5 innovations that will change our lives!

"These five innovations were selected based on projects from the brains in IBM's Research labs, business research conducted by IBM's business think-tank, and ideas pooled from more than 150,000 people from 104 countries, including IBM employees, their family members, universities, business partners and customers from 67 countries, during a recent online brainstorm called 'IBM InnovationJam.'"

1.Access health care remotely from anywhere in the world.
2 Adaptive Mobile Phones reading our mind
3.Real time speech translation
4.3 Dimensional Internet
5.Nano Technology addressing environmental concerns

Read more here

Top 100 Most Influential People in IT



Meg Whitman is at No 25 and the Google Boyz at No 1.
Click here to see the details

Cricket in Canada

On a bright sunny Sunday morning, the folks in our class decided to play Cricket.
There were two challenges for us. First, get the logistics right and second explain the rules of the game to the folks. But the smarties we have in our class, it just took a few minutes before the folks staraed hitting sixes all over the ground in a true baseball style.

The rules of the game were changed. It didn't matter who won or lost?
What mattered was that we all had a lot of fun and had a good time !
Some pics from the game




Hong Kong's Virendra Sehwag ?




Waiting for the ball to come !


A replacement for Harbhajan Singh ?


A shot for the camera.


The Cricket Team



The Enthusiastic Audience



Trying to bowl a yorker?



Catch me if you can !


Ouch ! Is that a bouncer?


This is easy ! It is like base ball!



Teach me the secrets of the game.

The Year in Review

At the Graduation Dinner, there were a few slide shows shown to all of us.These were excellent as it captured the essence of the MBA journey that we had all experienced.

I uploaded them on Google videos today here and here.These slide show were made by Karen. A big thanks to her !

I really like these in Kingston

Reading the Financial Times


I love reading the FT.Sometimes, am busy and I don't get time to read everything, but then I pile them up and go through it during the weekend.There are stuff in the paper that I don't understand , and there are articles that excite me. I like reading the FT a lot.The new look of the paper is very impressive!

Stauffer Library


The Stauffer Library in the University is one of the best things I have enjoyed at Kingston. I have spent 3/4th of my MBA life here. I would rate this as the best library I have ever seen in my life. It is truly a "Temple of Learning"

Squash Courts No 03 and 04


I enjoy playing Squash and with more than 10 courts at the Physical Education Center here at Queen's, a rigorous 45 minutes game at the Squash Court with my classmates is something I will miss when I move out of here.

Tim Hortons


The coffee at Tim Hortons is what kept me going through out the year. A coffee before the start of the class, one during the break, and another one before heading out to the library is the secret of any MBA student's energy here. The folks at Tim Horton are a very friendly lot, and always treat you with a smile. Talk about Customer Experience Management.!

Goodes Hall


Goodes Hall is very very good. A blend of style and history,I really like this place and the folks in it. The MBAst office folks are very nice and the building is a second home to me.

Desi Boyz


The Desi Boyz are my support system here at Queen's. I have a problem, I go to them. I get angry, I shout at them. I feel upset, I let them know. They have unique personalities and itz fun knowing them apart from my other classmates.!

Recruiters' Top 10 Complaints



A nice article in BWeek that explains what irritates the recruiter when they interview MBA grads.

1. Follow Interview Etiquette
2. Keep Your Answers Short and to the Point
Try to keep your answers under a minute if possible. This gives the interviewer a chance to consider whether they want to ask the candidate to elaborate on the answer. "If the interviewer wants more details, they will ask for it," Sullivan says.
3. It's Okay to Be Clueless
4. Avoid Clichés.
5. Keep Negativity Out of the Conversation
6. Always Have Questions Prepared
Students should walk into the interview with a list of thoughtful questions that take advantage of the recruiter's knowledge of the company, Sullivan says. He recommends avoiding questions that can easily be answered by looking at the company's Web site, such as whether the company has a Boston office. "You should have three or four really good and insightful questions that show self-awareness that you are in front of someone who is pretty senior," Sullivan says.
7. Keep Your Ego in Check
8. Don't Walk in Unprepared
Students should conduct Internet searches on the recruiter and try to find out anything they can about them from contacts they have at the recruiter's company. People who work at the company or spent a summer internship there can also prove to be valuable resources, notes Thanasoulis
9. Don't Talk in Absolutes
Students should avoid the temptation to tell a recruiter that their firm is the candidate's No.1 choice
10. Never Bring Up Salary

Touch the Sky

I got up in the morning today not to the sound of the alarm clock but to a telephone that rang continuously for some time. S, one of my classmates, loves flying and seeing that it was a bright sunny day asked me if I wanted to join him to touch the sky.

