Shameless plug for London Business School (FT Rankings) …

League table winners and losers - By Michael Jacobs

Published: January 25 2010 00:01 | Last updated: January 25 2010 00:01 (Financial Times)

The Financial Times Global MBA rankings for 2010 see London Business School claim the coveted number one spot, having shared the prize with the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania in 2009.

Comments from alumni of the school's 2006 MBA class, surveyed in 2009 as part of the 2010 rankings process, point to a broad educational experience. "One of the best decisions of my life was to go to LBS for a full-time MBA," says one alumnus. "[It] has enriched my life, from education to career development, to making new friends and gaining new perspectives."

Another adds: "You not only learn from the school curriculum but from the deep cultural diversity of the student population. There is no place else that can offer this advantage to the extent that London Business School does."

LBS is ranked eighth in the world by the FT for faculty research, and it is ranked fifth for alumni recommendations in 2010. Compiled from data collected by the FT from the classes of 2004, 2005 and 2006, this indicator is based on the business schools from which the survey's participants would recruit MBA graduates.

LBS is almost top of the table for international mobility, too, second only to IMD. This not only reflects the international make-up of the student body, but also the world view of the programme. One alumnus explains: "I believe that this is one of the very few business schools that has really understood what a globalised world means, and one of the few in the world where one can have a real understanding of global business in the classroom."

The gradual rise of LBS in the FT MBA table over 12 years – it was ranked eighth in the inaugural MBA ranking in 1999 and had attained second position by 2008 – indicates a broader trend: the diminishing dominance of US-based schools over the past decade. Joining LBS in the top 25 in the 1999 rankings were 20 US-based schools and four other European institutions. The FT rankings introduced a top 100 in 2001 and, again, the top 25 contained 21 US schools. Since then, the number of US schools in the top 25 has decreased, reaching 11 in 2008, and this year. The remaining 14 schools in 2010 are made up of 11 from Europe and three from Asia.

One important factor helps explain this shift: from around 2005 onwards, the return on investment from studying an MBA, measured in terms of salary increase, fell considerably, especially in the US.

It was once commonplace for MBA graduates to triple their salary between starting their programme and three years after graduation. But such increases are now rare. Between the 2000 and 2003 FT MBA rankings, alumni from at least 20 of the top 25 schools enjoyed a salary increase in excess of 150 per cent. Given the US bias of schools in the top 25 during that period, almost all the big pay increases related to schools based in the US. In comparison, the 2010 table includes just two alumni groups out of the 100 with such levels of growth in income. Neither is based in the US.

Why has an MBA become less effective in boosting pay? First, while the calibre of students entering a programme has stayed more or less the same over the past decade in terms of age, experience and seniority, salary data relating to earnings before the degree have increased consistently year-on-year.

At the same time, salaries obtained three years after graduating from an MBA have not increased at the same rate. In fact, the average salary of the class of 2006 is more or less in line with that earned by the class of 1999, a decrease in real terms. Consequently, salary increases have been squeezed, reaching an average of just below 100 per cent in 2009.

In spite of the fall in the number of US schools in the top 25, the league of 100 still has a strong contingent of schools based in the US – 56 of those ranked in 2010 are located there. The UK is the second most represented country, with 17 programmes listed. Overall, the top 100 includes 20 different countries.

Kilimanjaro, Serengeti and onwards

Apologies for the tardiness in postings from the great beyond. Life has been a bit busier than usual, although I took just one Advanced Finance elective this Fall trimester in addition to a block week on Corporate Turnarounds. The courses had both highs and lows, but all in all I like the block week format – one week, one elective, done! In the meanwhile, I interviewed with Morgan Stanley and had an invite to speak with Credit Suisse, but they way things were going, I decided to sign with Nomura. Additionally, a fellow LBS'er and I will be doing our 2^nd year project with PE firm Warburg Pincus.

On the life front, I spent a few rejuvenating days in Boston for Thanksgiving, met up with old friends, walked my two favorite dogs, had roast duck instead of turkey for T'day dinner and went to a Celtics game. I'm almost through every past season of the Simpsons. On the books front, I'm reading Guns, Germs and Steel (which I should have read eons ago) – it's a fantastic treatise on why history evolved in the way it has. Most people point to the Renaissance and subsequent colonialization as being the root-causes for the way the world has turned out today, development-wise. They flippantly ascribe the ascendancy of the west to a suite of reasons that are easy to rationalize. But the truth is more complex than this.

Tomorrow, I leave for Tanzania with eight other LBS'ers – we're climbing Kilimanjaro – a 7-day semi-ordeal along the Machame Trail and then going on Safari in the Serengeti for a few days. Then onwards to Mumbai for me, where I'll see the extended fam. I will blog more about the climb on return. In the meanwhile, here is what's on my reading list (courtesy of James Montier). I doubt I'll get through all the books on the list by July.

Investment 101 -The classics

‘Security Analysis’ by Ben Graham and David Dodd (The sixth edition)

Chapter 12 of ‘The General Theory of Employment, Interest and Money’ by John Maynard Keynes

‘Theory of Investment Value’ by John Burr Williams

‘Manias, Panics and Crashes’ by Charles Kindelbeger

‘Reminiscences of a Stock Operator’ by Edwin Lefevre

Investment 201

‘Fooling some of the People, All of the Time’ by David Einhorn

‘The Fundamental Index’ by Rob Arnott et al

‘The Investor's Dilemma’ by Louis Lowenstein

‘Financial Shenanigans’ by Howard Schilit

‘Creative Cash Flow Reporting’ by Charles Mulford and Eugene Comiskey

Modern wonders

‘The Little Book That Beats the Market’ by Joel Greenblatt

‘The Little Book of Value Investing’ by Chris Browne

‘Fooled by Randomness’ by Nassim Taleb

‘Contrarian Investment Strategies’ by David Dreman

‘Speculative Contagion’ by Frank Martin

Psychological

‘Robots Rebellion’ by Keith Stanovich

‘Strangers to Ourselves’ by Tim Wilson

How We Know What Isn't So’ by Tom Gilovich

‘The Psychology of Intelligence Analysis’ by Richard Heuer Jnr

‘Predictably Irrational’ by Dan Ariely

‘Mistakes Were Made, But Not by Me’ by Carol Travis and Elliot Aronson

‘Mindset’ by Carol Dweck

Hidden gems

‘Halo Effect’ by Phil Rosenzweig

‘Mindless Eating’ by Brian Wansink

‘The Inefficient Stock Market’ by Robert Haugen

‘The Margin of Safety’ by Seth Klarman

‘Your Money and Your Brain’ by Jason Zweig

‘Better: A Surgeon’s Notes on Performance’ by Atul Gawande

‘Why Smart Executives Fail’ by Sydney Finkelstein

GSK CEO Andrew Witty and Dr Sanjay Gupta to visit London Business School

Following last year's successful healthcare conference headlining Roche Pharma CEO Bill Burns, McKinsey Healthcare lead partner Nicolaus Henke and Goldman Sachs Healthcare MD Jon Symonds, The London Business School Healthcare Club takes great pleasure in inviting you to the 2nd Annual London Business School Global Healthcare Conference to be held on the evening of 30th November 2009.

