Cartoon Anyone...

In today's BEM class (BEM: - Brand Equity Management for the uninitiated), we were discussing about how brands are formed.

The discussion ranged from what are the do's & don't for brand formation, to the attributes and values which a brand name should symbolize.

During the class, we also discussed about the origins of some the world's most famous brands such as Rolex, McDonald's, Nike etc.

The most insightful learning from the session was the reason behind why cartoon characters have large heads with respect to their body size. any ideas why????

Well the logic behind the whole thing as stated by our prof was that since cartoon characters were catering to the target segment of children above 3 to 12, the characters had larger heads since the children also had larger heads w.r.t to their body size when they are young.

Hence the cartoon characters were replicating the physical form of their target segment...i.e children between age 3-12...Funny isn't it...

So next time you find yourself watching mickey mouse or tom & jerry on cartoon network, sit back and think for a minute about how much thought and strategy has gone into making the characters of your beloved cartoon shows.

A WAC on Economics...Beat that...

WAC- acronym for Written analysis of Cases.


After a week which started with the disastrous macro-economics exams which I am so gonna flunk the institute comes up another ace up their sleeve on a Friday with a WAC on Economics...*$&$%$#...

3 hrs in the afternoon from 1.30 to 4.30 pm for a case which was 10 page long with more than 10 exhibits was not a way to start a weekend or end a school week.

Anyways after crapping for 1200 words of which not even 10 made sense I finished the WAC well before time thanks to my state of mind which is really messed up.

On top of that, the impending LOB main exam which is slated for the whole of Tuesday is freezing my brain to death. 5 more quiz marks and I would have been one my way to a trip this weekend with Harsh and Akshel. Instead I'll have to struggle with LOB for today and QA and FM and MCP for the rest of the weekend before another gruesome week starts at AIM.

Man am I fed up with this life already? No time to breathe or contemplate for even a moment what am I doing, why am I doing it and for whom am I doing it?

I really hope I get through the next whole week somehow the other.
Life is turning out not the way I envisioned and I guess it's time to take stringent measures before some thing gives way.

Well for now I can feel happy that I did well in the first WAC and also our Learning team stood for each other during the meeting with prof Larry Tan...

Time to unwind and recharge the batteries for another week in AIM... :)

Proactive or Reactive...

Yesterday I wrote about trade-offs and compromises.
Now I am thinking about "is it worth it?"...
Should I think like an economist and plan to save for tomorrow and consume less today (read consume for me is to have more recreation and fun)...

Should I study more, socialize less, reduce sleeping time and enjoy the MBA experience as a vagabond or should I stress myself and study as hard as I can, ace the classes and quizzes and trade-off on my personal "me" time i.e. sports, fun and friends.

Or should I take the middle path and be smart about my work as our mentor advised us during our session with him.Prioritize your work follow a schedule and come prepared to class as well as allow yourself enough free time to enjoy the MBA experience as well as the sights n beauties of this country.

Now prioritize is another new concept which is alien to me unless and until it is applied to sports...:)

For the past few days I have been in this conundrum of whether I should exert more of myself in studies and gain the most out of this classroom teaching or should I continue as always and just stay above the bell curve.

I spent 4 years of engineering telling myself that I was good enough for the course and I don't need to prove myself to anyone...I used to tell myself that I have the capability as well as the will power and intellect to beat the best when I wanted.

But that was then and I don't see myself coming out of that wave of thought even now. I am doing the same damn mistake which I did during my engineering of giving up even before trying.

So where is the dilemma?

Is it that I should work n study at my full potential or should I just rest back and wait for a shock to hit be before I react to it...

Well as of now, as I get ready to take another exam in this roller coaster of a ride called MBA in AIM ( I have my macro-Eco main paper is precisely 45 mins), I guess I'll leave the decision to react or to be pro reactive to a later date/time.

However I plan to solve this puzzle in my head with in the next few days and then not look back at it for a very long time.

I just hope I come to a decision very soon, because I don't like to be indecisive...Period...

MC speech on 18th June'09

After having spent the night before my speech roaming around town in Manila and having a sumptuous meal at Fort, I came back late in the night and got working on my speech and ppt presentation way past midnight.

Thanks to Harsh and Supriya I was able to conjure up a decent ppt on my topic which was "Who was Henry VIII?"

It was fascinating to know about King Henry VIII, thanks to Wikipedia and Google search but my predicament was how to present the speech in front of my class.The amount of data which I wanted to share was not easily compressible into a 5 min speech.

Well, D-day was to prove my worst fears true.I started off on the wrong not with some technical glitch while getting my presentation onto the projector.After the delay and the anticipation of the audience already over the hill, I began my speech the only way I could...Fast and Furious...Hee hee.

Well whatever planning I had done the previous night, all went up in smoke since as soon as I reached the podium and began my speech I had forgotten about all the ground rules I had set for myself and just began blabbering whatever came to my mind in those 4 minutes at the podium.

Thankfully the audience was appreciative of my effort and I saved face by at least having had good enough content to go with my blabbering self.

I guess next time, I'll have to recite my speech at least twice beforehand before going live.Avinash was the most impressive speaker of the day and his hard work of preparing and reciting beforehand really paid off well for him.