I immediately agreed. A couple of other friends too joined in.It was a great feeling to sit in the cock pit of the small aircraft and touch the sky. I had a bird's eye view of the Kingston city and got some wonderful pics. I even got the opportunity to control the aircraft. Check out the pics.



The Flying Machine




Kingston Flying Club





Thousand Islands


Bird's eye view of the Limestone City



The Team

The Valedictorian Address

Rob Wall was also elected as the valedictorian for the class.He received a standing ovation from the class and as expected came out with a memorable speech.
He has all the qualities of an excellent leader and am sure that in the coming years will make a special place for himself in the Corporate World. Here is his valedictorian speech ( of course published with his permission)

I feel humbled to have been nominated for this award and to have the opportunity to present the valedictory today. It is an honor and privilege to have been part of this class. I truly believe each and every one of us has great talent.

It has struck me that I am in fact in the illustrious position of being able to have the last word. This is a position that appears even more valuable to me now that I have completed a team-based MBA!

As I said earlier, I believe we have a great amount to be thankful for and an immense amount to be proud of. We have set objectives and worked hard to ensure that we successfully achieved all of them.

The real strength of this class, however, is the friendships and strong bonds that we have built. This class is indeed a family. We share in each others challenges and celebrate each others successes. Oscar Wilde said that “Ultimately the bond of all companionship … is conversation”. I suspect that any professor, who has tried to quieten us down in order to start a lecture, will agree that we are, in fact, close companions!

The Queen’s MBA is unique. It has provided us with a way of thinking, a set of skills, and the ability to work successfully in teams; qualities that we will take with us and apply to our future challenges. As they say, “education is what survives when what has been learned has been forgotten,” and I believe that Queen’s has provided us with a “real” and enduring education.

It has given us the tools we need to continue to build a fulfilling career and a happy home. I am certain that each of us will be successful in our future endeavours, and that some measure of our future success will be attributable to our time spent here together in Kingston.

As we go on, I believe that our success will come from applying a philosophy that has lasted well throughout the ages …”If in doubt, build”. It may come of no surprise to many of you that an engineer would suggest that the solution stands in construction(!), but for once I am speaking more figuratively.

I have seen this philosophy make our class the success it is.
*If in doubt: Of which career path you are interested in, build a network;
*If in doubt: Of how you will pass Stage 3 Finance, build a great cheat sheet;
*If in doubt: Of how to pass marketing, build a stunning PowerPoint presentation; and finally,
*If in doubt: Of how you will survive, build a strong set of friends.


I believe it is this ethos that we have all shown, and through this we will continue to succeed at whatever we choose to pursue. To do this, we must:
*Build on the friendships we have here this evening;
*Build on our education and continue to learn;
*Build on our abilities by challenging ourselves; and
*Build and support those around us, as we have done over the past 12 months.

Let me say once again how proud I am of us all and how honoured I am to have been part of this class. As this journey draws to a close and as promised, I will close off with the one last comment.

I believe that our experience as a class embodies what Winston Churchill once said; “Success is never final. Failure is never fatal. Courage is what counts.” As we move forward, our MBA experience will help us to continue to apply this philosophy to our future lives.

Presidential Address


Rob Wall, our MBA Class President, gave a wonderful presidential address at the Graduation Dinner. With his permission, I replicate a part of his speech that truly says it all what we felt about the MBA program.

This evening, and over the next few days, I am certain that many of us will take the time to reflect on the last 12-months. I believe we will come to the conclusion that this has been both a very challenging and a very enjoyable year… “it was (indeed) the best of times, it was the worst of times” . To be able to avail ourselves of the opportunities presented by Queen’s and still remain sane, we needed support. It is axiomatic that without families, partners, and friends we would not have been able to achieve to the level we have. We are all very thankful to those who have supported us.