"Challenging The Status Quo" brings together some of the most influential figures in healthcare and offers a unique insight into key developments and emerging ideas in this dynamic industry.

Opening Keynote Speech – Andrew Witty CEO, GlaxoSmithKline

Closing Speech – Dr Sanjay Gupta, Chief medical correspondent for CNN & Assistant Professor of Neurosurgery at Emory University School of Medicine


Healthcare Provision in Emerging Markets
Dr Gunther Faber (CEO, Healthstore Foundation)
Maria Largey (Director of Philanthropy & Strategic Partnerships, Opportunity International)
Adrian Gut (Head of Market Development, Medtronic)
Mathieu Lamiaux (Healthcare Partner, The Boston Consulting Group)

Innovations in Healthcare
Sir William Castell (GE board member, Wellcome Trust Chairman)
Alan MacKay (Global Lead Healthcare Partner, 3i)
Dr Genghis Lloyd-Harris (Partner, Abingworth Life Sciences)

Links to the conference: http://www.londonhealthcareclub.org.uk/

Tickets: http://lbs-healthcare-conference.eventbrite.com/

Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=189843708967

How I didn’t meet your mother and other things……

So I know it's been a while since I've posted. Partly because my eager readers in Kennett Square, PA, Bracknett and LA don't egg me on to keep posting (yes, I do check google analytics to see who's reading my blog!). And thanks for the readership and emails.

But that's besides the point! On a sunny Friday (for London) afternoon as I stand on my balcony and look at traffic whiz by, an existential question crosses my mind – Why are most London taxis black while the rest span the spectrum from white to crimson to blue to silver? And this existentialism is spurred by the two glasses of Cava that I've just quaffed. Funny how life becomes lucid after a few! The best advice I've given my clients during consulting days was at dinner after a couple bottles of Penfolds '06 Bin 389, including such truisms as "It's not how smart you are that matters, but what you can do!" and "Hope is a particularly bad strategy!"

Oh well, silent jubilation is in order today owing to an offer from Nomura to join them full-time next summer!

In the meanwhile, my second internship with UNITAID has left me a bit wanting – mostly because I wonder if I will walk away with the feeling that I could have made a difference, but I didn't – the one chance I had in my life! To put it in perspective – for the losses that one of the big banks suffered during the economic downturn, one could provide anti-retroviral treatments to anyone in the world who needs it! And this coming from a non-commie, non-tree hugger!

The focus of the work I am doing is (succinctly stated) "Incorporating an agency that would serve as a conduit to effect the price-reduction of HIV/AIDS drugs for use in low- and middle- income countries". SNAFU's abound thus far…..nuff said! Here is an interesting article in The Guardian regarding this -- GlaxoSmithKline urged to pool its patents on HIV drugs.

On other fronts, the bright eyed, bushy tailed MBA2011 class just joined London Business School and its members have been downing pints at The Windsor Castle like old pros in their efforts to fit in. Bravo and welcome!

As for the title of this blog post….I neglected this CBS show for a while, but finally got down to watching the pilot…..and I admit, after checking my brains at the door, the show was a laugh!

London Business School places first in Forbes ranking

The biennial Forbes survey, compiled in terms of gain on expenses, questioned alumni from the class of 2004 to determine the results and saw London Business School move up from number two in 2007 to re-capture the top spot which it also held in 2005. Alumni were asked for their pre-MBA salaries as well as compensation figures for three of the first five years after getting their degrees. Post-MBA salaries were then compared with opportunity cost (tuition and forgone salary while in school). Salary figures are adjusted to account for cost-of-living expenses and discounted the earnings gains, using a rate tied to money market yields. Sabine Vinck, Associate Dean, Degree Programmes said, "I am delighted that we have re-claimed the number one position in this ranking. This result demonstrates that London Business School offers excellent return on investment and that our alumni compensation levels post-graduation are among the highest in the world. While we do not allow rankings to drive our strategy, it is gratifying nonetheless that the value of a London Business School MBA has been so categorically recognised. I would like to thank all those alumni who took the time to complete this survey." The Forbes ranking consists of three separate tables: US programmes, non-US one-year programmes, and non-US two-year programmes. They do not produce a combined rankings table. Insead was ranked first in the one year programmes outside the US, with Stanford the top US programme. A full breakdown of the rankings can now be found here. The rankings issue of the magazine will be on newsstands from 7 August.
Copyright - London Business School

On being quoted in BusinessWeek….

I was quoted in BusinessWeek. Its sort of a rite of passage, methinks! Long ago, I used to read the B-school blogs and articles on BusinessWeek which got me interested in the B-school concept. Funny, that life should come full-circle this way!

Here is the link to the article. Summer Reading List: The B-School Edition: Looking for a little light reading to while away the hours? These books might be just the ticket, by Francesca Di Meglio

……Business lessons can continue long after the classroom doors are closed for the summer. That's why BusinessWeek asked professors and students at top business schools to share the five books they'd put at the top of their personal summer reading lists. Titles ranged from the classic novel to contemporary nonfiction, but when read together create an encyclopedia of leadership, just the thing to productively while away a summer as the financial crisis continues. A rundown of the most popular picks follows. For the complete list, visit "Summer 2009 Books: MBA Reading List" on the Getting In blog……….

It is 12:01 AM and I just returned home from the bank. I have to admit that even though taking the customary black Mercedes or BMW back home after late nights on the job sounds sexy, often the Jubilee Line is much faster than London traffic. This city never sleeps and its streets are not the grid that MannyHanny is - so it takes way longer driving through the London maze than the quick zip up to the Upper East/West side from mid-town or Wall Street.

