Happy New Year!

My last post for the year! Back in Lancaster after a brilliant break in beautiful Spain. a bit tired and sick but all geared up for 2017. You can read about my Spain trip here. 2016 was a mixed year with both good and bad things just like any other year. But the best thing that happened in 2016 for me is Lancaster. Something that I never imagined would happen this time last year. I guess that's what life is all about. A brilliant 3 months so far with lots of learning, experiences, travel and more so, good interactions with some great people around. Thanks to everyone who has been part of it in 2016. While I really hope 2017 turns out to be a great year for me, I wish it is equally rich, beautiful, happy and healthy for you as well. Wish you all a very happy new year 2017!

Thanks to everyone for the lovely cards and wishes!

 

Comienza las vacaciones!

The first term just came to a close! 2017 is going to be on us soon, evidently 'time doesn't want to waste time'! A busy, exciting and thoroughly rewarding business management challenge week came to a super closure yesterday. I had at least - a literally listed down 5 key take aways besides many other small siblings. Very insightful challenge. 

Later in the evening, began the Luau Christmas Party! A Hawaiian themed party saw all of us in at least a tinge of the states' costume. Food, fun and a thorough festive mood. An awesome stress buster after an intense academic sprint. The day didn't end there. Post the party, all of us headed to the Grad Bar to join the international night. Interacting with people while drinking and dancing was so much fun and we were in the bar until late past midnight. 

Saturday was off to a slow start. Laundry, cleaning and a lot other chores but everything with an exciting motive. Looking forward to the holiday. Leaving tomorrow!

Coming to an exciting term end!

A lot of fun, exciting and surprising things happening in the last week of the first term! A brilliant evening with the Executive MBA candidates, knowing them, connecting with them and sharing experiences across the 'years of experience' was amazing. Last weekend went pretty much into closing down assignments, pending tasks, shopping and of course the usual visit to the Chaplaincy center.

This week began with a bang. Business Management Challenge - a business simulation putting into practice our learning from the past 10 weeks. Running through the whole of the last week of this term, this is indeed a good opportunity for us to revisit our learning and more importantly to work together coherently and collaboratively to make decisions and have fun. I am loving this experience. More than winning, I think for me it is the experience from the journey that I take back, that matters the most. And not to forget, I absolutely had goosebumps all the time working with Dr.John Mackness.

Today, I also met Jane Dalton - this was the first time, I connected with someone on social media first and then met in person. Amazing feeling. Very interesting 40-45 minutes interaction. For the first time since I came to Lancaster, I was so excited talking about the things I did back at work. Thanks for your time, Jane!

Just back from the city, preparing for the last day of the challenge, winding up stuff for the term, looking forward to the Christmas party tomorrow before I head off for a break.

Christmassy Evenings | Digital Business | Leadership in Practice

Digital Innovation in Business, the module that is being introduced first time for the MBA cohort this year, kicked off the week. This was personally a very interesting module for me given my prior experience working in CAMSS at IBM. While I had the practical knowledge of Digital innovation in a corporate context, the sessions and guest lectures brought in a lot of supporting theories complementing my prior work. Two full days and we were completely immersed in digitization thoughts, practices and case studies. 

One of those days, Steven Endress, MD of Endress & Hauser was visiting LUMS and we got to catch up with him over lunch. It was good to hear his expansion plans and how he plans to take his organization in to the future. He is also an alumnus of the Lancaster MBA. 

Starting Wednesday, Chris Saunders took us on a completely different tour to explore leadership traits and behaviors. Leadership in practice was demonstrated through class activities and a number of videos including a 2 hour movie. This was one of the best experienced modules so far for me. 

Yesterday, some of us were off to Tim's place for a Christmas evening. Tim was a perfect host and we all had a great time chatting, eating and drinking for a long while. A much needed break for sure. For me that streak continued this evening as well, when I along with my flatmates decided to attend the 'Carols in the Castle' service in the city. Off we were for the first time, all flatmates together - Hiba, Manshuk, Joe, Amber, Raman and Boris to the city to witness this traditional Christmas carol service. We did miss Nadia. I must admit, the carols brought back wonderful memories of my school and I was on cloud 9 when a known song was sung. Some amazing and inspirational quotes and wonderful singing by the kids filled my evening with so much serenity and calmness. The feeling is so good. Thanks to the wonderful company - thoroughly enjoyed every bit of it. We then went to 'The Borough' to chat over drinks, spent an hour there and returned. It was such a wonderful thing that we all decided to go together. We now plan to do this more often. 

I also had a very emotional moment today when one of my friends hugged and gifted me some stuff, to acknowledge a little help that I had offered and more so because of the close connection that we share with each other. I literally had tears in my eyes. MBA is indeed a great experience!

Friday is here and back home one of my best friends is getting married. I hope to watch the live telecast of the wedding later during the day. 

