The Spring break is finally here!

Over the past ten years, I have had the opportunity to experience winters all across United States - Missouri, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Illinois, California and now New York. While, I enjoyed the cold winters in Massachusetts and hated the awful wind chills in Illinois, I have mix feelings about the winters in Ithaca. It’s been rather cold but surprisingly pretty this year here in Ithaca…

From shrubs to tree tops, Ithaca was drenched with heavy icing during last week’s freezing rain. The roads were slippery and we had our alert antenna ON all the time, especially when it came to driving on the hilly landscape of Ithaca ;). It was hence not surprising to bump into classmates who wanted to get out of Ithaca!

Well, the spring break is finally here and by tomorrow almost everyone would be out of Ithaca! While many of my classmates have left to meet their families, some have flown to enjoy the warm weather in Mexico, Virgin Islands and Panama. Others, who are actively seeking jobs in high-tech industry, have flown to Silicon Valley for the “Day in the Bay” event organized by Career Management Center at Johnson School. In case you don't know about this event, its an off-campus interview event held with West Coast employers for both full-time and internship positions. It is also a great opportunity for Johnson school students to network with one of the largest Cornell Alumni organizations that is located in northern California.

For me however, the spring break is a big relief from the hectic 16.5 credit course load and an opportunity to catch up my backlogged startup workload. It is also a great time to meet my three-month niece, Priti for the very first time and celebrate my father’s 73^rd birthday in Washington DC with all my close family members. I am really looking forward to it...

But, before I disappear into my startup workload and family events, I want to share with you some of the campus photographs I took in the past few weeks. I hope you enjoy them, for winter in Ithaca is not all that bad!

Two submissions completed, three more to go...

Yeah, that's what is going through my mind right now:) It's amazing how time has swiftly passed by and the finals are already here...

Like other AMBAs, I have been pretty happy with the coursework in Johnson School but this semester brings in something special for me. My courses in spring enable me to work on some aspects of my startup through various project assignments for credits!

This flexible integration of coursework with real-world projects is something that truly makes the Johnson School program worth while. Everything from writing a B-plan to product pricing can be addressed through courses here. If you are considering a 2-year program and are interested in entrepreneurship, I strongly recommend that you plan your courses ahead of time so that you are well prepared to launch your firm by the time you graduate.

As I plan for my graduation in May I have been bombarded by emails from prospective students who currently face the tough decision of choosing an MBA school. I have been pretty happy with the program so far. Since, I have been asked by many prospective students, to list the changes I hope are done in the program, I am listing the two things I really hope are taken into consideration by Johnson School in the coming years.

First, it’s about providing specific courses for AMBAs during winter break. There are tons of club activities and events one can participate and learn from leadership roles. But I personally feel that there is no substitutes for courses offered in Johnson school. The faculty is really awesome and it's sad if one misses out on some of the unique courses offered by world-class faculty. So, I do think Johnson school should consider reshuffling or offering some courses over the breaks, especifically for AMBA students. Why AMBA? Well because we folks only have two semesters to select our electives. Unfortunately, most of the courses are offered either in fall or spring.

Second, some of the courses such as like Financial Statement Analysis and Oral and writing communications should be made a part of the core. Although these might seem irrelevant courses, I think good presentation, writing skills and ability to understand the balance sheet is crucial for tomorrow’s industry leaders.

I will indeed be following up on these suggestions with Cathy Dove, our Associate Dean. I am not sure whether these suggestions will be implemented soon, but one good thing of being in small school is that every student gets and opportunity to raise his/her opinion which will be heard...

Anyway, with 2 down and 3 more to go on the submission front, its time to get back to my third case deliverable. I will get going now and hope to catch up with you very soon. Good night!

Am back and all pumped up for a productive 2008!

I apologize for my sudden disappearance but I had to make an impromptu trip to India, last December. And I arrived a week after our spring semester had started, only to find that I had horrible stomach flu. But, now I am back – all caffeinated and pumped up for the spring semester ;-)

India, as we know is the second fastest growing major economy in the world. And, most Indians would agree that inspite of visiting India on regular Christmas breaks, in each trip you will discover something new, something impressive and something that will make you wonder where Indians are headed.