From our perspective as students, the MBA programme has run seamlessly, as a result of the tireless efforts of our administration staff. I speak for us all when I say thank you, once again, to Shannon, Ben, Kerri, Lisa, Kim, Ruth and Brian, and the staff of the BCC. The Queen’s MBA is made possible by your hard work.

To our professors, you have made business education both enlightening and enjoyable. It is a testament to your talents as educators that we have studied and learnt such a volume of academic literature in such a short time. But beyond academics, you have encouraged us all to think, to challenge assumptions, and to present what we believe in. It is encouraging in a world of corporate slang, of endless media discussion regarding management techniques, and of varying quality of MBA programmes that we can confidently say that we have studied at a leading business school and be certain of the quality of our education. You have all instilled in us the need to continue to learn, and to use our new skills to be better than we already are. With the knowledge you have imparted, we are ready to take on our next set of challenges. Thank you for your efforts as teachers and as mentors.

As a class, we have much to be proud of. I mention just a few of our achievements:
*The MBA Games team and their stellar performances in Edmonton;
*Our winning team at the Rotman CSR case competition;
*Our two teams at the FEI Case competition;
*Our strong team at the ever competitive Molson case competition,
*And, our 4th placed team at the Boston Technology Strategy case competition;
*Also, most recently we have had S and S nominated for the First Capital Challenge. So we wish them the best of luck for the finals this week.

While we have much to be proud of, our MBA year comprises more than just our individual and collective academic achievements. We have built strong friendships, many of which will carry with us into the future. I believe a key factor in the success of our group has been its inclusiveness, and that is a testament to us all. I feel very fortunate to have been a part of a class that has always striven to achieve excellence, but which has never lost sight of the importance of supporting those around us, and working together as a team.

Similarly, we recognize the value that comes with being a part of the broader Queen’s MBA alumni network. As part of our commitment to collectiveness, I am pleased to make a brief announcement on behalf of our class. .....

Thank you once again to all those that have made this year possible for us and, finally, congratulations to the Class of 2007.

And the Party Continues

We are done with all the classes for the MBA. The convocation is in the month of May but we all had a graduation dinner yesterday. Since Friday, there has been a series of parties happening.

The Graduation Dinner yesterday was fabulous. A team came out with some excellent slide shows of the year that went by. There were some awards given. I have a lot to write and will do that in the next few days. Till then, Enjoy some of these pics !


With David Detomasi, one of the passionate professors here at Queen's !


Aren't we excited that it is finally over ?


In Cricket, the Australians dominate and win the world cup. In teaching at Queen's too, they easily win.Dr Clinton Free won the Best Prof Award !A clear favorite among the students ..right from day one.


The Student Council : Smart and Hardworking !



Partying on Friday night!


The nice and mushy team of the MBAst 2007 batch!



The last MBA class that we all attended just got over !


Aren't we the "smartie" now that you have completed your Queen's MBA



Jamie from the support staff..He loves the MBA folks



With her highness, Shannon Goodspeed, the director of the program.




MBAst'07 Endowment Fund from the class to the school


Best Team Award goes to Team 113




Aren't the kids happy that daddy is done with his school!

Best Buy vs Circuit City:Customer Centric




CRM is the last course of my MBA life and I am enjoying this course. It makes me think from three angles : Strategy, Marketing and IT. It also gives me an opportunity to integrate what I have learnt earlier. The assignments involve 12-15 minute individual presentations (a lot of conceptualization involved) followed by a 10 min Q&A session (that really tires me out)! But I am enjoying this course coz I like the cases (cases on telecom,retail and airlines) and the teaching style of the prof Louis Gialloreto ( He initiates discussions and gives real world instances!).

One of cases that we discussed was of Circuit City vs Best Buy
In North America, if you want to buy consumer electronics, the first two names that strike your mind are obviously Best Buy and Circuit City.

As a part of the CRM course, we are analyzing both the companies and the difference in the strategy employed by each of them.Best Buy is doing well thanks to its Customer Centric Strategy. The use of real time data and replacement of "hunches with facts" has shifted the the company's focus from pushing gadgets to catering to customers.

There were quite a few interesting articles to read.The bottom line that these articles want to indicate is that "not all customers are profitable ones. Some are very lucrative to deal with, while others cost more to sell to than the business is worth."

