Nazelogue- musings of a random mind

A Very Long Engagement: A very nice one indeed!

2009-06-24T08:02:00.000-07:00

Last night was movie night again and I managed to entice Shad to watch Jean-Pierre Jeunet' A very Long Engagement. A war-romance bordering on some pixie'ish' and some black humour, the movie was a satisfying watch. The opening scene's establishing shots were absolutely magnificent and enough to excite me for the things to come. A Very Long Engagement is Mathilde's story about her search for her fiance long believed dead in a quaintly named trench near No man's land in France during the World War I.

Played by Audrey Tautou , the director's muse who gave a similarly stunning performance in Amelie, Mathilde's child like innocence, devotion and love for Manech is best captured in the film. For a war romance that is crafted by a director of such prowess, AVLE doesnt evoke tears in you. Instead it gives you moments that force you to reflect, laugh and admire the tenacity of a provincial 19 year old girl who refuses to give up on her fight to search for her fiance.

Go see it if you can and if you havent watched Amelie as yet, go run and see it!!

My Obamania

2009-06-09T07:23:00.000-07:00

Just read Obama's speech at Cairo University released by the Associated Press. Made me wonder if Obama was going to be the first President of United States to have greeted people with an Assalaamu Walaikum.

I began admiring Obama not because of the policies he framed but because of the sheer charm and grace he brought to the seat of the American President- a seat that has been disdained for some time now. I admire this guileless man who is not afraid to open up to public, show his innermost emotions and who doesnt toe the line in the dirty game of politics (that of course is my opinion and I am no expert in politics).

I found that the opening words of his speech were apt. He began with what really is the problem about the Muslim world- about the big misunderstanding that it is received in, of there being a tension between the western world and the so called Muslim world. He spoke of the religious wars that have taken place in history, of the emergence of an ultra modern society that seemingly stands as an opposition to Islamic traditions.

He moved on to how a small minority of Muslims took advantage of this fear and disregard of western mores and values, using violent means to achieve socio-political mileage. He felt that if we continued to move ahead with a fragmented and fragile relationship based on mutual mistrust,we would only help evil minded people in doing what they have always wanted to.

Although seemingly Obama is on a PR trail to garner support from the historically anti American Muslim nations, I can't but help liking him.
He quoted from the Quran, the Talmud and the Bible. Clearly a man, who doesnt shy from referring to religious literature. This at a time, when the western world is predominantly disposed to being disregarding of religion.
I truly liked his speech, it seemed genuine, just like him.

The Femme Fatale genre

2009-06-08T06:53:00.000-07:00

Yesterday Shad and I had some quality time together. We let the day rule over us rather than trying to seize it, which is what we end up doing most of the time.
Having slept away the first half of the day, we went out for a short walk in the English cold summer. Hyde Park looked serene with not one person in sight. The cold weather had turned out to be a deterrent to most. We walked for a while and then decided to get back home. It really was getting very cold.
So much for the summer..as most people would agree.

At night,we decided to watch a movie. Shad had got a DVD of a movie called 'Nikita'.
My husband and I have never really agreed on a choice for movies. We differ on our choice. Period. I know I will have to live with this pain for all my life.
He likes action, gory bloody show of decapitated people, fast racing cars that hurl themselves on the hero while he hangs on to dear life on his motorbike.
I like emotional stories with dramatic revelations. Still, I wanted to give Nikita a chance. I had seen some film noir but hadnt seen anything that glorified a female assasin and turned her into a femme fatale.
To cut the story short, I felt the movie was nowhere close to depicting a real femme fatale. The characterisation was pretty sketchy and the so called femme fatale named Nikita was far from one. In fact at times she looked and acted ludicruous. She didnt have the charm and aura that is so much needed in a character of that kind.
A bitter disappointment, we thought.

Are we dead??!!!