IBD has been everything they promised and then some – the 14-15 hour days, the modeling, the powerpoint jockeying (although much less jockeying than I was used to in consulting), and the intern 15 (a la the freshman 15 – I need to get to the gym on the 7^th floor). I'm working in Lev Fin, rumors of whose death, as it turns out, were highly exaggerated. I finished a week of training and Deal Maven exercises, while preparing a pitch for a Private Equity firm trying to acquire a French company. And I discovered debt! Equity i.e. stock occupies a much more outsize space in the public psyche than it warrants, thanks to IPOs of yore – so much so that debt, and the beauty of its intricacies are lost in the white noise. Simply said, debt, especially high yield, mezz and leveraged debt is fantastic! And sitting on a call with a PE sponsor makes one feel small, so small. Its beautiful watching how this gargantuan belching pump called Lev Fin, sucks in debt at one end and spits out equity at the other end with a gurgling chuga-chuga-chuga! And covenants – ah covenants, so Biblical and evocative of Aaronic burnt-offerings of heifers and turtle-doves – covenants are so dynamic, and with so many moving parts. The entire picture is an exercise in pointillism, you focus on the details, but then you have to step back to enjoy the whole picture. I could go on and on!

My favorite (and arguably the most famous) pointillist painting)

Seurat's "Sunday on La Grande Jatte". See the original at the Art Institute of Chicago

I discovered School of Seven Bells in the midst of finals….

I tend to blog a lot around mid-terms and finals. It has now become another form of cyber-procrastination a la Facebooking, Tweeting and Flickr'ing.

I'm almost done with four in-a-row finals. Financial Statement Analysis and Management Accounting weren't bad at all. Tomorrow is a double-header of Operations and Technology Management and Capital Markets and Financing. The key to MBA exams is a good cheat sheet. It's hard remembering what the Black-Scholes formula for Warrants and Convertibles looks like after an all-nighter. And here at LBS, one gets rewarded for logical and analytical application of theory, like most other B-schools I presume.

I am looking forward to "cultural sensitivity training" for my Accenture Development Partnership internship on Monday and Tuesday next week. Topics include "A Buddhist model to development". "Neoliberalism perspective", "World Cycle of Disadvantage", and "World Development Balance Sheet". Certainly different from the Balance Sheets that I've been analyzing lately.

I still have to figure out my 2^nd year electives. I'm specializing in Finance and Private Equity, and would like to take more block weeks and modular courses, instead of term long courses that drag on and on. That way, I can have at least the fall or the summer trimester free, in order to focus on my 2^nd year project, do a month-long PE internship and hopefully, travel a bit.

By now you've figured out that I'm a music nerd. I just discovered School of Seven Bells (SVIIB). They are getting me through finals week. If you like Imogen Heap, PJ Harvey and Sigur Ros, you should check them out. One angle on good bands is having identical twins for vocalists. Think Tegan and Sara. SVIIB delivers on that front. I'm partial to Alejandra, the one with the wild bangs. Other bands like SVIIB – Stereolab, Raveonettes, Bat for Lashes, M83 and Prefuse 73. Very NYC, very cool!

This is "Half Asleep" by SVIIB, give it 45 seconds to warm up and set your equalizer to Electronic.

London Business School Art Exhibition and a white paper on educational reform…..

I've been MIA for a while. Speaking on MIA, if you like her music, check out Santogold. I've been flying under the radar, having spent a fantastic weekend in Boston, organized the London Business School Crossroads Art Exhibition, taken a macroeconomics exams and finished my organizational behavior audit with MyBnk (a non-profit). BTW If you are into pro-bono for non-profits, I highly recommend these articles:

• The new landscape for nonprofits. By: Ryan, William P.. Harvard Business Review, Jan/Feb99, Vol. 77 Issue 1, p127-136
  
• Organizational lessons for nonprofits. By: Hauser, Jerry. McKinsey Quarterly, 2003 Special Edition Issue 4, p60-69

The art exhibition (sponsored by my summer sugar-daddy, Nomura) was well-attended and the open-air concerts (violin, viola, harp, flute) performed by students from the Royal Academy of Music were simply mind-blowing. We had rented a grand piano, and it was great to hear the quad fill with notes from Rachmaninoff, quite different from the usual corporate buzz-buzz. Dean Andrew Likierman inaugurated the exhibition. This was the best two months that I've spent organizing an extracurricular event. My role was Veep of Sponsorship, and Senior Veep of Jack-of-all-Tradery and Event-managery. Incidentally, I'm doing the same role for the London Business School Healthcare Club, in preparation for the 2009 Healthcare Conference. GSK chief, Andrew Witty will deliver the keynote.

So you may wonder if I ever study, given all my travels and extracurricular involvement. The simple answer is "No". And does that mean that there is a mad scramble and all-nighters before exams? The answer is "Yes". The truth is that, this is what works best for me. And no matter what your study style in B-school, it is relatively easy to get an A, curve notwithstanding. And then again, with grade non-disclosure, often people don't care enough. I just don't agree with most of what is being taught in my Operations and Strategy classes anyways – it is outdated and impractical in the real world. As for Macroeconomics – spend 2 days quality time with a good text book, read the Economist and read whatever Goldman Sachs and McKinsey's chief economists put out, and you're golden.

McKinsey Managing Director Ian Davis on "What society expects from business"

The B-school experience, coupled with the Macroeconomics class, and McKinsey chief Ian Davis's talk, and a question I was asked in a consulting interview "What reform is needed in the educational system, globally?" (I had to spin tales for 45 minutes) prompted some deep thought which I intend to convert to a white paper at some point. But here are the salient points (below). I'd love to hear your opinion on it (email me at sbuxespresso@gmail.com)

1) Professional degrees must be shortened in order to return high-GDP producing individuals to the workforce ASAP. Case in point, doctors, lawyers, MBAs and PhDs. The advanced professional degree educational system is outdated and programs are too long. A combination of self-study, online courses and modular/block weeks, with a greater emphasis on internship time is what's required. Think of your own MBA experience. Wouldn't you rather be out making the big bucks, ahem!, increasing GDP earlier. And, especially for PhDs and doctors, with the internet, data-mining, rapid technology upgrades and better predictive/computational/hypothesis defining/problem-solving tools, it should be easier to get done in 3 years, no more. People entering these degrees are arguably smarter and better informed today than their peers 20-30 years ago, and we aren't futzing around with Bunsen burners and conceptual quarks and anti-quarks as in years gone by. Besides, not only is there an opportunity cost associated with keeping people out of the workforce, there is actual value-destruction, as people lose motivation towards the latter stage of their advanced degrees. Ask any fifth year Theoretical Physics PhD or third year medical resident about regressing motivation. And, think of this point and the next one, especially in the light of women, child-bearing years and glass ceilings. Wouldn't this actually make things easier, or at least give them the option? Would it? I'm asking.