Best Buy understood this pretty well. It soon figured out segments that made the most money and then realigned its stores to meet the needs of customers. It empowered employees to focus on their angels ( high potential customers) so that they spend more and increase their share of wallet (SOW).

Best Buy identified its customer needs and classified them into some highly valuable segments:

Barry: Affluent professionals who want the best technology and entertainment experience

Jill:: Busy suburban moms who want to enrich their children's lives with technology and entertainment

Buzz: Active younger males who want the latest technology and entertainment

Ray: Family men who want technology to improve their lives—practical adopters of technology and entertainment ( price conscious)

Storefront: Small-business customers who can use Best Buy's products and services to enhance the profitability of their business.

Carrie: Young single women

Helen and Charlie: Empty nester


Then based on sales and demographic data they tailored their customer location to that needs.

On the other hand, Circuit City fell behind in the race. Initially, Circuit city had got it all right. It was the first company to introduce the POS. It was one of the first retailers to allow consumers to check local store inventories online, and to purchase products online and pick them up or return them in stores. But it failed to make the best use of the tons of data that it had in its database.

There was also this article from the book on Return on Customer

Some interesting stuff !

"As a starting premise, it's important to distinguish between your customer's need and your product's attribute or feature. In fact, different customers often want the same attribute or feature in order to satisfy very different individual preferences. One person might buy a high-performance car, for instance, because he wants to drive fast, while another might buy the same high-performance car because he wants people to think he drives fast.

Three basic types of insight can help you anticipate what your customer needs: memory, editorial inference, and comparisons with other customers. Your memory of a customer's past choices or preferences is the simplest and most direct method of anticipating her future needs. When she rents a car and doesn't have to specify the car model, credit card, or insurance options, the car rental firm is using its memory of her past transactions or the profile she specified in order to anticipate her. If a florist's customer sends flowers to her mother on her birthday, the florist can remember the date and anticipate her need for flowers the next year.

A second way to anticipate a customer's need is to use your memory of the customer, as above, but to couple it with some type of content or "editorial" categorization. The fact that a customer celebrates her mother's birthday with flowers means she might want to celebrate Mothers' Day, too, or perhaps some of her other relatives' birthdays. Because a customer buys music CDs she might be interested in CD cleaning solutions or CD players. If a customer buys Italian suits, he might be interested in Italian loafers. The fact that a customer has bought business books on enterprise growth and relationship management might mean he's interested in buying Return on Customer.

Third, you can anticipate a customer's needs by comparing this customer with other customers. Every customer is unique and individual, but customers have similarities as well. Almost everyone who has rented Movie A has also liked Movie B. People who like books by this author also tend to like books by that one. People who wear this type of clothing also tend to drive this type of car. Your goal in making such comparisons is simply to do a better and better job of anticipating what it is that any particular customer needs"

I just came across this interview of Best Buy CEO Brad Anderson .

An interesting statement that caught my attention was when the CEO says "In our world the way you win the game isn't the price of the TV - which is about the same for all retailers - but the experience you give customers once they are in our stores" Talk about CEM ! :)

Web Marketing Mix

The 4 Ps of Marketing is some thing that every B-School student knows. But with the web changing the nature of the game, here is an article on the 4s of the Web Marketing mix. Interesting read here

The 4S are Scope, Site, Synergy and System
Presented below is a screen shot that describes the model.

Brand Revitalization

A few days back, our strategy Prof Doug Reid had sent this article to us (from the Economist Magazine)

It talks about how Starbucks and Pepsi are trying their best to "revitalise themselves".The article states that the carbonated soft drinks market for Pepsi is shrinking.Hence,Pepsi recently launched a global restyling program where the cans will now come in a series of 35 new designs with themes on music, sports or fashion.There are folks who believe that "changing the packaging is a tired brand's last refuge."

One statement that caught my attention was this :"During its 109-year history Pepsi has undergone many rebrandings, of course, but none on this scale."

I drank a Pepsi today and saw that I had the new can. I liked it!.I thought of taking a picture and posting it on my blog. Here it is.



It looks like the red,blue and white Pepsi might disappear soon. So, if you have one such can in your fridge right now,keep that for your collection.

Do let me know how you find the new packaging.!