Well I just completed my assignment of writing on my reflection paper for the same speech and now since I have completed the unofficial reflection too, I am off to class again.

ps:- Today is a very highly anticipated day.First WAC (Written Analysis of cases) is to be held @ 5pm in Meralco casestudy room...:)

Day 15 @ AIM

I had a early day today with LOB as the first lecture followed by OM & after having survived our Prof Larry Tan in the morning lecture it was time to finish up LOB for the Monday quiz.I slept for a while in the afternoon and then had a mini beer party at the pool side with Mac,Nash,Ervine,Emile & Preetesh and then followed that up with a swim.

After having done all the tp I could have afforded for the day,I sat back in my dorm room and proceeded to finish the remaining chapters of LOB which are suppose to be a part of the quiz on Monday.This was from 8.30 pm to 11.30 in the night.

Harsh,Aseem and Akshel had already left for Mindenou in the afternoon and Nash & Emile had gone out for dinner with the Ganguli brother's as well as Jo-Anne, mukul,Preetesh and Vishal.

I was on the court @ 11.30 pm playing basketball for close to 1 hour alone before the Gadoo's joined me and it was not long before the entire entourage got back from their dinner party around 12.30 am in the night.

After 4 rounds of 1 on 1 with Emile,in which I gave a valiant fight before drawing the series 2-2 (quite an achievement for me) I went back to the room & savored some delicious Chinese which Jo-Anne,Emile & Nash got for me.

After that the five of us i.e Emile,Nash,Jo-Anne, Aina and yours truly set off at 1 am in the night to roam around and see the sight of Manila's night life.We roamed around a lot's of places and even tried the Filipinos specialty:- balut that is essentially boiled pre-hatched poultry eggs, usually duck or chicken.It was much similar to a fied egg if you ask me ,but never the less an experience to cherish.

Our final destination for the night was Padi's point (the original one which was the first one in Manila to be opened.I have already mentioned about it's franchise which I visited during my MOA visit).It was a beautiful night with friends, drinking beer, relaxing away from the tension of MBA, chilling out with each other, trying know each other better and in general enjoying the free time in hand.

Emile showed a loads of snaps & I am actually jealous of him because of the amount of things he has already done in his life like, snorkeling, flying, sky diving etc and on the other hand the max I can boost about is playing different kinds of sport (though that's not bad either still I would love doing the stuff he has already done).

Well we finally reached back @ AIM precisely an hour back i.e 3.35 am and after another wonderful & eventful days it's again back to sleep for me.

It was a fun night and thank you, Emile,Jo-Anne,Aina & Nash for making it all the more special.
I am already cherishing the friends I have made here in AIM.Cheer's to my batch:- Cohort 4, AIM batch 0f 2010...I guess pretty soon I'll come up with a blog with something about each one of them.

Till then adios...Good night...

Day 12 @ AIM

9th June'09...

First of all Happy Birthday Ankit...(Pariekh for the uninitiated; friend from DJ)...It's been 5 years since his last birthday celebrated here in India and to think of it; it's also been 5 years since my group of friends from engineering went off to the U.S for their masters.

However, back to AIM... Life is becoming a struggle each passing day, with time being a premium and sleep an unknown entity in itself.After having appeared for the QA quiz on Saturday, I let my self unwind completely in the night @ Mohit Gaurier's birthday by the pool side.It was a amazing fun night,with drinks flowing throughout the night and music blaring full blast till 6 am in the morning when we finally called it a night...

However each nice thing in life comes with a price and I had to pay for the night out partying by sacrificing on my sleep as the very next day I had my CAN/Learning team meet @ 1 pm.

CAN/Learning team:- It's a concept here in AIM wherein the entire class batch of 45 students have been divided in to 8 groups of 5-6 members each which are known as CAN group or learning teams.We are suppose to prepare for cases in our CAN group and present it in class as a group.It is aimed at improving our team work dynamics and analytical skills as well as giving us a real life experience of solving cases...

Well after a rather nice weekend, yesterday was really a awakening call after I gave my first official LOB quiz and it is safe to say that it was a disaster.For the first time in a long time, I was clueless as to when taking an exam.Well I guess my time to chillax and take it as it comes needs to cease immediately if I wish to extend my stay in the Philippines beyond September'09.

However today, has gone rather well.After a boring lecture of SMA, things look good with OM and then MC was the highlight of the day where we had to simulate an actual press conference as part of our learning & it is safe to say that CAN group 8 fared quite well as compared to most other groups.Right now I am sitting in the last lecture of the day i.e. QA and blogging myself to glory.

ps:- Happy anniversary Mom n Dad...& happy birthday once again Ankit...

All set for QA...

It's 2.05 am in the night & my plans to call it a early night i.e 12.30 am went kaput because of the amount of things I found out to be done for tomorrow's QA paper at 9 am.

However, after 4 hours of relentless bc and hard work; well more of bc and a bit of hard work I can finally say that I am all set to conquer tomorrow's exam provided our prof. doesn't come up with a surprise twist in the quiz.

So, finally tomorrow or rather within the next 6 hrs I'll be appearing for my first official paper in AIM...Butterflies in the stomach...Nay.
Just that I have already got bored of the rigors of daily life at AIM.

Well Roger Federer is right now fighting with Del Porto for a spot in the french open final & though I really want to watch the match, better sense seems to prevail and I plan to call it quits for the night after a game of football on Fifa 2009.

Let's see what happens in the test tomorrow.