2009-06-04T02:31:00.000-07:00

This week, when I heard about the Air France plane disaster , I was momentarily in shock.
And then came the pain, sadness and despair. I really felt the loss of all those people who had died suddenly within seconds in the cold water of the Atlantic.
I didnt know any of them.. but they were people like me. They had mothers, who will take the pain of the loss of a child to their graves, wives who would know that their endless wait had only just started and they had children who might never know the selfless love of a parent.
I thought of all those things and it just made me sadder.
But one thing really hit me... I didnt see that this huge loss seemed to have affected people at large. I am quite active on social media networks and it suprised me that people didnt even talk about it, express any pain or even mere regret. Ofcourse there were a mere few, but largely this news went without discussion. A sad commentary on our life today when Susan Boyle (a reality TV participant) hit a Million and more on Youtube within days while 228 people's tragic death went unnoticed. Are we dead?

O, what a relief!

2009-04-27T08:43:00.000-07:00

What a relief it is to be back to the professional world.
Having taken a sabbatical from it to work on an MBA, I thought it was time to get back to it as soon as I completed it and had the certificate in hand. But things werent going to be THAT easy.
The credit crunch happened and then recession happened and then job cuts happened. Suddenly there were no jobs available.

The CVs were going no where. Auto responders from the recruitment agents regretting my being unsuitable for the position became the norm of my life. Until I found Bloom Media. Its a digital media agency in Leeds that specialises in Search Engine Marketing and Web Design. All I wanted was a month old placement as a junior search engine marketing consultant. Its been more than a month and guess what?
I am here to stay. At Bloom, I mean.

I absolutely love it being here. Bloomites are a fun and hardworking bunch who know how to have a great time at work ensuring that quality work is done.
Search Engine Marketing World-here's a willing learner coming into you.
Learning the ropes about it guys, will keep you all posted on it.

The Kitchen Man

2009-03-27T09:05:00.000-07:00

Yeah, I know I am lucky. I am being told so by all who have visited my new marital home until now. The food coming out of the kitchen smells awesome..and tastes awesome too. And the best bit is, its not being cooked by me, but by Shadique. What more could a woman want, ask my female friends, neighbours, relatives, colleagues.
You know when you go home tired from the office, you see the house husband standing at the kitchen counter, adorning that silly apron he bought from Poundland, grinning at you, and you are in womanhood bliss.
No menu planning to do for the night, no histrionics to perform trying to carve the chicken and no need to see the the unapproving look on Shadique's face when I hand over the dinner plate to him. Adios to being kitchen queen.
Three cheers to my kitchen man!!

A Brush With Fame: Nasreen Haque remembers her encounter with India's most well-known artist...many years ago

2009-03-07T16:47:00.000-08:00

Kolkata bylanes are a beehive of activity. The rhythmic clanging of the car mechanic tinkering with his tools synchronises well with the beats of the popular Hindi number blaring from the loudspeaker. Business runs and manages to thrive even in the tiniest and murkiest of lanes and you could come up with a “steal of a bargain”. But a few years ago, in one such lane, this was hardly what I had bargained for.

Scouting for rare trees on Kolkata streets for an article for my dad, who had a passion for the herbal world, little brother and I were backseat driving for him, when all of a sudden my eyes took a double take. A very familiar face, with a shock of white beard and hair flummoxed me. All of 14 years, I was no art connoisseur but being a Kolkattan by nativity, the denizens of the art fraternity were well- known to us. We Bengalis take immense pride in calling ourselves the cultural czars of the country.

I asked dad to stop, pointing out to him the man of importance. There wasn’t even a crowd gathered at the obscure ‘dhaba’ where he was seated. He was barefooted, and dressed in his trademark denims. He was nonchalantly discussing his paintings (which incidentally had been published in that very day’s Sunday Telegraph) with the dhaba’s owner. I think the casualness of the atmosphere prompted me to go up and speak to him. Speak to us he did, grinning and making us two kids feel at ease. I didn’t have pen and paper, but what I did have was a camera. And Maqbool Fida Hussain obliged us with a photograph of us with him. Soon he bid us goodbye, a warm 'Khuda Hafiz', whizzed away in his car, leaving us with our mouths agape.