What struck me the most in this trip was the growing economic gap, infrastructural issues and lifestyle changes. I wasn’t too surprised to see an software engineers earn Rs. 80,000 (approx. $2000) to Rs.1.5 lakhs (appox. $3750) per month but I was surprised to see a house cleaning lady still earn Rs. 300/month ($7.5), same as what she did four years a ago. The cost has living as no doubt gone up with real estate prices almost doubled and land prices quadrupled in the past two years. Even the beggars on the street demand atleast Rs 5 these days ;-)

The sudden surge of money among engineers, although good in many ways, seem to have added to the existing infrastructural issues faced in many cities. For one, cars have become a commodity and the poor infrastructure of roads, especially in Pune, is unable to withstand the increasing number of four-wheelers. The result is higher air and noise pollution and drastic increase in road accidents. “Throat infection” has become a common cause of sickness but other than putting a cloth mask on the faces, people don’t seem to be doing much about it.

Inspite of all these issues, an average India is still happy with what he/she makes and in the rut with life, finds ways to enjoy it. They are excited about McDonald and KFC’s that are popping up and huge malls. Going to gyms has become a craze and a common hang out place and night clubs are flourishing like never before. The mix of east and west coupled with the great opportunities are indeed attracting a lot of resident Indians from abroad and Indians no crave to go abroad.

It is a indeed a very interesting phase in the life of Indians and like each year, I look forward to visiting India again!

Ithaca is Gorges!

If you think Johnson's MBA program is only about living an intense life filled with courses taught by world-class faculty or connecting with industry leaders through speaker series events or making life-long friends with future leaders, you are wrong! Because, it's also about experiencing the beautiful campus life, here in Ithaca.

Last week, I visited the McGraw Tower where Cornell students played "Cornell Alma mater" and "Raiders of the Lost Ark Theme". To try and explain my amazing experience in words would be to do injustice to the Chime masters who played that afternoon. So, I put together a clip that I had recorded for you last week. If you want to read more about Cornell's chimes please visit http://www.chimes.cornell.edu/. And, as you watch the video, please pardon my recording skills for I am stilling working on them....:)

I have also attached a few pictures that I took around the campus (except the one where I am standing in front of the tower). The photos are just a glimpse of the serene Cayuga lake, where Johnson School normally organizes its outdoor events and the pretty Beebe lake, which is one of many jogger's paths.

Hope you take time to walk around the Cornell's campus when you visit us, for trust me, it's worth it!

The fall semester bonding

Having spent the entire summer studying the core courses, in Johnson school’s basement, the Accelerated MBA students seem to develop a unique bond every year. And this year it’s no different. While the summer was intense and we did not socialize as much, the fall semester seems to bring together my dispersed Accelerated MBA classmates.

For eg. earlier this semester we celebrated the joyous moments of our classmates who recently became fathers or those who recently got married. The photo below shows the happy faces of men whose initial words upon receiving the gifts were literally -“This is such a CUTE teddy!”....I guess it's true that the child inside you never dies :). Starting from left to right in the photo there is - Mihir Shah, Ki Hyoung Cho, Yongkai Xie and Srikanth Tummala. Also, attached below is a sweet photo of Yongkai's 2-month old son, DongChen with his Cornell teddy and t-shirt.

If you talk to these students, you would know that it is indeed tough to balance family life and school. But from what I have seen, Johnson school is extremely good at working closely with students so as to help them handle any life changing events with ease.

For instance, last year Marieme (AMBA 2007) was in her second trimester when she started her Accelerated MBA program. And when she delivered a baby girl that following December, she was able to shuffle some of her coursework deliverables and exams to take time off for her delivery. By the way after studying finance from Prof. Michaely all through the summer, I wouldn't be surprised if Marieme's daughter's first words were – “What’s my NPV, Mom?” ;-)

And then, just last week, our student council members, Chirag Shah and Michael Young, initiated the idea of having a weekly AMBA dinner get-togther. Given that everyone is busy with their job hunt and don’t get time to see each other very often, I feel it’s an awesome idea. Although, I haven’t attended the last two dinners I am really looking forward to the remaining ones. After all, we have only six more months left before we get back into the REAL world!

My last week’s Speaker Marathon

Fall semester is by far the busiest semester for everyone at Johnson school. Not only do we have to keep up with our coursework but we have an option of attending various corporate briefings followed by interviews, speaker events and not to forget the fun filled Sage socials :)

This week was no exception. I met a wide range of leaders from CEO, SVP and GM to VCs and entrepreneurs, and I thought it might give you an idea of the amazing opportunities.