2) Ditto for four-year colleges. Split the four years into modular elements so that students can intersperse longer internship spells in between to really understand what they want to do vocationally. Imagine a four year program, where freshman year is when you are 18 and senior year ends when you turn 25! I started off as an engineer, then biotech startup researcher/product developer, only to find that I wanted to be a strategy consultant, and now I'm going into investment banking. And I'm not atypical. More than 75% of my MBA classmates are career changers, onto career number three. How many of us started wanting to study choral music only to find that we really wanted to do few years later was law or underwater basket-weaving? In the meanwhile we futzed around in school or meandered from job-to-job. In other words don't put the horse before the cart.

3) Instead of useless subjects, teach people the following early on in their educational experience

1. How to leverage their brains fully? How to deal with failure? How to find happiness? How to deal with metal pressures? There is a huge body of recent research that suggests that we as humans do not fully understand how and why we think a certain way (nature + nurture). Hence books like 'Stumbling on Happiness' and 'The Paradox of Choice'! After all isn't it about life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness? Our mental and emotional map is still very primitive, and lags behind the pressures and pace of post-post-modern lifestyle. The solutions this new research suggests are not your grandma's Freudian lying-on-your-shrinks-couch bullshit, but solutions grounded real facts based on fool-proof experiments, double-blinds, cross-referenced with MRI/CT scan data. Don't we want everyone to live richer, fuller lives? And bonus - from a capitalistic perspective this understanding helps sell stuff and from a welfare perspective it helps solve problems (Read 'The Tipping Point', 'Freakonomics', 'Supercrunchers', 'Fooled by Randomness' for evidence).
2. How to interact with people, empathize, connect and collaborate. Friction between humans and the inability to snap together like LEGOs and work cohesively are will be the most significant value-destroyers in upcoming years within any organization. See Ian Davis's view on this. How many times do you wish you had insight into a difficult co-worker's mind? Why should good interpersonal skills only be the forte of salespeople and schmoozers? How much does this affect the potential of people who are unable to overcome their social awkwardness? What, are we living in the stone-age, where lousy interpersonal skills impact both individuals and corporate/citizenry well-being? (Read 'Extraordinary Relationships', 'Fierce Conversations').
3. How to find the right mate? Even as it is, one could argue that divorce is a welfare value-destroyer. It is as welcome as a root-canal. And it is definitely an economic value destroyer. Think of alimony or child-support as transfer payments (most feminists and child-advocates would love to scourge me for this). And, not being able to understand what a potential partner would want, defers the mating process (not sex, but confluence), potentially reducing individual happiness (not the happiness associated with a stable partnership, but not being able to fully focus on what makes the individual happy regardless of the relationship). And, ask any joint-tax-return-filing married couple. Less tax equals more savings or consumption which equals more growth of national capital stock which equals more GDP and welfare growth.
4. Teach people how to learn, think and evolve vocationally. This is especially important for developed countries with offshoring and outsourcing. Case in point, Adam Smith vs. theory of comparative advantage. Help people learn to evolve and develop new vocational skills. I have been lucky to have "learned to learn" and to evolve from engineer to researcher to consultant to banker. But this should not be the privilege of a few. Teach the masses to fish…..
5. Teach people to learn to become efficient and drive local Leaness. Everyone on this planet simply needs to learn to live Lean. Lean is not just for making cars, but as the population grows and people in emerging countries learn to consume more, we need to understand how to eliminate waste and conserve resources. Plus, one of the biggest reasons that jobs flow out rapidly from one country to another is loss of productivity. And the reasons why companies like GM go bankrupt is because people aren't thinking daily "How can I make my environment more efficient and less wasteful?" (Read 'Lean Thinking' by Womack and Jones). Also training is passé. Its important for both managers and leaders to be able to coach their reports. (Read 'The Coaching Revolution').
6. Similarly teach people fiscal and personal finance concepts much earlier in life. The reasons are self-evident.
7. Obviously, none of this can be forced down the citizenry's collective throat, given the personal nature of issues at hand, the issue of free will, and given that no government or educational system should be as totalitarian. I suggest a gentler kinder approach where the people are made aware of what they are missing out on and why this is important. Most rational human beings will see the value in this.
   

Well, that's enough pontificating for now. I need to get cracking on my Corporate Markets and Finance final. And then on to reading, 'Damodaran on Valuation' in preparation for my Nomura summer internship. More later!

Excerpt from McKinsey's Ian Davis: Maximizing Shareholder Value Doesn't Cut It Anymore Published : November 01, 2006 in Knowledge@Wharton

……..Fourth on executives' minds is organizational capability. Talent is only one component of capability. "If talent is not trained or relevant to the task at hand," it won't have an impact, he said. Capability comes in many forms: emotional, psychological and intellectual. Sometimes even physical capability is important in business. "Intellectual can be dominant, but often human capability, like the emotional stability to deal with stress, can, in certain circumstances, be crucial."

In most companies, talent is misdirected close to 70% of the time, according to Davis. Often the mismatch between an employee's capabilities and his or her assignment is most obvious from the CEO's vantage point. One CEO told Davis that his main job -- his definition of strategy -- is matching managers' capabilities to the work that needs to be done.

Davis was asked how companies should balance matching individual capabilities with specific tasks, and still be able to develop management talent when new challenges arise that might be beyond an employee's capabilities. He said it is possible to do if top executives have a clear strategic view of what they need and a sense of the people who could ultimately fill senior leadership roles. Then top management should be prepared to invest in those people and tolerate some mistakes.

Business today, he said, is unwilling to accept any degree of failure, even small mistakes that might help future leaders avoid catastrophes in the long run. "We're in a culture that says, 'If you fail, you're gone.'" He argued that most people learn more from their mistakes than their successes. Often CEOs are fired for a mistake, just as they are becoming strong and wise executives. "It's tragic," said Davis. "My general experience is that if you have highly capable, motivated people in the right place, most other problems go away."

The "Usual Suspects"

How do these themes bear on leadership?

Davis said one word captures what is necessary: diplomacy. He defined diplomacy in the business context as "the ability to influence events through the force of personal and moral character.... I think business, NGOs (non-government organizations) and public sector leaders are all going to have to learn the useful skills of diplomacy to explain in a positive way what they do and why they do it."

……..Davis stressed that the issues he focused on in his speech go beyond the "usual suspects" of CEO concerns -- such as costs, corporate structure, customer relationships and strategy. "These subjects matter a lot, but they're starters. You've got to get them right." Even companies that do get the "usual suspects" right don't necessarily thrive, he said. To differentiate themselves in the future, companies will need to build strategies taking into account the larger themes of society and government.