M.F. Hussain will always be a man with down-to-earth humility and vitality for life. His ubiquitous presence in the Indian Art scene for a commanding 60 years, painting film hoardings even in his heydays on Mumbai streets, and subsequently rising to the higher echelons of Modern Indian Art, baffle me. His affability rings out true even years after his numerous creations occupy seats of honour in Art houses all over the world.

However what could surprise a discernible reader at this juncture would be the memory of this episode after all these years. You see, the anticlimax happened only yesterday, when a middle-aged lady dropped in at our place. Seeing the framed photograph of the artist, resting on my mantelpiece, she smiled at me and said, “Oh I recognise you and your brother well, but that senior gentleman, he must be your granddad, is he not?" To answer the lady in question would only have resulted into a very embarrassing situation so I didn't say a word. But I can only hazard a guess as to who would have laughed more, my grandfather or M.F. Hussain!

The Mother - a short story written many years ago

2009-02-10T13:23:00.000-08:00

The Mother
The morning sun peeped through the filigree of the small, dirty window and spread into her room. She had felt the sun even before she opened her eyes. The small window stood out in stark contrast with the other settings of the room. The iron mesh of the window was bent and crooked, with the iron bars mangled by many years. A number of insects including termite had made their way into the cleavages of the door and the window sills. Years of accumulated dust had faithfully made the window- sills their home, cobwebs at the corner added to their dignified existence. But she was used to all this. She should be. She had spent more than half her life there in this very room. As a young bride of seventeen, a woman looking after her household at twenty-five, a middle aged woman with her only son, a widow at fifty and finally old and helpless at seventy-five. Yes, she had lived her life. She had accepted as it came to her. She had made few changes, because she didn’t need to. All her life, she had no fears, but one, the fear of loneliness. She laughed at people when they said that they were afraid of death, of the unknown.

Indeed her fears were not baseless. For the last fifteen years of her life, she had lived a recluse, away from everybody—her husband, her son and everybody. Her husband and son were her sole possessions. Years ago she had made a pact with her husband to go together. Sadly, he left quietly, without saying a proper goodbye to her. But deep down, she never really wanted to go, she was afraid of losing her only son. Her son had been the centre of her life, all her life.

With the passing years, her memory played cruel games with her. In minutes her mind would waver back to the crystal clear image of past forgotten years. She would remember her ancestral home, the kind generous face of her mother, her father cycling down to the local market for groceries, her grandmother bent under her own weight chewing betel leaves. She would remember the great banyan that grew outside her courtyard, under whose shade her adolescence had glided past. The images came and went and then blurred her vision. The next moment she would forget everything. Her mind would be unable to conceive the meaning of the images that flashed a minute ago. It was so cruel and disheartening.

Suddenly a familiar stab of pain would attack her with extreme precision. She would return to the present. Her son. She had lost her son. Lost him to the city and its ugliness. Lost him the day he had told her of his decision to settle in the city.

She remembered how vehement she had been against his decision. But in the end, she had relented, knowing well, that his happiness was her own too. He had offered her to stay with him. But she had refused. She preferred to stay with the memories of her past. That was more than ten years ago. In those years, her son returned just twice. Once with his wife and the other time with his two sons. How happy she had been then! This time, she was ready to spend the rest of her life with them, but her son did not ask her to join him. She was disappointed, but careful enough not to show it. They stayed for four days or so and then left, leaving her again to a world of her, cocooned by her thoughts. She remembered she had felt the same when her husband had left her. But that was long, long ago or was it? Her past and present intermingled and the line of demarcation was fast blurring. Why did those painful memories never leave her? She wondered.