Andy Paul, VC from Sopris Capital Associates -
It began with Andy Paul, who was the guest speaker in our “Law for High Growth Businesses” class. Andy helped us tie in various concepts learned in our class by talking about his approach and views on term sheets. In addition, he introduced us to the CAPCO program and gave us a quick run down on some of his favorite investments.

Ginnie Bonker, VC from Blue Rock and Sienna Venture and Jane Schuchinski, CEO LockStar -
Then there was Ginnie Bonker and Jane Schuchinski, this week’s guest speakers in “Cases in VC Financing”, who talked about the LockStar venture. A PKI-to-Legacy market focused company, Lockstar had a strong management team and solid technology. But things don't go as planed in a startup and in spite of having the much needed talent and focus, LockStar failed. Jane Schuchinski presented her heart-wrenching story, where she was diagnosed with breast cancer just a few hours after Lockstar’s team had agreed to meet their first Beta customer – Wal-mart. She didn't make it to Wal-mart as she immediately hospitalized to begin her path to recovery. But Lockstar never recovered after her loss...

Anand Chandrasekher, SVP and GM of Intel’s Ultra Mobility -
Being a VP of High-Tech Club, I also got an opportunity to host a breakfast for Anand Chandrasekher on Friday. It was an open discussion and Anand demonstrated his true passion for Intel and pointed out the compatibility issues faced in today’s mobile industry. When asked about what skills he used the most, he stressed on critical thinking abilities that has helped him analyze the business opportunity in the Mobile industry.

Irene Rosenfeld, CEO and Chairman of Kraft foods -
And then there are times when you feel great about being women. Thursday was just the day for me, as I was able to attend the Women’s Power Lunch with Irene Rosenfeld! It was truly an amazing opportunity to listen to a powerful personality like hers. Irene did not perceive corporate life to be any different for a women, but believed that it’s all about getting things done. However, she did mention that at times women need to take an extra step to clear any preconceived assumptions made by management.

By the end of the week, I had filled my notepad and I hope to sit on the other side of the table someday.... But for now, it's back to incorporating these learning into my coursework and startup gig.

A student entrepreneur at Johnson school......

I happened to talk to a prospective student who is interested in Entrepreneurship and I thought this would be a great topic for those who are interested in it as well.

Entrepreneurship is something I am very passionate about. One of the reasons I came to business school is to gain the business expertise and understand how to run a successful organization.

Earlier this year I co-founded a company with my husband. While he is working on the biz-idea full-time, I help him out as time permits. Currently, I am working on setting the technological direction and refining the business model. I am also helping out on setting up the engineering team and designing the user interface of the product.

Yes, as you might have guessed, with all the varied activities I am involved in at the school; it is very difficult to manage time. Being one of the AMBA entrepreneurs, one thing I can say for sure - if you are pursing this program and trying to launch your own company, you MUST be very focused in what you do at school. I personally had to make some extremely tough decisions along the way but it’s always good to be focused and I enjoy coming home and working on the biz. Until now, I have only attended two corporate briefings and am considering only three positions for my short-term goal, which is to get the much needed real world experience and hone my expertise to run a successful organization.

But, wrapped among the tough decision making for an Entrepreneur at Johnson school, is one of the greatest learning experiences you will ever undergo. And, that is being able to integrate your biz-idea with your course work! In each of the class, I try to focus more on concepts that will apply to our startup venture and to my next job.

There are many courses geared towards entrepreneurship at Johnson school, but the two courses I believe one MUST enroll for are -

Law for High Growth, taught by Prof. Zack Schulman (http://www.johnson.cornell.edu/faculty/profiles/Shulman/). This is one of the courses where the class of 70+ is completely packed with Law and MBA students. You will be very lucky to come at 2.55pm (the time when the class starts) and find a seat. What makes the class so interesting is that Prof. Schulman, who is a lawyer by training, a VC at Cayuga Venture Fund and a professor at Johnson school, brings together his varied experiences to the class. For example, just this week we learnt about the mechanics of employee stock option plan for startups and how it affects the different stakeholders viz., employer, employees and VC’s

Cases in Venture Financing: taught by Prof. Ola Bengtsson, (http://www.johnson.cornell.edu/faculty/profiles/Bengtsson/) this course has an interesting mix of lectures and case studies. For each case, Prof. Ola brings in a VC on Thursday night, who funded the start-up idea and we get to understand why the VC’s invested in the company and what really drove their final decision making. This is followed by another class on Friday mornings, where we get to meet the Entrepreneur(s) who started the business. Here we learn from their experiences and understand their reasoning behind their actions. An amazing class in itself, I think it’s really worth all the opportunity cost of leaving your comfort zone and high paying jobs to come to a top-10 business school :)