Carols in the Castle	With flatmates at the castle	At the museum
Fun at The Borough	Leading Mindfully	Class exercise
Green sky spotted in Lancaster	Movie time in the class!	At Tim's

2 months down | December sets in!

The school is all set for Christmas! Another few days and then it is the new year! Well, no point blaming time, every time. This time, I would say and my classmates here at Lancaster would also agree that we are keeping up with the 'speed of time'. December is here and we are only 3 weeks away from closing Term 1. 

This week we kicked-off Operations Management - again brilliantly tied down from the Marketing module as Martin quoted - "Marketing promises & Operations delivers". Wading through the Operations model, we traversed round the direct, design, deliver and develop cycle covering key essentials in all the aspects. Making this more action oriented was the visit to Jaguar Land Rover Facility in Halewood that perfectly complemented our learning. A touring of this very interesting site and sharing of lots of insightful information was facilitated by the JLR education center team. I enjoyed it thoroughly, more so because I could connect it with some of the Watson related cognitive automation projects that I was exploring back at IBM a few months ago.

This week, I also had a chance to be on the Inter-collegiate debating competition judge panel and witness some of the best debates I haven't seen in a while. Congratulations to the Bowland College team that won the finals. A big thanks to Katy and glad I could also connect with others on the panel. Found a new friend in Mark Lacy. Exciting week so far. 

Let's see how the 'Deal with December' goes!

Happy Lancashire Day!

This post is dedicated to Lancashire on its special day! I have been here for 2 months now and I cannot say, I know 'Lancashire' but I will admit that I have made an attempt to make out what's in store in Lancashire, at least so much that I could evangelize about it. Obviously, besides experiencing the world ranked MBA in this Northern Powerhouse, which is of course the best thing that has happened in my life, the cities and towns out here have been so welcoming and beautiful. The illuminations at Blackpool had me jaw dropping, the simplicity and specialty of Lancaster keeps inviting me often to visit the city, the coziness and comfort I felt at Carnforth today is inexplicable, Preston keeps pressing to come back with 2 visits so far. Heysham and Silverdale are on the to-visit list next. One thing that impresses me is the smile that each of these cities bear besides the ever welcoming smile on the peoples' face.

Talking about today, I started early and decided to walk around Carnforth. 10:45 at Carnforth station and there I see my friend from Barclays, Kester Johnson also heading to the Heritage centre. He volunteers there every weekend. How cool is that! Thanks to him for the mini map tour and I was out in the town figuring out my way and following Kester's advice. I have always seen people Scuba dive on television but never got a chance to see it in person, trying out is a different aspect. I headed straight to Capernwray Diving Center, about a 4 mile walk from Carnforth. I spent a lot of time observing this sport and it was brilliant. Well, I haven't gathered the courage to try it out myself. After spending good time there, I took a stroll around, Kellet, clicking some beautiful pictures of the snow capped lake district mountains. After spending about an hour, I walked back to Carnforth and went along the almost frozen canal. Back at the station, spent time at the heritage center chatting with Kester before I headed back home after a little stop at the Lancaster city center. Super amazing day, very happy and some deep and self-provoking thoughts that Prosopopoeia plans to convey soon.

Gearing up for a full-fledged week starting tomorrow. Happy Lancashire Day to all Lancastrians! "God bless Lancashire, and God save the Queen, Duke of Lancaster"

Bond strengthens after an intensive week

This week kept us on our toes, literally! Every team was heads down working out solutions for the Marketing case studies. Sitting up late in the nights, supporting each other and finally getting the submissions out there one by one, day after day. Thursday marked a close to the module. It was a nice and fun experience to work with Sarah, Seeba, Chuan and Kenji on this subject and it was so evident that the bond only intensified not just among us but with the whole class.

The week also had other interesting things on my agenda - visiting Manchester to apply for a Schengen Visa, having to work out the train maze to return to Lancaster, meeting a prospective student, connecting with Martin on Marketing and other generic stuff and the usually hated cooking and laundry bit. But guess what, the week is over! It is a 'Free Friday' for the first time. 

I just plan to relax a bit this weekend and gear up for Operations Module, that begins Monday. Happy weekend, happy thanksgiving!! 

The special episode | London

Thursday was a long and a very interesting day - guest sessions, networking events, lunch connects and closed with an alumni event at the Glassblower Pub in Piccadilly. It was a good experience to connect with past students, listen to their experiences and more so, seek inputs and advice from them. Thanks to Sarah and the MBA team for organizing this and a big thanks to the alumni who made it to the evening.

Friday was fun again with Andrew Lloyd helping us build our personal brand. Interesting insights and definitely a few things that I can take back. Late in the afternoon, some of us met with Andrea from the 2015 batch at Cannons Street. Long conversations that made Andrea feel nostalgic and that made us feel curious. That evening, I was off away from my MBA family to Enfield to my cousins place.