Italian weekend….

Half of my MBA 2010 class visited the Agusta Westland plant near Milan for a school-sponsored field trip. The goal of the visit was to diagnose operational issues in the helicopter assembly and upstream sub-assembly manufacturing plants. Luckily for me, Agusta Westland is 90% similar to a previous client from my consulting days, so this was a lot like shooting fish in a barrel. In any event, as far as operations go, three words are all one needs to know - Lean Six Sigma. Everything else is a load of crap, outdated and ineffective. These days most PE firms swear by Lean Six Sigma.

The helicopter plant itself was near Varese, an hour away from Milan. I won't bore you with the details of how Apache and Sea King helicopters are assembled. However, I'll mention the the pizza in Varese, which was awesome – wood-fired oven, thin crust with parma ham, roquette and buffa mozzarella.

After the plant trip, a few of us rented a car and drove first to Bologna, where we had Bologna salami (baloney) and real Bolognese sauce at Osteria di Poeti, the best restaurant in Bologna (near the city center). We then drove to Florence, where we stayed in Oltrarno for the night.

The next day was spent walking around Florence (remember my admit essay on how I would spend a free day?). Of course no visit to Florence is complete without pistacchio gelato from Ponte Vecchio and a visit to the Gallerie dell'Academia to see David. And, we celebrated April 25, Italy's WWII liberation day, with a bunch of cute communist students at a demonstration below the Piazzale Michaelangelo. They treated us to cantucci, a hard almond biscuit (like biscotti) which is eaten after dipping it in vin santo (sweet wine). And they even gave us a large bottle of fantastic homemade wine, promising to let us make it up to them when they next visited London.

We spent the rest of Saturday and Sunday at a castle in Tuscany - Castello di Ripa d'Orcia, on top of a hill near the village of San Quirico d'Orcia, some 25 km from Sienna. The view from the hilltop and the traditional food from the kitchen was glorious, although the wine from the estate left something to be desired. The serenity of the Tuscan evening was broken only by the sounds of our partying late, and the music from another party in the next castle over, on another hill, a few km away. This morning we drove back to Milan, where after a long delay at Malpensa, we made it back to Gatwick, in time to read our corporate finance cases and finish our managerial accounting homework.

See my blog post on the Monster of Florence

The Duffman cometh

Stealth photography at the Gallerie dell'Academia

The view from our castle

Ghiberti's "Gates of Paradise" - Baptistery across from the Duomo in Florence

View of the Duomo from Pizzale Michaelangelo

Our "art" stunt at London Business School

On being nominated for Best of Blogging @ Clear Admit

A much needed update to my blog. I was pleasantly surprised to learn that I was nominated for Clear Admit's Best of Blogging. Fantastic! A really busy schedule prevents me from waxing literary, so bullet points will have to suffice. What has life brought my way these days?

• I'm in love with Japan. I almost applied for exchange to Keio but other conflicts prevented me from making it work. I'll likely take a few block weeks during one of the terms at LBS and then spend a month in Japan.
• Leaving for Milan on Thursday for a trip related to my Operations and Technology Management Class. I'm visiting the Agusta Westland Helicopter operations near Milan to do a diagnosis of their assembly plant which should give me an opportunity to apply those Lean Diagnostics skills I used in my previous consulting work. Agusta Westland usually makes the Air Force One helicopters but Obama won't be getting one this year.
• Speaking of Obama, the non-profit I'm consulting for, MyBnk was in the news lately. The Chief paid an impromptu visit to its London office during his G20 visit to meet Lily Lapenna and her crew and to thank them for educating common people on financial principles in these tough economc times. Go Lily!!!
• Event prep for Crossroads, the LBS Art Exhibition, is going great guns. Tomorrow we take over the quad and install an exhibit. It's a clothes line strung across the quad, hung with colorful bras and boxer shorts and equally colorful resumes, rejection letters and candidates' responses to rejection letters.
• I recently visited Saatchi Gallery in London. Their current exhibition "Art from the Middle East" is f@#king awesome, like nothing I've ever seen before.
  
• Several friends from Boston and Sweden visited me in London. That was awesome! Shout out to Keith, Kate and Ariana!
• I love Marketing Strategy – it's the most amazing course I've taken so far, and Dan Goldstein, who teaches it, is the best prof I've had so far.
  
• I highly recommend that every rational young adult read "Stumbling Upon Happiness" by Daniel Gilbert. It's a provocative look at why we as adults may or may not find happiness elusive
• I highly recommend that you watch 50 Dead Men Walking, IRA, moles, great 80's rock, heart-pounding thrills – the movie has it all. It's Brilliant!
  
• I highly recommend that you iTunes download "They Don't Love You" by Juvelen and "Rive" by Electrified Jet Shamisen Okita (Think Kill Bill, fusion traditional Japanese music and rock, except its driven by an electric Shamisen. Awesome!).
  
• And finally, I just got back from a lecture on leadership at LBS by Ian Davis, ex Global Director of McKinsey. He's one of my heroes! Getting a chance to shake his hand and speak with him one-on-one was just incredible.
  

More soon. Sayonara!

Why I'm in love with Japan. Cherry Blossoms in Tokyo Midtown.

Cherry Blossoms in Kyoto

Toyota City, Nagoya

Making a mockery of the tea ceremony. Not sure that one dunks the green tea biscuit in the green tea, but what do I know, I'm gaijin!

The fair ladies of London Business School

And you thought the London Tube/Paris Metro was hard to navigate? Try Tokyo

Japan Trek Day 1

I'm reliving the scene from Lost in Translation, where Bill Murray is jet-lagged and up at 3 AM sipping Suntori Time Whisky. Its been less than 24 hours in Japan and I'm already in love with this country. And, this has nothing to do with the fact that I'll be interning for Japan's largest investment bank.

For starters, the flight here was easy and I'm glad I splurged my points on business class. We're staying at the Four Seasons Chinzan-So and the Japanese garden makes reaching Zen-like bliss a walk in the park.

I just love how the people, in general, are incredibly polite and helpful. I mean the concierge and bell-boys at the hotel go as far as walking you to the elevator and pressing the button to your floor before stepping out and then formally bowing as the door closes. And, if thats not enough, they wave their arms in front of sliding doors, just so you do not have to inconvenience yourself by setting off the motion sensors.