Other than the courses, I am really impressed by the various other clubs and activities such as Pre-seed workshops, BRI, BRV (one of a kind student run fund) and Entrepreneurship club. For more information I highly recommend you read http://www.johnson.cornell.edu/research/entrepreneurship/education.html. There is ton’s of information out there and you can always email the respective club member for more details. Also, remember that things are little different if you are pursuing entrepreneurship in a 2-year program. You may want to get in touch with entrepreneurs like Sumit Mittal and David Leonard on how they approach their biz-ideas in addition to their immersion and summer internship.

Over the past months, I have interacted with several staff members and what I found is that not only is the faculty encouraging but also more than happy to help out in different ways. In addition, I also get to be a part of amazing events such as having lunch with Carl Schramm, President and CEO of the Kauffman Foundation.

Being able to talk to such a world-class faculty who are always open to discussions with students is probably one of the greatest assets of Johnson School. And, it makes me wonder how tough it must be for an entrepreneur at those “other” business schools to do the same with a class size of 800+ !

What's Accelerated-MBA all about?

It’s amazing how time flies in B-School. It’s been three months, one week and two days since our Accelerated MBA (AMBA) program started! But, it feels like it was only yesterday that we went through our class introductions with Dean Swierenga.

For those of you, who are wondering what an Accelerated MBA program is, here is a brief introduction (Note: For details, I highly recommend you refer the official page - http://www.johnson.cornell.edu/academic/accelerated/). The basic idea is very straightforward; Johnson school selects around forty students from hundreds of its applicants, for its extremely aggressive and intense AMBA program. Please don’t get the wrong impression that our two-year program is less intense because trust me they have their own set of challenges. However, what differentiates the AMBA program from other MBA programs across United States is its intense summer schedule.

This year, the AMBA program started on May 31^st and since then it has been a roller coaster ride for all us AMBAs. We had classes almost everyday from 9.00am to 3.45pm. The first week was focused on covering business statistics followed by the final exam on the weekend. This was followed by series of six core courses with two cores taught over a period of two weeks. One would think that two weeks for studying two cores is not that bad. And, frankly I would have agreed with you, if only we didn’t have to prepare for quizzes, solve tons of homework problems, read tons material prior to each class and write our midterms and finals on weekends and/or weekdays. Oh and not to forget we also had several ongoing individual and team deliverables, which sometimes could drive you nuts!

You might then question as to how much can one actually learn during such an intense program? There are obviously some trade offs; the main being we do not get time to delve into details that is not a part of the two week coursework. However, I don’t believe that such a situation arose for me or my classmates. I think this was mainly because of our amazing faculty. And, when I say that I really mean it…I found that our faculty put in extra efforts during summer. They were accessible to the students all through the day and late nights and made sure everyone in the class understood the concepts really well. This latter is very important, since given the back to back class schedule during summer, its tough catching up. Infact, I found that some of the faculty spent time learning about the student's backgrounds and involved them during the class discussion. Oh and they all made sure we were wide awake all the time ;-). Yeah, as you can imagine, most of us didn’t really sleep much during summer... but hey, we asked for it!

The sense of achievement at the end of summer is unlike any other you might have ever experienced. It is amazing how much I have learned in such a short time and how I have started to think strategically. As I enter the fall semester, I realize that it's not the same as summer and we now have a different challenge – “Time management!” Yeah, we have unbelievable amount of activities every week and one has to pick the right courses, clubs and speaker series and networking events to attend. Am just three weeks into the fall semester and I must say ‘Hail’ to the two-year program students, who do this for two consecutive years!

Ulka Ranadive, Accelerated MBA '08

I’m an Accelerated MBA 2008 student. Prior to that, I earned a MS in Computer Science and worked for over eight years in computer networking startups and industry leaders. As a software engineer, I learned a lot about various leadership styles and how they affect team dynamics and deliverables. But most important, I realized that in order to achieve my long-term goals in entrepreneurship, I needed to gain a business perspective. The challenging Johnson School AMBA program with world-class faculty and a talented, focused student body provides exactly what I was looking for. I am excited to share my experiences with you and provide my perspective on life at the Johnson School.