The grandfather clock in the adjacent room stuck eight. With a start she realised that she had been engrossed in her thoughts for more than an hour or so. She rose and went to the window looking out at the crowded street. It was filled with people going on with their daily chores. These were people who fought for wealth, space, love and understanding, only to lose them in end. How utterly demeaning life’s actions were, and yet life was beautiful! Still man wanted to live for eternity.

She went to the cupboard and opened the drawer that contained her son’s letters. She opened the dog-eared bundle and eagerly started reading. Then she noticed that they all looked the same. Except maybe the dates. Suddenly she wished she could meet her grandchildren. She missed them so much. She felt that God had created a bridge between her son and herself and had forbidden her to cross it. She felt so helpless and afraid then. Maybe they could visit her, this Diwali as they had last year. Alas! Last year they had not come and nor the previous year, not even the year before that. Her hopes had surged out and plunged at equal speed with tremendous pain in her heart. She finally settled down for the household chores. They day dragged on. Evening came and then night, she went on as usual.

Next morning, the sun shining with magnanimous brilliance entered the dark room through the window. Today, her eyes did not open to greet its brilliance. The milkman came and went. Later in the morning, Janaki Devi entered the courtyard calling out her name, but she did not answer. She could not. The eerie silence of the room underlined the deepest sadness that had engulfed and paralyzed her. She could not answer back to Janaki Devi. Although her spirit wanted to call out; her mortal remains did not allow her. She had gone to join her husband. She had remembered her promise. She decided it was time she fulfilled it.

That evening the bell rang at Rakesh’s high rise flat. Rakesh opened the door to the postman. With anxious mind he started to open the telegram. Did the deal break off? How sure he had been of it! It was worth eight lakhs. He could not let all this money leave his hands. God forbid. The telegram was short.
It read, “Come immediately. Ma has expired. Funeral tomorrow.”
-Lala Dhyanchand.

“Darling, what is it?” Rakesh’s wife called out from the bedroom.
“Nothing dear, only a telegram. Ma has expired.”
“So will you be leaving for Devipur?”
“Naina, who would miss Khanna’s party? Free booze, bets and all that. Won’t miss that for anything.”
“I guess I will send a money order. The village people can look after the funeral rites. Anything can be arranged with money”.

The evening sun had spread its celestial lights all over the funeral ground. The village folks had returned to their homes. The last bit of smoke coming out of the funeral pyre had reached the highest point in the sky. At last her journey was completed. In the heaven above, there was rejoicing. The mother had returned. Back to her loved ones!

Reflections on the MBA journey-Concluding Part

2009-02-07T16:38:00.000-08:00

The road ahead:

There’s much to look ahead now that I will go back to the school of life. Needless to say, even the rigours of business school come nowhere close to real business. It would be interesting to apply the knowledge that I have acquired in management school to real life business situations and to compare how different the results can be.
The MBA has taught me so much more than textbook principles. There is no ‘one way’ or ideal solution to a problem. Sometimes the mind needs to open up to a different perspective. I feel I have stopped taking things for granted and begun to question more and tried to see beyond the obvious.

However, it’s not just the MBA of the things in the past seven months that is going to add to my life’s experiences. Living the life of a student in UK has been an experience altogether. It’s great to be a student, carefree and irresponsible except for a few assignment deadlines. Swansea University is vibrant with so many cultural activities being held regularly and the best thing of all, with such a beautiful campus.
Even as I sit back and think of what I want in my career now, my needs seem to have changed over the past few years. More than a high flying career, I would be inclined towards a position which adheres to my internal need for achievement and involvement. Equipped with the degree, I will be more ready to take up challenges or face uncertainties if need be. My MBA has helped me gather friends from all over the world and I feel networking is a crucial aspect of a manager’s life. Apart from the fact that it is a prestigious degree, the MBA experience has been truly enriching.

And to sum it all, it hasn’t been easy to learn the skills to complete the MBA. As Calvin begins to realise here:

References:

Anonymous, Viewpoint; Development and Learning in Organizations, Vol. 17, No. 3, Year 2003, pp. 23-26.

