Quarter 7 - Week 1

Wow, it's been a *REALLY* long time away from this blog... I almost missed it so much! Who else has such a regular chance to rave and rant about the week's classes and ask why I'm doing this course?? The last two-three weeks have been nice, quiet and peaceful. Especially when we had only projects and no final exams for the last quarter!

Having said all that, first weeks have always been my favorite. That's when we get introduced to the new courses, and watch in complete awe as some stupendous teachers either keep you wide-awake or in deep sleep. Deep sleep has been missing for almost two quarters... until now. Read on!

E-business Models and Strategies

Oh yeah! That's more like it! These are the 'well-named courses' that everyone keeps thinking are being taught at IIM. Well, I am doing this now, and I'm thoroughly pleased with the choice. The prof has this pretty unique way of peering at you, and cracks some pretty decent jokes, and succeeds at keeping the class upbeat. Best of all, he gave a new look at strategy, one that at least I haven't noticed too strongly in other strategy courses. But then, that's the thing about strategy courses... they're not all really the same.

We studied CEMEX and ITC's eChoupal initiative this week. While the case spoke mainly about the e-component and how it benefited the business, the prof chose a more interesting angle at it. He compared how CEMEX used e-Stuff to organize and make efficient the customer-demand side of things, while eChoupal tried to make efficient the supply side of things. Nice way to contrast, and suggest as to why such initiatives succeeded, and what we might need to do if we try to implement something similar at work or any new e-ventures we start! Similar to B2BMM from last quarter, I keep hearing "value" thrown around a lot! :)

Research for Marketing Decisions

Yaaaaaaaawwwnnnnn!! I really was looking forward to this course, imagine how depressed I was when I was concentrating on the almost unheard buzz of the tube light above, or the whisper of the AC than the far more audible sound from the professor. Yes, yes, the guy seems incredibly knowledgeable, but there's something to him. The very moment he opens his mouth to talk, you immediately have the strongest urge to inspect your book or any surrounding object.

I've got to learn to concentrate in boring lectures. This just wont do. Luckily, I remember something of what he said. This week he was basically talking about the different types of Market Research, Strategical Market Research, how you go about such things, and current well-known players in this industry.

Marketing Communications

That's another course with the word "Marketing" in it! Looks like I might specialize in a topic that I am not so keen on, if I keep picking subjects like this! But the course seems interesting. Lots of funda types, but it seems quite necessary. This week was about a case study on the Park hotels and restaurants, and we tried to analyse if they were doing a good job of advertising. On the first glance, their ads looked very captivating. But trust our prof to turn our heads and tell us differently!

What our prof said and described in detail, is that the effect/image that Park was trying to convey wasn't really getting done through their ads. While they were aiming for a hep/young crowd, and their hotel ads showed good captivating looks, the fact is that Park's hotels were lesser of a sensation than their restaurants and niche pubs/discs. So, the effort should have preferably been on maximizing the visibility of the experience, rather than what they had now. A lot more interesting ideas on how you integrate marketing communications, where all you get to advertise and so on so forth. Seemed quite interesting... and the prof's pretty sweet too! ;)

Well, that's it... only three courses this quarter. Might drop in for the fun of it, on any other course in the other slot... but I dont think that's very likely. Or sane. Sigh.... I was actually missing college, it feels so good to be back here! Just imagine, a couple of quarters ago I would crib about the little holiday time I had, now I actually look forward to this. Am I addicted already?