normally easily miss. Laurence, from NZ, but now in States is a thorough gentleman, and a true professional and at the same time, reflects humility and understanding of human values and emotions. No, we are not going to talk about their ages - even though, after about 3-4 rounds of wines, each of us laid down on the table - our specific ages - its not for public information - and if you want the information, go find your own living groups - these are my friends and I am keeping it to myself :)
Well, since we had only two classes today - it focused around negotiation and strategy.
What I learnt today.
1. In negotiation, it is important to shape perceptions to arrive at the ANCHOR point that favors your position. A product, worth 40M, can be psycologically pushed to 50M, if the anchor point is $100M. (Don't worry if you don't understand it straight away, drop me a note and I will explain)
2. Learnt concepts of Contrast, Frame of negotiation, Anchor, Value opportunity when you did negotiation.
3. All, my life, I have negotiated with customer, seller, buyer - with a frame of mind, which says, as long as I am making money, I do not care how much money you are making, or how much more than your willingness to sell, are you getting. Today's class taught me that, it is important for you to make money, but you cannot give away your position of benefit, as relative to the negotiating party.
Wednesday nights are supposed to be rotational dinner, and we got into interesting discussion on Android vs Apple strategy and direction. Oh I tell you, its a lot fun, when you get some one who is passionate about his views and sitting on the other side of the pole. A friend Peter engaged me in intellectual conversation on which is better and why.... :)
Alok
Well, as it happened, there was indeed no class from 13:10 to 14:00 hrs, a mere 50 minutes of spare time, that seemed so precious, that Kolar gold mines could not buy. You could hear it in the loo, in the corridors, in the cafeteria, about how each of us planned to spend the freshly available 50 minutes. The fantastic ideas ranged from - calling home, doing laundry to taking a nap - yes, the basic things of your life start to feel exotic, when you do this program.
Anyway, much before it was made available, our group had decided that we must utilise this time, to get over the hump and discuss some of the case studies for tomorrow.
And that exactly what we did... a hurried lunch, and we were back in our living rooms for getting our heads around the case studies for tomorrow. The idea was to skip the evening planned session, so that we can go an enjoy the Wednesday "Rotational Group Dinner" - a time, we spend with folks from other living groups, something that we do every Wednesday.
On the day, I first entered HBS, I knew living group was a part of our mandate - something, we HAD to do. During the course of the first week, I was extremely courteous to these sets of folks from different parts of the planet. But, sometime during the first week and now, they have turned into my personal BOARD. They are the people, who I would like to have as investors into my life. They should feel invested in my growth, my success, my aspiratations. I hope, they are the folks - who will have the determination, to pick up the phone and tell me, Alok, this is not the right way for you, and this possibly is the right direction for you.
At the cost of sounding pretentious, I would think, I have found the magical mix of talent, experience, wisdom in this group. We have a person - Rafi (his short name), he has tons of degrees, (and to rub salt into my poor qualifications) a DOUBLE PHD degree in Physics. He hails from Israel. Thailand's Wanlop, is based out of US, but an extraordinary bright lad. Anne, from Trucking industry has an interesting past out of Montana and Canada. Impressive to see her tweak out the subtle issues of emotions, psychology on the case studies which we simply missed..... who would have thought, Yellow color is manly and gray is not ??? She did. !! Knut, from Norway is also a PHD in economics.... I don't care which - the minute you say you are a PhD, you are from a different planet for me... something, that is on a very high pedestal. You would want to be always on the right side of David, he has been the champion wrestler his life... and when you hear the stories about his college days, you feel so good, he is a part of your team. Rocco, the banker, can always be found giving you complex for not studying. His sincerity to do the assignments and case studies, masks his deep set understanding and nuances for picking up small things - that you would normally easily miss. Laurence, from NZ, but now in States is a thorough gentleman, and a true professional and at the same time, reflects humility and understanding of human values and emotions. No, we are not going to talk about their ages - even though, after about 3-4 rounds of wines, each of us laid down on the table - our specific ages - its not for public information - and if you want the information, go find your own living groups - these are my friends and I am keeping it to myself :)
Well, since we had only two classes today - it focused around negotiation and strategy.
What I learnt today.
1. In negotiation, it is important to shape perceptions to arrive at the ANCHOR point that favors your position. A product, worth 40M, can be psycologically pushed to 50M, if the anchor point is $100M. (Don't worry if you don't understand it straight away, drop me a note and I will explain)
2. Learnt concepts of Contrast, Frame of negotiation, Anchor, Value opportunity when you did negotiation.
3. All, my life, I have negotiated with customer, seller, buyer - with a frame of mind, which says, as long as I am making money, I do not care how much money you are making, or how much more than your willingness to sell, are you getting. Today's class taught me that, it is important for you to make money, but you cannot give away your position of benefit, as relative to the negotiating party.
Wednesday nights are supposed to be rotational dinner, and we got into interesting discussion on Android vs Apple strategy and direction. Oh I tell you, its a lot fun, when you get some one who is passionate about his views and sitting on the other side of the pole. A friend Peter engaged me in intellectual conversation on which is better and why.... :)
Alok
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