Coping Zone of MBA

In first term Bob, our Operations Management lecturer, remarked that the coping zone of Cranfield MBA will be in February. We thought he must be joking, cos even the first term was no less. Soon we cleared the first term (officially it’s over; yesterday results came and we all have passed with flying colours). As the second term started, we realised Bob was right. This term is intellectually not that challenging as the first one, but the amount of work is ....... just too much.

We not only have more subjects but also have to prepare CVs as companies are visiting the campus these days. So you are just never free. There is one more aspect of Cranfield MBA. Here you won’t get anything ready made as is done in many B-Schools in India. You have to study and also have to take care of your personal life; I mean your food, clothing and all the day to day requirements. This does make your life a bit tough but it is a good experience. After all, when you are in real life business environment, you have to maintain a work life balance.

Last week we had Burn’s night. It was again a new learning for me. I had never heard of Burn’s night before. Burn’s night is celebrated in memory of a Scottish poet. At Cranfield we have a tradition that every year London Business School (LBS) visits Cranfield on Burn’s night for some sports competitions such as Rugby, Football and Basketball. We play during the day and at night its party time. Sadly, I had to miss the party as I was in London that evening.

Well I forgot to mention about the success of International Diversity Week. It was fantabulous and I was glad that my organising skills did not fail me. I was the coordinator for Asia region and was responsible for setting up stalls and also put a Bhangra (traditional North Indian dance) show. We did well and enjoyed a lot. Pure fun. The success would not have been possible without my wife Sherry, Anil, his wife Shelley, Arun and Puneet’s (Arun and Puneet are my MBA mates) wife Jyoti.

As the month of February has started, life is getting tough day by day, hour by hour and I am not exaggerating. Everybody seems to be so busy. Number of people at parties is going down. Sports activities are less. Everybody is just going through that coping zone.

Vicious Cycle of Learning

It’s the new term and we have got all new stuff to learn; very different from what we had in term 1. The title of the blog must have captivated your attention. Well, its meant to do so.

As we have entered the second term, we have new teams and new people around. Remember, I wrote in my first few blogs that we have 3 different streams- red, blue and green, and within each stream we have learning teams of 5-6 people. In term 1 I was in green stream and in term 2 I am in blue. Most of students have got new streams and new teams as well. What does this mean- it implies you have different people form different countries, who tell you new facts about their countries and you got to know new experiences. As I have mentioned it earlier, I believe passive learning (learning from the experiences from others) is the best and very interesting. As you come to know about some new country, any new fact you want to learn more about it as it inculcates curiosity to dig deeper. This is what I call the vicious cycle of learning. You learn some, you want to learn more. As you learn more, you want to learn new, and the cycle continues.

We have a ‘French’ language teacher (from Russia) at Cranfield, whom I find attending our Personal Development and People Management lectures. He must be about 55, but actively plays football, chats with students and attends lectures: just to explore more, to learn more. I have seen the passion in his eyes- the passion to learn. And I am really impressed by him, so are many others.

Next week we have International Diversity Week, where people from 4 different continents- Asia, Africa, America and Europe shall present their cultures. It’s a week long event and we have to arrange stalls, food and entertainment. I am coordinating on behalf of Asia, and feel so good to organise everything. Again, you have a chance to learn more about different cultures. I believe and that’s what we are taught at Cranfield that for a successful business its vital to understand people and to know their culture, language and life. If you are targeting to work in a MNC, you should first understand the way of life of people where that MNC is operating.

In last 2 weeks we had very interesting lectures on how to communicate and present effectively by Stephen Carver. This person is genius. He gave nice tips on making and delivering excellent presentations. Some of the interesting points that he made:

All presentations are 60% body language, 35% communication and just 5% content.
Your audience will only remember just 5% of your presentation; so know and plan, what to bind in that 5%.
On average, a person speaks 150 words per minute.
On average, we can process 750 words per minute.

On these interesting notes, I bid adieu and shall be back soon with more interesting stuff from my new found love- Cranfield.