Just cannot express the happiness soon after I landed at Enfield Station. For once, I thought I was in Hyderabad. The atmosphere at home, the food and most importantly just spending long hours talking with my sister and brother-in-law felt very very good. The long walk around Enfield island, feeding swans, ducks, geese and seagulls, clicking pictures and spotting rabbits was great. It definitely cannot get better than this. I am off to Lancaster early tomorrow morning, but I am surely going to miss being here. Hopefully Storm Angus wouldn't come way! More from Lancaster!

With Andrea	At Glassblower Pub
With Andrew Lloyd	At Enfield Lock

London | Half week through!

Landed in London, Monday morning. After a little scuffle with the train, tube and roads, found our way to Tara Copthorne Hotel in Kensington. Soon we were back again, but this time a friendly fight with the tube to get to Baker Street. Regent's College is where our sessions for the day were to happen. A nice lavish campus, but hardly did I get to go around, that evening. Mindful Manager was our agenda for the day. Late evening, we were all seated in the hotel's lobby working out our assignments. As Patrick quoted 'the hotel lobby literally turned into an MBA class'. Each group busy working and not giving the other hotel guests a place to sit!

Tuesday was early for me, since I decided to leave ahead just to go around Regent's College. Perfect day, and a lot of perfect and imperfect captures. Critical reasoning workshop was on the cards for the day. It was fun to do those exercises in a team but was surely work for the brain. I loved it though. Back in the hotel again a busy evening extending into the night.

I was expecting another scuffle with the tube on Wednesday since we had to get to CIWEM in Farringdon, a new place. But the tube got lucky. It wasn't a hassle at all to get to the venue. What was in store - Core Capabilities workshop on Listening & Questioning hosted by Asma Mansuri & Sabah Hydari from Impact Factory. To me, once again the winning moment was when everything intertwined back to the crux of the Lancaster MBA Programme. I am really liking this of late. The workshop itself was impactful and the two impactful speakers definitely won 'listeners'. The art of asking questions was thoroughly exemplified in the post lunch session on Questioning. Insightful exercises, combined with quotes of personal experiences and filled with humor and fun, established the connect. A good number of takeaway's definitely. Amidst a busy week of assignments and home works, this session was an energizer and breather yet informative and insightful. Thanks to Asma & Sabah.

Post that it was Henry Minto from Minto Mediation who spoke to us about 'Mediation' in the business context. There were two examples that I could relate with so closely that I ended up calling two of my IBM colleagues late evening to discuss it. It was a unique encounter for me, since I never got to meet someone from that background till date.

Ought to close Wednesday on a wonderful note. A question to think about - "Why are we so infrequently the people we want to be?" (courtesy: Asma Mansuri) Think about it! I am!

P.S: Recommended reading from today - "Outliers" by Malcolm Gladwell. Chapter titled "The Ethnic Theory of Plane Crashes" was really intriguing. Not that I read it yet, not sure if I will read it any sooner. PC's philosophy is already awaiting my attention :)

In the tube!	QuestioningWorkshop	Asma & Sabah
Lisa & Karine - The pillars of our programme.	With my lovely marketing group!	Henry Minto on 'Mediation'

Lancaster MBA goes to London!

After the long date with Marketing, Friday saw an Integrative Thinking workshop hosted by Peter. Basically integrating key aspects from modules covered thus far. A very interesting and thought provoking one, indeed. I will leave it right there, without further details. I also had a meeting with Martin to discuss and brainstorm ideas related to advocacy and marketing of the Lancaster MBA programme. It was super nice connecting over coffee with Martin. Saturday and Sunday were dull! Gloomy atmosphere and we were off to finishing assignments and case studies to free ourselves a bit next week. Calls to India, lunch at Bhargava's, more calls to friends and cousins, dinner at Dhall's, packing, printing, sorting and off to sleeping shortly. Tomorrow morning, Lancaster MBA goes to London!

Date with marketing!

Off to a 'Marketing' start, Monday to Thursday was hands full with Marketing content. Quite inquisitive, insightful and lots of learning. I personally liked the holistic view of the 'Total Product', with Debbie Denton talking about the 'Substance', passing on to Sheila Malone to discuss about 'Service', subsequently to James Cronin on 'Symbol' - the brand management and brand identity and finally concluding with Haley Cocker discussing Marketing & Communications. The cover and crust was Pricing on which we submitted an assignment this morning facilitated by Richard Meek. A wholesome four days and intense content and a lot to takeaway but a few to definitely remember. 
The evenings were pretty much confined to the MBA Suite or the Social Hub, working on assignments and case studies. This week the temperatures also went to as low as -1 accompanied by rains. Got our business cards, profile photos, getting things ready for the upcoming London week. #LoveLancaster