Exams are over, projects are complete, presentations completed and grades are in, that means finally the time of year I have been waiting for. This has been a tough semester considering the time and effort that needed to be put in. I took some extra credits following my motto of ‘learning’ but it showed me some tough times. Finally its over with a big bang (or snow storm as generally called) and I am happy that I survived well in this.
Most important class for this semester was Acquisition and Alliances, this class gave us a framework to analyze any business. At the beginning of semester, I had no idea how to analyze businesses. My only understanding was from reading a lot of newspapers and blogs, but most of them dealt with hi-tech industry and were not in depth. Professor had to struggle a lot improving us on it, but eventually I have this framework embedded in my head that will help me analyze any business. I would recommend this class to every business student.
Rest of the learning came from projects we did. Most importantly was a business plan to sell Oak Additives. Lesson learned was even a brilliant idea takes tonnes of hard work to realize it. Two of us in team had no idea about wine industry, its making or anything even remotely related to it. But hard work once again came in handy and the plan we submitted was a jewel and the same story continues for rest of projects.
I can call this semester as ‘semester of planning’ because I wrote three plans – Business Plan, Marketing Plan and Project Plan. These plans were very helpful in understanding of what I have learned and how it applies in real life. Best part of these plans/semester was I finally understood how all the things I learned in last two semesters converge to form a proper knowledge body. Now I have understanding of interconnections between different subjects and theories that form foundation of those subjects. I feel finally I have moved from ‘information’ to ‘knowledge’ and final step of ‘wisdom’ is remaining.
Many a times in group projects things got out of control- having a big team, managing everyone’s expectations, setting goals, meeting deadlines, etc. It was very tricky, but as cliche goes ‘in real life we would we working with a lot of different types of people’, so it required a lot of adjustments. Having one good friend in team with who you have complete understanding helps a lot. Not just in adjustments but also helps to clarify goals, to concentrate on goals, to keep on track and sometimes venting out frustration. One friend once reiterated the same by the comment “One needs a friend to survive MBA!”
Overall it was a great semester with great friends. Surely it was not a smooth ride but that’s the joy of ride, who would like to ride a roller coaster which does not have ups and downs. Thanks to all the friends for such learning experience, all the rides in and around campus, wonderful time, memories and being nice.