First Capital Challenge

Two of the MBAst 2007 grads are in the final round of the First Capital Challenge (FCC). This is an annual competition for the best plans to start a new business in Kingston, Ontario. The competition invites anyone from anywhere to put their ideas to work in exciting new Kingston-based companies. Details here:

The projects being started by the MBA folks are an aircraft service company and a wireless Internet service provider.These folks are very passionate about their new ventures.


Check out the articles here: and here

The aircraft service that Perumal is proposing to implement is designed to speed up travel. He got the idea when he noticed how difficult it was to get speakers to the school because of flight issues.Jet Direct would be able to fly to more than 1,000 airports in Canada and the U.S.; to Halifax or Chicago for east and west travel; or Moosonee or Atlanta for north and south. Perumal hopes to build the company up to 100 airplanes

Marathon Communications is also in the running for the award.Entrepreneur Shawn Gee plans to use the wireless Internet service provider to bring high-bandwidth Internet access to people in the Kingston area. People using the service will get secure access anywhere in the region. The company is devoted to bringing web access to underserviced areas through a reliable network and good customer service response time

Is this for real?

From the Economist

In a novel twist on the idea of the online course, on March 20th, INSEAD, a French business school with campuses in Fontainebleau and Singapore, became the first institution to announce its intention to offer classes to students who exist solely online. INSEAD plans to open a campus in Second Life, an online environment in which users can create virtual representations of themselves—“avatars” in Second-Life-speak. Within the virtual campus, INSEAD plans to hold information sessions for its new virtual students, organise meetings with virtual recruiters, and offer space for virtual conferences.

Planned courses include an entrepreneurship class in which students can test their ideas on the simulated campus. To those sceptics who prefer education to be more grounded in the real world, its proponents call Second Life an ideal laboratory for perfectly practical experiments: users have been marketing, buying and selling virtual items, using “Linden dollars”, the artificial world’s currency, for years. There is even a Second Life currency-exchange market, where the Linden dollar is running a rate of about 280 to the real-world greenback

Desi Get Together

In the past one year,apart from my own classmates, I have met a few other folks from India (or Indian origin). It has been great knowing them all. They have been very helpful and every time we needed information,resources or help, they were there.
We celeberated Dussehra, Diwali, Holi wih them. We have had some great times together.

This weekend, we made sure that we all met for the last time before the MBA folks moved out.It was great fun.We met for dinner which was followed some games and events.

As one of the folks responded "I can't believe the year went by so fast....seems like we just met yesterday and now it's already time to say goodbye."



I hope to stay in touch with these folks even after I move out of Kingston.

The Graduate Farewell Dinner

Itz all coming to an end. There will be some assignments to be submitted till the 30th of his month, but then there will be no classes after next week. A year of hard work, challenges and fun will come to an end.We have the graduation dinner where we will meet all the professors and have a memorable evening before we all disperse.

From an Idiot to a MBA

12 months, tons of assignments, classes every day.
Team meetings, exams, discussions, presentations, journals.
Here is a picture of all the books and folders that we have used in the past one year.I stacked all the books and folders that we had.... and took a picture of it before I start packing them.
Attached is the pic.
Take a look at the amount of knowledge that one has gained (or was supposed to gain).
I hope that the knowledge acquired well utilized in the business world to make some sound business decision.

A meeting with Bill Clinton

The MBAst Class of 2007 got the opportunity to attend a speaking event in Montreal where Bill Clinton, President of the United States of America from 1992 to 2000, addressed the audience.A few of my classmates were able to meet with President Clinton in a VIP reception.I couldn't attend the event as I was at the West Indies and instead got the opportunity to take photos with some of the cricketers that I admire. No regrets about that!

Here are some pics from the Clinton visit:

Queen's Women and the MBA

Here is some information from the Queen's MBA Website.You will notice Ann Gomez, a MBAst student,who is a role model for many females at Queen's sharing her views.For all those who do not know ,the director of our MBA program program too is a woman! Shannon Goodspeed too did her MBA at Queen's.

Here is the stuff from the website:

"Recently, Queen's School of Business hosted a networking and information-sharing event in Toronto, Ontario for women considering an MBA. Several high-profile female Queen's MBA graduates shared the stories of their journeys through the MBA program. The following video presents highlights of the afternoon, including discussions about the challenges and benefits of pursuing an MBA, along with proven strategies for success."