Bland, M.; “Training managers to communicate effectively, Industrial and Commercial Training, Vol. 30, No. 4, 1998, pp. 131–136.

Crotty, P. and Soule, A.; “Executive education: yesterday and today, with a look at tomorrow”, Journal of Management Development, Vol. 16 No. 1, 1997, pp. 4-21.

Elsayed-Elkhouly, S., Lazarus, H., Forsythe, V.; “Why is a third of your time wasted in meetings?”, Journal of Management Development, Vol. 16 No. 9, 1997, pp. 672-676.

Fisher, S., Macrosson, W., Sharp, G.; “Further evidence concerning the Belbin Team Role Self-perception Inventory”, Personnel Review, 1996, Vol. 25, Issue 2, pp 61 – 67.

Gentry, W., Lauren S., Harris, Becca A. Baker, Jean Brittain Leslie; “Managerial Skills: what has changed since the late 1980s”, Leadership & Organization Development Journal; 2008, Vol. 29, Issue 2.

Margerison, C., and McCann, D., “Five skills to improve performance”, Team Performance Management; 1996, Vol. 2 Issue 1.

Shivers-Blackwell, S.; “Reactions to outdoor teambuilding initiatives in MBA education”, Journal of Management Development, 2004, Vol. 23, Issue 7.

Tengblad, S., "Is there a ‘new managerial work’? A comparison with Henry Mintzberg's classic study 30 years later", Journal of Management Studies, Vol. 43, 2006 pp.1437-61.

Reflections on the MBA journey- part 5

2009-02-06T06:00:00.000-08:00

I think working in the teams has helped me address many issues. It was a good thing that I realised right at the start that the whole purpose of a team is to capitalise on the synergic effects rather than working individually and collating to present the final output. In one of my group projects, I had been the group leader and although we came out with good results, I feel I had not done the delegating well. Fortunately I had the wonderful chance to learn from one of my team-members who was made the de facto leader for the next project. Let me illustrate to the reader how I gained from this very capable team member, who I feel has great qualities for being an effective manager.

It was through him that I learnt the importance of keeping team-members well informed about progress of a project and if any course of action needed to be taken.
Managers often make the mistake of not communicating properly and assuming that certain things are understood implicitly. That is when problems begin to occur; as people working under them feel that little information is being passed on to them and they are being asked to deliver with half-baked knowledge. So it pays to enunciate and give directives to some people who may not be comfortable trying to do things on their own initiative. Although this may be seen as common knowledge, I hadn’t been adhering to this and that led to some misunderstanding amongst members with regard to what needed to be delivered by them.

Another aspect of managing that I learnt from my team-mate was appreciating team-members and motivating them to perform better. I noticed that in e-mails he wrote to us, he would refer to the urgency of a deadline and mention that just a bit more work from us and we would finish the project and then we could go for a night out! He would always motivate us by mentioning any good work that any of us had done.

I noticed that things like these fostered a spirit of caring and togetherness amongst our group members and I am proud to say that a new member from a dissolved team who was welcomed in our group felt the same.

An MBA can be quite intensive and taxing for most people and there are times when one goes through unpleasantness while disagreeing on issues or when one needs to confront someone’s non participation in group work. Many dread such occasions and try their most to avoid being confrontational. However the real working world is different and effective managers must deal with such situations well. Moreover it has been estimated that over 65 percent of performance issues are not affected by lack of skill or motivation but from conflict caused through strained relationship amongst workers (Viewpoint 2003). Managers by the virtue of being in a senior position should step in as a mediator if such conflict occurs between team members. I found that some of my batch-mates could deal with such situations better while some shunned dealing with conflict.
Another interesting aspect of working with groups was the issue of time management. At times meetings that were called were far from fruitful and there was a lot of preoccupation with what needed to be done but very little implementation took place. The MBA program was structured to teach us the importance of meetings and this was implemented through the Minutes that needed to be submitted for the group projects.

