Skies
thundered with anger. Clouds wept for my labor, winds lashed trees
outside, reflecting my frustration. All night long, the two sides
engaged and it seemed a never ending battle. Finally, as the first light
shone on the horizon - darkness receded and I decided, it was time to declare my victory - since
I had got my hands around most of it.
Way to go !! Woo hoo !! (Mihir style)
HBS has, as per practice had dumped, tons and tons of work on us... and in order to win the battle, last night I had decided to take it on. By morning hours, I had finished, all pending reading. Finished my strategy presentation - which is a big thing. Finished, all case studies. I even decided to give finance another attempt. So, I sat down, with all the ratios we had, did my maths... for long hours... and then was able to come out with some numbers.... right or wrong did not matter... what mattered is that I understood most of it.Win !!
Felt very good. Slept for about an hour or so... and back to class preparations.
You win some, loose some.
The negotiations that we did yesterday - we did a debrief today. We had two roles to play - The chief Marketing Director and Chief Research director - and a decision was to be made on where to spend the limited resource. The decision points were five areas, and both sides, were given the information piece that would pull them in opposite direction.
The sad part of the story was that I was pitched against another successful Indian AND a successful lawyer. There goes all hope of thumping success. With little hope to gain. We negotiated on cents and pennies, for well over an hour or so - but the good news was, that we finally agreed on something. It so happened, that our Andy (our Negotiations professor - chose our negotiation as the topic of conversation of the case study) - so here I was not only embarrassed that I had a formidable opponent, but now me (Marketing Director) and She (Research Director) had to stand in front of the class and explain, what was going on in our minds, when we gave this... or won the other. Long story short - it was a great experience to see have been picked up - while, we learnt that both of us were happy, we also learnt that we had opportunity to make it even better, for both of us. We learnt that, if you come with a position to WIN ALL, you would end up loosing more, and more often than not, you win some and loose some.
And that was thought provoking.
WACC - Got you mate !
The night's battle had filled me with new confidence to take on the finance figures. And for a very long time, through Mihir's (Our Finance professor), I was really able to understand what was happening.
I understood, why we are using what formula with what values, and why those values. And that was nice. When Mihir explains, it seems so bloody simple... Anyways, so far we (read I) understood, of why what was happening on the board. Win !!
Of course, he did threaten to get into more gory detail, tomorrow in our class... Tonight, I decided, I will not (I cannot) wage that battle of books again, and hence I have surrendered my fate to HIM, and hope things will not be that bad tomorrow. Loose! But that will be tomorrow.
Things I learnt today.
1. You have a greater chance of success, if you intend to win some, loose some.
2. Countries that have higher rates of tax - are the countries where MNC take most of the debts.
Any guesses - why ?? (For those not from finance - answers coming tomorrow !)
Ciao.
Way to go !! Woo hoo !! (Mihir style)
HBS has, as per practice had dumped, tons and tons of work on us... and in order to win the battle, last night I had decided to take it on. By morning hours, I had finished, all pending reading. Finished my strategy presentation - which is a big thing. Finished, all case studies. I even decided to give finance another attempt. So, I sat down, with all the ratios we had, did my maths... for long hours... and then was able to come out with some numbers.... right or wrong did not matter... what mattered is that I understood most of it.Win !!
Felt very good. Slept for about an hour or so... and back to class preparations.
You win some, loose some.
The negotiations that we did yesterday - we did a debrief today. We had two roles to play - The chief Marketing Director and Chief Research director - and a decision was to be made on where to spend the limited resource. The decision points were five areas, and both sides, were given the information piece that would pull them in opposite direction.
The sad part of the story was that I was pitched against another successful Indian AND a successful lawyer. There goes all hope of thumping success. With little hope to gain. We negotiated on cents and pennies, for well over an hour or so - but the good news was, that we finally agreed on something. It so happened, that our Andy (our Negotiations professor - chose our negotiation as the topic of conversation of the case study) - so here I was not only embarrassed that I had a formidable opponent, but now me (Marketing Director) and She (Research Director) had to stand in front of the class and explain, what was going on in our minds, when we gave this... or won the other. Long story short - it was a great experience to see have been picked up - while, we learnt that both of us were happy, we also learnt that we had opportunity to make it even better, for both of us. We learnt that, if you come with a position to WIN ALL, you would end up loosing more, and more often than not, you win some and loose some.
And that was thought provoking.
WACC - Got you mate !
The night's battle had filled me with new confidence to take on the finance figures. And for a very long time, through Mihir's (Our Finance professor), I was really able to understand what was happening.
I understood, why we are using what formula with what values, and why those values. And that was nice. When Mihir explains, it seems so bloody simple... Anyways, so far we (read I) understood, of why what was happening on the board. Win !!
Of course, he did threaten to get into more gory detail, tomorrow in our class... Tonight, I decided, I will not (I cannot) wage that battle of books again, and hence I have surrendered my fate to HIM, and hope things will not be that bad tomorrow. Loose! But that will be tomorrow.
Things I learnt today.
1. You have a greater chance of success, if you intend to win some, loose some.
2. Countries that have higher rates of tax - are the countries where MNC take most of the debts.
Any guesses - why ?? (For those not from finance - answers coming tomorrow !)
Ciao.
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