The toilet does everything except talk to me. And the subway rides start and stop smoothtly unlike the jerky rides on the Tube that send standing passengers careening into each other. And the landscape is spellbinding -- even "the outdoors" are perfectly manicured, with pine and cypress trees planted in rows on top of perfectly shaped ridges. They do know how to get their feng shui right around here with industrial, commercial and residential buildings all melding seamlessly into each other. Its not jarring, how the city is laid out unlike say NYC - short building, tall building, warehouse or London - brick, stone, brick, stone. The lines flow cleanly from rooftops to flyovers to canals to parks and fountains.

Pocari Sweat, Is it in you?

Why is this person resting her bum on an extremely large tongue?

The language does inject hilarity for the accidental tourist. Starting with swear-words (of course), the biggest dis is to tell someone that their mother has an outie. And the unfortunate use of English at times makes for silly double entendres. For example, the ubiquitious vending machines (1 for every 25 people) sell a sports drink called "Pocari Sweat"! And, I'm so buying a T-shirt with garbled English signage... something that says "Try Touching American Meat Goat - Heavenshow!"

Tomorrow, we're visiting the Toshiba factory, Roppongi and Akihabara for some manga subculture fun. I have Coldplay's "Lovers in Japan" running through my head.... "dreaming of the Osaka sun, dreaming of when the morning comes!" More later! Sayonara!

Milkround post-partum

Randomlist of going-ons in my life at LBS:

• Helping organize London Business School Arts & Culture week – showcasing art created by LBS'ers, week-long lunch time events including free concerts, string quartets, performing arts, open-air plays culminating in the Art Investment Conference

• A project for my Managing Organizational Behavior class with MyBnk, a charity that eradicates financial illiteracy. MyBnk organizes fun financial workshops in schools in underserved areas and sets up a school micro-bank which is administered by pupils who deposit their savings into it. My study group is helping them develop a business growth model with a focus on recruiting.

• Excitement about upcoming Japan trek during spring break – Tokyo-Kyoto-Osaka, Bullet Trains, Temples, Kimono dress-up, Mt. Fujiyama, Sake at the "Lost in Translation" bar, Cherry Blossoms

• A Discovering Entrepreneurial Opportunities project. My study group is developing a plan to start a restaurant chain offering healthy and inexpensive fast food and beverages

• Serious retro-cringe about not having networked effectively

• Serious respect for this bit of poetry by Lupe Fiasco:
  

  Got a daddy serving life and a brother on The Row
  Best homie in the grave, Tatted up while in the cage
  Minutemaid got his momma work like a slave
  

  …..
  

  He picked up his son with a great big smile
  Rapped every single word to the newborn child
  Then he put him down and went back to the kitchen
  Put on another beat and got back to the mission
  Of get his momma out the hood, Put her somewhere in the woods
  Keep his lady looking good, Have her rolling like she should
  Show his homies it's a way, Other than that flipping Yay
  Bail his homie outta jail, Put a lawyer on his case
  Throw a concert for the school, Show the shorties that its cool
  Throw some candy on the Caddy, Chuck the duece and act a fool
  Man it feels good when it happens like that, Two days from goin back to selling crack
  

Dis’es, Dings, Zings and Investment Banking Bling ….

Firstly, thanks to you, my readers, for your comments about my blog and about LBS. I usually suppress them to maintain confidentiality and so I can tell it like it is in my response -- but feel free to email me your questions at sbuxespresso@gmail.com. I'll try to respond within the week.

By now you've figured out that Milkround is an artifact of British uni recruiting. A week of 9 to 9 corporate presentations and schmoozfests. My networking season started much earlier, during week 3 of the fall trimester, and a career change to banking in this economy meant having had 30-minute coffee chats with 4-5 bankers per bank, times 7-8 banks, times as many trips to Canary Wharf or The City.

Prepping for finance interviews means studying every major story in the Wall Street Journal and Financial Times EVERYDAY, having your point of view on credit default swaps, and knowing where US, UK and ECB interest rates, 10 year bond yields and currency futures are headed. You need to know what the Dow Jones closed at and what the FTSE opened at, and why. Additionally it's a given that you know your garden variety Valuations, WACC, DCF and LBOs in and out and can speak knowledgably about major M&A deals, providing both a strategic and transactional perspective

– whiteknight takes king financed by stock swap, cash on hand and debt … endgame!

Knowing that the absence of a finance background made switching careers difficult, I had to hedge bets with consulting. This doubled the interviewing pain. Between prepping for i-banking interviews AND practicing consulting cases, I threw my resume into the ring and got a few Dis'es (when your application is outright dissed). But then, I got love from the usual suspects: McKinsey, BCG, Roland Berger, ZS Associates, Accenture, Deloitte, Parthenon Group, Deutsche Bank, Nomura (Lehman Brothers EU), Mubadala (PE/Sovereign Fund)

A few Dings (when you get a post-interview f@#k off email) later – I have a Zing that counts, an offer from Nomura IBD and I'm taking it.

Thus ends a month and half of hardcore prep, sleepless nights and daily back-to-back interviews (My personal best was 3 interviews in a day for a total of 7 hours). I am so pooped and emotionally spent, having had 5 hours of sleep in 2 days and a fat looming finance exam on Saturday – but I had to burp out this post to let ya'll know "All's well, I'm back in business and I finally have my life back. My B-school bet paid off – I'm at the numero uno B-school and finally, I'm an investment wanker!"

All These Things That I’ve Done……

Having been M.I.A., I have decided to burp out a post rather than remain post-less forever.Now that I have all my appointments, classes, club and career events firmly programmed and synced between my iPhone and the school's Outlook Exchange server, at the very least, I know how in-deep I am. On a more mundane note, after successfully moving into my flat the toughest parts were finding a drying rack (since tumble dryers in this country do f*** all) and enticing British Telecom to come setup our landline so we could get internet. My flat-mates and I finally had to resort to rigging a monster human size mousetrap with a bit of cheddar outside our block of flats, to trap the BT installation engineer. It worked!

I'm visiting NYC banks at the end of October for a career trek. The rumors of the death of investment banking are highly exaggerated. Most LBS 2009 I-banking summer interns have offers in London. Hopefully they won't be rescinded – it remains to be seen. No point getting one's skivvies in a bunch. Here is my simplistic take on this - some banks were stupid, some were greed and some were plain unlucky. Like my Financial Accounting Applications Professor Oktay Urcan says (in a Turkish accent) "Unlucky camel gets eaten in desert by polar bear."

LBS classes usually start at 9ish and go till 5ish with a couple of hours in between. Then its club events, company sessions, speaker series, company visits etc. till well into the evening, which means the best time to study is still early mornings and mid- afternoons. Most evenings I'm double or triple booked and typically get done by 10PM, which is when most people head to Mumtaz for Indian or Ali Baba for late night shwarma. Friday's are typically no-class day for most streams (equivalent of cohorts).