Elsayed-Elkhouly et al (1997) argue that meetings are a microcosm of management. They say that an effective meeting must have a clearly defined agenda stating the objectives and the results must be summarised in writing.
The reality of life however is different and many business meetings can be a complete waste. A classic slice of life scene from any business organisation is reflected in another of Dilbert’s cartoon:

Reflections on the MBA journey- part 4

2009-02-04T10:55:00.000-08:00

The importance given to team-building in the MBA program was not misplaced. Teambuilding is vital towards building team effectiveness within a group.
As an initiative the MBA cohort was taken to Abercrave for an outdoor challenge training. Such activities are supposed to enhance leadership and self concept and promote trust and understanding within the work groups (Buller et al., 1995; 1991, p. 7 cited in Shivers-Blackwell 2004).

A corporate training organisation known as Call of the Wild had many interesting activities in store for us, which we all thoroughly enjoyed. This was the time when we were trying to know each other and with people from different corners of the world, remembering names was itself a task. Initially divided into smaller groups of six or seven, we fought aggressively to win challenges that involved problem solving, brainstorming, creative thinking, decision making and a lot of physical activities like trekking. Working together in tough conditions brought the group members together with a lot of competitive spirit amongst the members. In the end, the whole class was brought together for one last Herculean challenge and the sudden sense of belonging as one whole unit helped us perform well (See Appendix).

Some of the bonds we made with our friends at that time have had a lasting impact until now. This was also a time when we could get an idea of the team dynamics that would establish once we were formalised into groups. It has been found that outdoor trainings increase students’ learning during coursework and lessen any interpersonal problems that may crop up in subsequent teams (Elkin 1991 cited in Shivers-Blackwell 2004).

Abraham Maslow, the proponent of the self actualisation theory describes it as
“What a man can be, he must be. This need we call self-actualization”. Indeed there is such beauty in this statement. As individuals we must aspire to reach what we can and are meant to. Would it be correct to compare an academic degree of MBA to something so philosophical in life? It may not be. However I feel the MBA has added extensively to my experience and will help me chart my path to self realisation. Whether I am able to reach the stage of self actualisation is something that time will tell.

Along with the academic structure of the degree with electives that are meant to develop competencies, it has been the interaction with my fellow batch-mates that have influenced me a lot. Prior to my MBA days, I had been a person who has happy being left aside at work and preferred to do things on my own. In fact the Belbin Character Profile mentions that I am better placed in a job where ‘she is left undisturbed and allowed to get on with it’. It also says that ‘there is some risk that she will become pre-occupied with her project work’.

As mentioned earlier, working in teams may soon become a norm in most organisations and teams must be cohesive in order to produce the best results. It can be a difficult world for loners and people who produce results best when they are left on their own. As Calvin from the famous Calvin and Hobbes series gets preached on teamwork from his father here:

Reflections on the MBA journey- part 3

2009-02-03T04:48:00.000-08:00

With organisations realising the importance of high performing teams rather than high performing individuals, a lot of effort is put in developing the spirit de corps in the teams. The core philosophy behind it is open and effective communication.
Margerison and McCann (1996) have suggested five other skills that can improve communication in a team. They list them as:

(1)Enquiring: Being able to ask the most relevant questions and being able to listen actively
(2) Diagnosing: Being able to judge and assess the ‘goodness’ of the information
(3) Summarizing: Being able to convey one’s understanding of an issue to others
(4) Proposing: Being able to develop and present suggestions, recommendations and options on an issue
(5) Directing: Being able to make a particular choice rather than sit on a fence, confusing oneself and others.

