Diversified portfolios and principles of Human Resource Management

I have been meaning to write for a long time now. But all I have been able to do is to get a few draft headlines. I keep thinking I will come back to them but that time never seems to come. Anyway, here is one thing I am itching to write about.

We were talking about valuations of companies in our Finance II class. The issue was whether a merger would increase the value of companies if there were no synergies to be had. One student recalled an earlier lecture where Ajay Pandey said that in an efficient market, people will not pay more for a diversified company because they can themselves hold a diversified portfolio anyway. Of course, this discussion assumed the absence of synergies. This discussion sort of set me thinking on tangential lines. Human Resources is one of my better favoured areas of study (ask anyone in my class and they can tell you :-)) and I applied this theory to principles of human resource management to come up with an interesting analogy.

When we receive our initial undergraduate education, we are trained to be specialists in our respective fields. Be it computer engineering or medicine or accountancy, the narrowness with which we deal with our respective areas of study is astounding. Once we go into organisations as specialists, we are valued for the specialisation that we bring in.

Then there are these people who decide to go in for doing a post graduate degree in management. This is where things become interesting. When we exit b-school and go out into the job market, expectations of the recruiters change dramatically. Of course, we are initially expected to work in the areas of our touted specialisation ( or, if the companies aren't that smart at sensing our aptitudes, for some area where they deem fit to put us in). If the companies think they need a different specialisation they will hire a different person. In that sense the HR process resembles efficient markets. But later, we are valued for the synergies we bring to the workplace; synergies in terms of our ability to integrate knowledge from various functional areas, synergies in terms of being able to get along with people and so on... This value is much harder to estimate and often companies spend a huge amount of resources trying to get the right person for the right job.

However, there is no denying the fact that, early on in one's career, be it as a techie or as a management student, the recruitment market behaves as if it expects little synergies from diversifying our initial portfolio of knowledge. But later, those very synergies become crucial for managerial success and significantly influence the money and respect we get. Basically, time can improve synergies depending on the extent of integration we achieve within ourselves. This again is a function of our willingness and ability to learn.

On a more personal note, I would like to achieve the abovementioned synergies as quickly as possible. But I wonder whether the job market would value me for that...

Bloggin' off
Sitan

Bye Bye Winter

I feel so sad... just a few days after my post on wintry nights et al., I am forced to say goodbye to the wonderful Ahmedabad winter. The night temperatures really dipped a week back, but now they are rising again. I can no longer feel the rush of a cold breeze on my skin when I walk out in the open (and by the way, that does not mean that I have become numb, just that the temperatures have gone up :-)).

Well, It was good while it lasted. This is probably the best winter I have experienced ever. Pretty natural too, for one whose ideas of winter are as equatorial as it can get. For a person who has seen too much of the sun at its resplendent glory, this winter was pretty much near nirvana. My last winter was in Mumbai (when at work with the Taj Group). Pretty okay types winter we got there. The night air tended towards chilliness but nowhere near the sustained effect created by the Ahmedabad winter. Well, I guess all good things come to an end.

Talking about coming to the end, I think I am running out of ideas for this entry... have another entry lined up though.

So that's all for now.
Sitan

Of Wintry nights and Cold Baths...

WOW!

The Winter in Ahmedabad is simply amazing. We are into February but the winter shows no signs of lessening. The cold wave started off in November sometime I believe. I heard this winter was bad even by Ahmedabad standards. But then I have found the whole experience extremely enjoyable. Very strange, considering that I have spent most of my life in a place where the lowest it ever comes to is around 20 degrees C.

It reminds me of another entry that my friend posted sometime back... totally unexplicable behaviour from a couple of equatorial sojourners. But then, I think it might have something to do with the fact that we enjoy the cold weather so much that we like feeling colder than the normal Northie. Even then I find it strange while I go to class boldly flaunting a short half sleeve cotton t-shirt while many of my friends come in leather jackets, full sleeved sweaters and what not... maybe it has something to do with the cold water baths I take every morning.

It is a totally unique experience to have a cold water bath in the middle of winter. I mean... imagine this situation. You just get out of your bed (muttering curses under your breath) at 6 am in the morning. After some time, you dare to venture out of the comfort and warmth of your room to get ready for classes. You quickly towards the bathroom and open the shower tap. Brrrrrrrrrr..... It is like being pierced with a thousand sharp needles all at one time. But then your body gets used to the temperature and you shake of your sleepiness faster than a dog shakes off water off its back. Believe me, once you get over that first cold drenching, it is a totally refreshing experience.

These bathroom exploits of mine have been the subject of many an amazed look from my dorm mates :-D. Somehow, that makes it even more fun. Most importantly, the coldness of the bath makes the winter air much more comfortable...

Too much on this already... better stop before the reader gets cold feet!!! ;-) (and stops reading.)

Sitan

500 Hits...Oops No! Make that 600

I planned to write an entry marking the 500th visitor to my blog, but then the hit rate seems to have gone up quite a bit over the past few days. So, I am forced to write a commemorative blog on the 600th visit to my corner in the web...

To the reader who has endured my random mumblings over the past few months, I can only say: "Wow! You have got some patience :-D"

This habit of mine started in quite an inconspicuous way, soon after I entered the Hell Hole, otherwise known as IIMA (Make no mistake, however: all references to Hell are only related to academics and the rat race for grades...But in all other ways, you will not get a better place to spend two years of your life).

What started as a hobby in the first term became a sort of passion in the relatively chill second term. Then, even when the supposedly nightmarish third term started, I could not let this habit go... It offered me a strange sense of peace. Maybe it was because I was always attracted to the English language and writing seemed to be a sort of outlet for my emotions. I never had the habit of writing a diary. But then, things change when you are in your room all the time and the only thing you get to know really well is the computer monitor. This blog then became my outlet - a vent to my frustrations, a place where I could share my happiness, my thoughts on life and its foibles in general and on life at IIMA in particular. It still continues to serve that purpose...

This blog has caused me to introspect quite a bit. And the lessons I have had to learn have been very valuable. Generally, I find that this place teaches to strike a balance between the various priorities that we generally tend to have in place all at the same time. There was a time in the first term where I thought I would not have any time at all apart from mugging. But as time progressed I realised that I was spending my time invisibly in many ways which could be controlled. That is when I realised that we all have the time for doing all the things we consider important. Later on in life, we will also find that we have to strike a balance between work and personal life. This is where the pressure put upon us by the institute comes in really handy. All I can say is, I am glad I came here.

I have also become a big fan of Sidin's blog ever since I came here. I was inspired by it. I even had grandiose plans of making my blogs as delightfully witty as his. However, after a series of botched attempts at creative witticisms, I decided to stick to my (rather ordinary) style of writing. Another lesson learnt... Never try to imitate others. Be what you are and people will appreciate you (read my blog, in my case :-D)

Anyways, this blog also made me realise that I would be happiest doing the things that I like. It doesn't matter what other people think of me. So, I'll keep blogging, like it or not.

Finally, to the persistent reader, this is my message:
"Read on, O ye reader, for thou art getting an insight into my soul"

(And even if the reader decideth that there art more worthwhile things to do in this world (as surely there must be :-)), I'll keep blogging away in my corner of the web...

Cheers
Sitan