LBS MBA Wannabees, here is some of what one can expect in the first few eight weeks of school –

• Tattoo - THIS IS HOW LBS ROCKS
  
• Two business statistics case studies that will drive you nuts
  
• Loads of introspective assignments including writing your own eulogy. Career Services and LBS Leadership curricula developers expect that these will help you become a good leader, general manager and/or help you pick the right career.
  
• Loads of assignments, pre-readings, follow-up reading and case studies for Finance, Accounting, Strategy, Corporate Ethics, Managerial Economics and General Management
  
• Loads of club kick-off meetings
  
• Two consulting case study competitions (AT Kearney and LEK/LBS), an (IPO Challenge Chicago GSB) and a couple of Venture Capital style competitions
  
• Loads of company presentations and speaker series. There was a particularly interesting talk by Jim O'Neill, Chief Economist at Goldman Sachs and the originator of the BRICs concept. His comments on what the developing world will look like in 2050 and the role India will play in it are summarized in this interesting paper.
  
• Loads of visits to companies (I visited Merrill Lynch in the City for a reception and then played a portfolio management game at Morgan Stanley's Canary Wharf offices)
  
• Preparing for career treks. LBS has one to Hong Kong, Dubai and NYC each over the next few months
  

I am currently involved with a bunch of clubs and organizations I'll post more as events occur

• Healthcare club – I'm helping with the annual conference
  
• Responsible Business Club – I'm helping arrange speaker series
  
• Finance Club – Just another member for now
  
• Black Rebel Motorcycle Club – check 'em out
  
• Tearfund – through my church, International charity focused on social justice
  
• Pratham – Organizing the annual Indo-German Business Forum in Dusseldorf, Nov 13
  

  This year's forum is being hosted by Pratham, the Indo-German Chamber of Commerce and the Indian Government. We hope to promote Indo-German commerce by educating business leaders regarding existing opportunities, by fostering insight-generation, and by providing a forum to initiate and develop business ties. The event also raises funds to support child literacy and education programmes in India. This year's forum will highlight the importance of innovation as a key driver for sustained success and growth for both indigenous and global companies operating in India, with a focus on the Lifesciences, Healthcare, Automotive and Energy sectors. Indian and German business leaders will propose ways to encourage Indo-German collaboration in order to overcome challenges posed by the economic downturn to future investments in innovation in these sectors.
  

  The event will feature several speakers and panelists including Ajay Piramal, CEO of Nicholas Piramal, Klaus Esser, Managing Partner at General Atlantic, Gautam Thapar, Chairman of Avantha Group, Nachiket Mor, Deputy MD at ICICI Bank, Amit Mehra, Managing Director at Reuters Marketlight and R. V. Shahi, Former Secretary of The Indian Ministry of Power.

Juicy Case Studies.....

Last week was Orientation week at LBS - a meticulously planned affair, complete with ice sculptures that spelt 'MBA 2010' on the LBS front lawn. Rumor has it that since "The Crown" owns the building, said Crown has to be petitioned before conducting frivolity on the front lawn. Translation - "The Crown" approves out liquor license.

The first two days however, were hosted at Lord's Cricket Ground, "Home of the Cricket". The highlights were presentations showcasing the diversity of the LBS community. Students from each of the 60 odd countries put together 2-3 minute presentations that mocked stereotypical views regarding their countrymen/women. The best presentations in my opinion were by the French, Kiwi, Australian and South American contingents. Aside for the fun and games, Orientation was in a sense a sobering coda to the entire B-school quest, and a few of my friends claim to have wiped away a tear of joy during Gareth Howells' speech that inducted us into a somewhat elite caucus.

I also met my study group, which includes Canadian and Brazilian PE professionals, a Czech lawyer, a British/Indian I-banker and a Kiwi Brand Manager/Marketing whiz. Our first challenge as a team was conquering an outdoors course over an entire day, taking on both mental and physical challenges - running, jumping, climbing trees, walking tighropes - essentially a cross between Cirque du Soleil and Fear Factor.

However for some of us, the toughest part of Orientation was answering four simple questions as part of Career Orientation Day. These questions cut to the core of who we are as individuals. Trying to honestly answer what our goals were, why we wanted to achieve them, what achieving them would do for us and whether that was what we really wanted in life, was a bit nerve wracking and humbling.

Classes started on Monday, and I'm glad I moved nearer to school. Taking the Chyube in was definitely starting to try my patience. I'm moving into my flat at the end of next week and am temporarily subletting a room from a MBA 2009 in a penthouse near the school - with fantastic views of St. Johns Wood, Marylebone, Regents Park and the London Eye. Although, what I'm really excited about is being near the school community and having more time to explore the 'burbs. Club activities have started kicking off and I'm looking forward to the Responsible Business Club. I'll updated you on this front and will post a few more pics later. In the meanwhile enjoy these.

Now back to reading cases about Honda, Apple and low-cost airlines ......

The nerd factor of the helmets kept us from looking Mission Impossible cool

Offisite Day at the Outdoors Course

Scenes from Notting Hill Carnival

LBS front lawn

Notting Hill Carnival - LBS Outing

LBS'ers - I threw this together knowing that a few of us are interested in the Carnival. I suggest going on Monday, meeting at Plowden Reception at 11 AM and departing thence via Baker St. Tube/Chyube Stop. Later in the day gets very crowded. Of course, you could go any other time Sunday or Monday - just go as a large group - apparently petty crime is prevalent given the million-odd crowd.

And feel free to circulate this to other LBS'ers and invite them.

Cheers!

KEY COMPETITIONS
21 August - Calypso Monarch Finals
23 August - 30th Panorama – National Champions of Steel (Hyde Park)
24 August - On the Road Junior Costume (several categories including King, Queen and Best Band)
25 August - On the Road Senior Costume Competition (several categories including King, Queen and Best Band)

MAS BANDS
Mas (short for masquerade) stems from the ceremonial African masking traditions, as well as the pre-lent 'Carnivales' of European Catholisism

SOUNDSYSTEMS
Soundsystems are an integral part of the Notting Hill carnival experience and traces back to 1950s Jamaica - it's dance hall and backyard party
scene with it's sound clashes and homemade PA equipment. This year's line up features 38 soundsystems spread throughout the carnival
area.