Watch the video here

Let the Unconscious Mind make the decision for you



One of the readings for the Advanced Marketing Class had a HBR article called "Breakthrough Ideas for 2007"

One of the ideas in that article was on "When to Sleep on It". It was written by Ap Dijksterhuis,is a professor of psychology at Radboud University Nijmegen in the Netherlands. I really liked his views where he states that sometimes the unconscious mind in us takes some decision that are right. I can't explain it but I have experienced this before and agree with him. While playing Squash,some times I end up taking a decision unconsciously.

Anyway, here is what he wrote in the article:

......Luckily, there is another way to make difficult choices: Don’t think hard about the decision, and after a while your unconscious mind, which is known to have a far greater processing capacity than your conscious mind, will tell you
what you should do. Such an unconsciously generated preference is usually referred to as intuition or a gut feeling – a conviction that one alternative is better than another, even when we can’t verbalize why.

The notion of trusting your intuition is, of course, far from new; but what was unexamined until now is whether extensive unconscious thought can make intuition more reliable. Thus, my colleagues and I conducted experiments to test the power of the unconscious mind as a processor of information.We gave our subjects information pertaining to a choice – for example, which of four apartments was the most attractive, or which of four cars was the best. They had three options: They could make a choice immediately; they could take time for conscious deliberation; or they
could figuratively sleep on it – that is, engage in unconscious thought. The subjects who chose the third option were first given information about the decision in question and then given information about an unrelated task,to occupy their conscious minds while their unconscious minds processed the relevant information.

When the unconscious thinkers were asked to choose one of the alternatives, they made better decisions, almost without exception, than the subjects who decided immediately or those who consciously deliberated. Their decisions
were better from a normative perspective (more rationally justifiable), from a subjective perspective (more likely to produce post-choice satisfaction), and from an objective perspective (more accurate, as in predictions of soccer-match
outcomes).

The moral? Use your conscious mind to acquire all the information you need
for making a decision – but don’t try to analyze the information. Instead, go on
holiday while your unconscious mind digests it for a day or two. Whatever
your intuition then tells you is almost certainly going to be the best choice.

I am not sure if this is always true but I have personally experienced this and till a certain extent agree with it.

Segway: Simply Moving



Some times a product is revolutionary but it might be ahead of its time.
People might not find the need for it or it will take some time before the critical mass adopts it. Perhaps, that is one problem with Segway for its limited success.

Wiki says Segway PT is a two-wheeled, self-balancing transportation device invented by Dean Kamen. I personally feel that this is a cool vehicle with solid potential. Perhaps,the company hoped to sell many more of it than it does today. Probably, they didn't get the marketing mix right.

In the Advanced Marketing Class today, we discussed an interesting case on Segway. We discussed its origin, its positioning and how and where it could be sold. Interestingly, the maximum users are in California and Florida.

BTW, President Bush had a tough time using the Segway.But he was so impressed that he gave a Segway as a gift to Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi in December 2005.



I believe apart from the price there are safety concerns with Segway which is restricting its mass adoption. I personally feel that in a few years from now,it would be widely used.

I liked the concept of Segway today. It really excited me. While researching more on the web today, I noticed that Steve Woz, the "other steve" of Apple conducts a Segway Polo Tournament every year. I felt that is a nice way to create a buzz and increase the awareness.Here is the video

Segway is now known as the vehicle for the geeks! That is what the video indicates. No wonder why I liked it so much ! ;)

The Magic of Clusters

As a part of the Global Strategy subject, we came across an interesting article on Clusters. I found that on the internet today here.This blog makes an interesting comment:

Peter Drucker has said, "Markets are not created by God, nature, or cosmic forces, but by businessmen." Replace "Markets" with "Clusters," and he's still right.

In the article, cluster is defined as “critical masses - in one place- of unusual competitive success in particular fields. Clusters are a striking feature of virtually every national, regional, state and even metropolitan economy, especially in more economically advanced nations.”

The most common examples of clusters are Silicon valley and Hollywood . Given below are some clusters in US




This link provides clusters in India.You’ll find some interesting information there.Some clusters : Morbi is a cluster for Wall Clock , Aligarh for lock industry, Tiruppur for knitwear, Palasa for Cashew Processing and Warangal for leather tanning etc.

I enjoyed reading about these clusters.I am sure you too will have fun figuring out the clusters in locations.