There are a lot of other skills that fall within the fold of the very generic Communication Skills. These are presentation skills, interpersonal skills and internal communication within an organisation. An MBA programme without presentations and impromptu speeches is not worth its salt and it was no different for us too. According to Michael Bland, a trainer in communications:

“.....the best trainers will not focus too heavily on techniques. Rather they will take the innate natural communicator that is in all of us and help to bring it out” (1998:132)

One can’t emphasize enough on how managers must have good communication skills in order to manage well. Unfortunately in reality, many managers lack even the basic skills. Sample this from the world famous Dilbert series:

Reflections on the MBA journey- part 2

2009-02-01T09:45:00.000-08:00

My initial research led me to selecting five universities offering the MBA in which Swansea was one of them. Once I had the opportunity to speak to a University representative, I was all the more convinced of Swansea being the right place for me. The university has been getting better year by year, it has a substantial international students’ population and the MBA program is accredited by AMBA.

I am glad I chose to pursue my MBA in Swansea and now that the program draws to a close in a few months, it is time to contemplate and reflect on what I have learnt as a person and how it can help me grow.
Having interacted with the MBA cohort over the past eight months has allowed me to assess the skills I have developed since I started the course. If I were to analyse myself critically on my pre MBA days, I would like to believe that I have been a willing learner, who doesn’t shy hard work and enjoys to some extent crunch times when one needs to come up with good results at work. I would say that I have good communication skills and can develop rapport with people pretty fast.

I have been good with time management and decision making and consider myself creative. In terms of weaknesses, I would say that I have always found it difficult to delegate tasks and been weak in leadership capabilities. I had also been told by my colleagues at work that I tend to expect a lot more from them and can be a bit too harsh if that is not delivered. I see that as a weakness because managers must be patient and empathetic rather than speak their mind too often expecting the same level of commitment and performance from all.

I believe that every aspect and element of the Swansea MBA programme had some significance which would give a holistic touch to building managerial abilities for the students. At the start of the course, we made a self evaluation of our abilities and personality traits through the Belbin Team Role Self-perception Inventory (BTRSPI).

Organisations these days are realising the importance of work being done in teams and emphasise useful skills like good team-working skills which will be of great demand and almost a prerequisite for any job in the future. The importance of BTRSPI has been on the rise (Fisher et al 1996). My profile revealed to me that I was a mix of Completer Finisher and Plant. On reflection, I would say that the profiling has been quite accurate. A weakness for Plant is that they can be too preoccupied with own thoughts to communicate effectively. For Completer Finisher, it is reluctance to let others into own job. True enough, these are exactly what I end up doing.

The MBA program gave a lot of importance to developing management skills- importance given to hard skills like quantitative analysis and the softer skills like team building and communicating effectively. Is there any reason why so much on these subjects were talked about?

In hindsight, I would say that there was enough reason for the faculty to believe that these two core aspects of a manager’s job may be the most important that is needed for better managing.
Managerial skills can be broadly classified as conceptual, human and technical. Most of these skills are acquired through education and experience. A lot of premium is given to the latter- since many things in life are best learnt through experience. I had always been a people’s person and felt my interpersonal skills had been good but having been thrown in a melting pot of such diverse cultures in the MBA cohort, my skills were to be really tested.

Many researchers have studied the world of managers and managing of organisations. Notably among them are Henri Fayol and Henry Mintzberg. However, most of their findings are quite dated. The last twenty odd years have brought enormous changes in the workplace. Technology and globalisation have been major propellants of this change. The internet as a medium of communication and commerce has allowed managers to interact in a different way. Work patterns have changed, flexibility and tele-working have become a common reality (Gentry et al 2008). These dynamism at the workplaces have resulted into a greater need for better communication, coordination, improved performance, team monitoring, and more interdependence and trust (Gentry at al 2008 in Salas et al., 2004, 2005; Zaccaro et al., 2004).Organization’s environment becoming more reactive and fast paced makes one think if the importance of different skills that managers of today need may have changed.