WEBSITES
http://www.nottinghillcarnival.biz/
http://www.notting-hill.org/#/nottinghillcarnival/4528607813

Saturday 23rd August

12pm – 9pm 30th National Panorama Championship
Ten of the UK's top steelbands, each comprising of between 40 and 75 musicians, compete for the title 'National Champions of Steel'. Artists will perform on stage 12pm-4pm & the Championship takes place 4pm-9pm London Notting Hill Carnival Ltd will also host a variety of stage and family activities on the day.

Sunday 24th August

6am – 10am J'ouvert
Steelbands participate in a procession to mark the official opening of the 2008 Notting Hill Carnival. Revellers daub paint and mud on themselves and that tradition has now been taken up here.

10am – 7pm Notting Hill Carnival Children's day parade

Monday 25th August

10am – 7pm Notting Hill Carnival Adult’s day parade

GETTING THERE FROM LBS
Take the Hammersmith & City Line towards Baker Street. WESTBOURNE PARK STATION: On Sunday 24 and Bank Holiday Monday 25 August, between 1100 and 1800, the station is exit only.

GETTING BACK TO LBS
Paddington (Hammersmith and City line) – on Sunday and Bank Holiday Monday it may be advisable to use this station instead of Notting Hill Gate or Royal Oak, as both stations will have diversions in place.. Most other stations in the Carnival area will be ‘exit only’ until 6-7 PM. Other stations near to the Carnival: High Street, Kensington (Circle and District lines), Kensal Green and Queen’s Park (Bakerloo line).

CABWISE is a text message-based service that helps you find a taxi or licensed minicab. Simply text HOME to 60835 to get one taxi and two
local, licensed minicab numbers sent straight to your mobile.

Is the Carnival safe to visit alone?

Carnival organizers and the police strongly advise people to NOT visit the carnival alone; arrange to meet friends and family before entering the Carnival area. They also advise bringing only a small amount of cash and leaving purses, backpacks and wallets home. Some people advise that groups wear similar coloured clothes so its easy to identify others from your group in the crush.

On leaving the real world on a high note……

As I shift gears into a student lifestyle, going from being intensely goal-focused to being slightly more activity-focused, I’ve been quizzing my MBA friends about how to order from the a la carte menu that is b-school life. The consensus is that it’s not what you choose to do in b-school, but what you choose not to do. I want to have my cake and eat it too, from a personal growth and professional standpoint, and I don’t want to forego an ounce of fun. So I’m structuring my MO around heavily sampling and filtering in the first few weeks of school.

I hope the more-than-the-norm-pre-MBA years in consulting have given me a different perspective on the learning process, making it more efficient. I’m certainly looking forward to outside-the-classroom-learning, having best learned in the past from colleagues and mentors, by reading (case-studies, the Journal, HBR, McK Quarterly, Welch, Kotter, Kottler, Porter, Maister) and by doing things, stepping back to examine the outcome, and asking for feedback. LBS should be a continuation of this with student clubs and conferences, the internship, the second year project and most importantly the amazing diversity of the student body (industries, countries and perspectives on the solution).

I’m also looking forward to not waking up in a different bed every morning (your mind is in the gutter, isn’t it?) that’s inevitable in consulting. This week was a classic example - three days in sweltering Phoenix, one in beautiful and surprisingly tipple-friendly Salt Lake City and one in NYC. I remember a two week period where I was in seven different cities spanning both coasts, not including Boston where I live. I joke about how I spend the first five minutes of consciousness every morning figuring out which city I am in and if I’m late for a conference call in a different time zone. However, in spite of this I probably spend less time commuting overall, than some of my friends who have a two-hour round-trip commute to work every day.

I’m also mapping my exit strategy from school - whether to return to consulting or head the i-banking route, my long-term goal being Private Equity (in that I am so very unique). I LOVE consulting, travel notwithstanding! It’s been the most intellectually stimulating and rewarding experience I’ve had (including school) and the people I’ve met (colleagues and most clients, heh!) were fantastic. You can’t rest on the laurels of a previous engagement and BS does not fly for long – someone eventually calls you out on it. The action is fantastic and the variety of work helps. One does need to have the right temperament, and a mild case of ADD helps.

When I revealed my B-school plans to the partners I work for, I couldn’t have been more surprised. Their counter offer was simply fantastic – a staffing in Toronto to help launch the consulting practice’s Canadian office, a promotion (I’m currently an engagement manager) and the numbers thrown out were very alluring. However, they encouraged me to attend LBS, extending the timeline on their offer, should I chose to return. They also offered to plug me into their professional networks, which include some PE contacts. I couldn’t have asked for a better conclusion to my consulting days.

My NYC trip was mostly to visit the Indian consulate and transfer Power of Attorney to my parents. I was reminded of the 20 years I spent in India. There were the usual annoyances at the consulate – people milling around without necessarily going anywhere or cutting in line, talking loudly on mobiles, kids bouncing in their strollers by themselves (and when I say bouncing I mean a full two to three feet in the air, think trampoline) and kids who, while otherwise perfectly able to say entire sentences, would unexpectedly break out into prattle-spells of gibberish. The environs are also classic India – the consular services office is a subterranean cave, with peeling paint and linoleum, service counters that have either no signs or really confusing signs and several plaques that beseech visitors to keep the area clean – except there is no sign of a trash can. There was also the usual "sepoy" at the main entrance who gave bamboozling directions (remember Life of Pi), which at times were exactly opposite to what the annoyed lady behind the counter wanted you to do. In the moment it was all very droll and amusing, until I was chided by the annoyed lady for having missed a shaded nuance of transferring Power of Attorney.

So today for the first time in many years I was a bewildered adult. I struggled to follow simple directions, felt silly for asking clarifying questions at the counter marked ‘Information’, stood in the wrong line and then hustled at the last minute to get extra photocopies and passport photos - the consulate website being inadequate at best in describing process (…. the whine you hear is my dentist drilling my molars).

At times I wonder to myself why I’m such a control freak and do everything I can to mitigate risk. I uncovered the answer to this today while alternately waiting and hustling at the consulate. It is the years of living in India under Murphy’s Law! In the India I remember, everything that can go wrong does indeed and then some! So Indians like me who left the country a decade ago tend to have developed an acute internal what-could-go-wrong thought process which factors in the most insignificant of possible risks, weighting them almost equally with the most probable of risks. It’s a regression analysis worth conducting.

The high point in my day however, was getting coffee with a college buddy who is a Cornell MBA and now works for UBS’s i-banking division covering the healthcare sector (I do love having to Never Eat Alone). I did miss the NYC LBS’ers Happy Hour at Union Bar on Park and 18^th owing to my 7 PM Acela which unloads me two blocks from home in Boston. Tomorrow, I get my biometrics done for my UK Student Visa – a much simpler process.