Skills that have become vitally important to survive and compete in a brutally competitive environment that empower employees to perform and orchestrate their own success may have changed from the skills believed to be important years ago.
However, it seems they haven’t changed much. A lot may have changed in the workplace, very little has for the manager, as managerial work has in effect remained the same (Tengblad 2006).

The importance given to certain skills twenty years back is still the same today. Communication skills, that involves communicating a piece of information, idea or concept effectively is still held as important today as it was before. However relationship building as a skill has gained greater importance today than ever. Managers these days are giving emphasis to working with associates in groups than in isolation.

Advancements in the use of communication such as e-mail with a globalised workforce have required managers to put more effort in building and maintaining relationships (Gentry et al 2008). To reiterate, studies indicate that managers need to focus more on communication and relationship building (within a team) and decision making in their pursuit for effective management.

Reflections on the MBA journey- part 1

2009-02-01T09:33:00.000-08:00

We write to taste life twice, in the moment

and in retrospection.

~ Anais Nin

“This is your one last chance to redeem yourself”. Even as I sit here, thousands of miles away with so many months having gone by, I remember the words so clearly that my father said as I did some last minute packing the night I was leaving for the UK. A whole year of excitement lay ahead of me and I was raring to take it on.

My family had always been inclined on academics. My father completed his Ph.D in Genetics by the age of twenty nine while my mum completed her Masters in Botany after I was born. As their eldest child, they had many aspirations for me and I never was made to forget that one bit. Of course I felt pressurised, but I also felt proud. Unfortunately, I wasn’t much of a smart kid. Still, high school went on without a glitch. The setback happened in engineering college which I had joined after my A levels. I failed five of my eight papers. Never had I performed so abysmally in the past. And that had only been the beginning. I failed the next year too.

Dropping out of Engineering was one of the toughest decisions I took in my life. But for every challenge, be it academic or professional I took later, my determination and resolve to do better turned my past defeat into victory. As Confucius said, “Our greatest glory is not in never failing, but in rising up every time we fall.”

For my family however, the road to redemption lay in doing something still more better- scaling the MBA mountain.

The MBA program saw its beginnings in the late nineteenth century America when there was a need felt for a higher level education for managers. The first MBAs were developed in Wharton and Harvard and in the 1960s adopted in Europe. However, interestingly the MBAs those days were targeted towards younger participants rather than older experienced managers as it is perceived to be today. Today the MBA is aimed towards developing managers for obtaining organisational goals with a trend towards shortened modified programs (Crotty and Soule 1997).

The motivations of most for pursuing an MBA are varied but most would agree that the qualification is a value-add to their career. Indeed this would stand true for most of the students in the 2008 Swansea MBA batch. Along with the added experience of studying with so many international students in a foreign nation, the cohort has gained so much more than the investment of time, effort and money it had made.

Atleast I would firmly believe so.

In effect, I would say that the prime reason for my doing this MBA was to improve my prospects in my field of work, by attaining the competencies to become a better manager and take my career to the next level faster than it would normally have taken. For the reader’s benefit, let me give a brief understanding of my career path until now. After my undergraduate degree in media studies, I took to the creative field of Advertising. As a copy writer and client servicing executive, the most important skill requirement of my job was great communication skills, the ability to create precise and lucid message. Some years later, an MA in English Literature added to my competencies and has always helped in my career. In terms of employment, I have ended up working with smaller design houses that do a lot of interesting work but provide fewer chances for career development. I then realised that an MBA could fast-track my progress. I could see that some of the difficulties I faced at work in decision making were handled better by some of my colleagues who had pursued an MBA. I had also been influenced by some friends who had done an MBA and had found it fulfilling for their career.

The decision to pursue an MBA from the UK was propelled by my desire to attain some recognition at an international level. I was also seeking a new cultural experience, besides, travel is truly educative. An MBA program is not only about being taught by teachers, but also about collaborative learning from one’s batchmates. What better way is there to enhance one’s learning curve than from the experiences of a motley bunch of international students?