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OwenBloggers: Sharran Srivatsaa |
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This is my first post from the iPhone. I like the iPhone... I would love it if it sync'd my contacts and calendar remotely. Don't get the iPhone if you want a blackberry replacement, its not quite there yet... But as a cool phone, I love it!
I have been getting a lot of Evites lately... its kinda fun.
I got an email from one of my friends at Maryland and he told me about SlyReply.
My entrepreneur buddy from school has created a new website which is like Evite but for non-party stuff (collecting groups responses) - www.slyreply.com I'm trying to help him market the site so if you could take a peek and register that would be sweet. It's free and I have used it a bunch of times here at school to organize meetings, group outings, dinners, and club activities. The site eliminates the constant back-and-forth of emails that come with organizing any event.
I checked it out and its pretty cool, I specifically like the scheduling feature when people can signup for different time slots. I wish it would just be built into Outlook.
Isaac wanted to take a break from studying for our Macroeconomics final and play... so he came up with a recent map of domestic internship placements for the class of 2008. Enjoy...
(click to magnify)
It was supposed to be called, "6 seconds into the world you don't understand..." but then I really had no idea how to begin or end it.
This video is six seconds long, but if you have been to India, you know exactly what I am talking about... you can write essays about what you see in this video, about the sounds you hear... one of those people riding the motorcycle might be answering your next customer service call, or doing your next medical transcription, or writing a piece of software for a pacemaker that runs in your grandpa's heart...
But all that you see is a noisy, busy, mess... a street with no markings, with vehicles flying by for six seconds.
Technorati Tags: sharran - srivatsaa - owen - vanderbilt - vandy - india
Yesterday I had lunch with Wal-Mart North America's CEO Eduardo Castro-Wright (Corporate America's Rising Star by Fortune) as a part of Owen's Distinguished Speaker Series. This is one of the favorite parts of my Owen experience, a chance to connect with business leaders from around the world in a small group setting. I see Webcast's of successful individuals giving lectures and presentations at different schools, but I wonder if those students get to have lunch with the speaker, sitting right beside the Dean of the school, engaging them in great conversation. After the presentation we also had a reception where the Owen community was able to meet and speak with Mr. Castro-Wright in the lobby. There was brain-food for the famished students :)
At lunch I jumped in line right behind Mr. Castro-Wright because I wanted to ask him a question about a potential connection with his past position at Nabisco. I was a part of the Britannia Amritraj Tennis (BAT) Program, a joint initiative between the Amritraj Brothers and Britannia/Nabisco to build the future of Indian Tennis Players. Indian Davis Cup player Leander Paes is a product of this program. Mr. Castro-Wright ran the Asia-Pacific operations for Nabisco at that time and I wanted to see if he remembered the BAT program. Of course he did, and what was better... he is a tennis player himself, a common thing that brought both him and me to the US.
I began to look at Wal-Mart from a different perspective when Mr. Castro-Wright said,
"We at Wal-Mart save people money so that they can live a better life."
He is the first big-time CEO that I have met that actually answered the questions that I asked him, instead of beating around the bush. Glad to meet you Sir.
Technorati Tags: wal-mart - sharran - owen - srivatsaa - vandy - vanderbilt
While working though parts of the Google Labs Aptitude Test designed for the uber-geek (Dave), I was thinking about how I would answer the question:
This space intentionally left blank. Please fill it with something that improves upon emptiness
Dr. Betty Edwards discusses the ways to use drawing to make the shift from left-brain mode to right brain mode. Learning to draw turns out not to be "learning to draw." Paradoxically, "learning to draw" means learning to make a mental shift from left brain mode to right brain mode. You can practice some of her exercises here. I guess if I learned how to draw and could potentially do it well, it would give me the ability to get into right brain mode at the blink of an eye. Now how does that really help me when I am presented with a blank box on a non-traditional aptitude test?
I did an simple experiment.. I gave the question and a blank box to seven different people. Every single one of them drew something (i.e. did not fill it with text or numbers) Why? If the natural tendency for the average person is to draw when presented with a blank box, and if the act of drawing taps into the right brain, then all the people in my sample (can make the switch to right-brain mode when necessary and) don't need Dr. Betty Edwards' book.
I like my small sample, jump to quick conclusions, non-scientific way of looking at life. Don't you? :-)
You gotta love a professor who gives away CFLs are prizes for in-class "competitions."
How many creative ways can you use a paper clip? You can twist it, turn it, bend it, melt it, or just use it to poke a hole in play-doh... but the point is, as beings of superior intellect, we limit our own creativity. We are obsessed with the practical implication of a creative endeavor. The guy in this video makes a motor??
Is one of the creative uses of a paper clip not to poke holes in play-doh? Or to be used by our friendly neighborhood elephant as a cuetip? Business school students are driven to find solution to problems, sometimes even where they don't exist. Business school students are driven to find practical, implementable ideas at (almost) every juncture. We are given the tools, training, and inspiration to analyze, dissect, re-construct, and even measure (with statistical confidence!) every step of our action plan. We are analytical ninjas. We can run regressions in our heads and can interpret R^2s and betas like you cant imagine... but the best idea that we can come up with for the use of a paper clip is to poke hole in play-doh?
Enough of self-bashing... the elephant's cuetip was my original idea, but what I learned from class was that we are responsible for the constraints that we put on our creativity. "Outside the box" ideas are often useless. They don't embody the practical constraints that solution has to include... it does not matter if you look at it from the perspective of a fourth-dimension alien from the Q continuum... a pencil, is a pencil, is a pencil... we just use it to write, right? Wait... is that a self-imposed constraint?
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Managing Innovation: Mod 4 2007
Vanderbilt Owen Graduate School of Management
Professor Dave Owens: Bio | Personal Site
Class Blog
Technorati Tags: owens - owen - vanderbilt - innovation - sharran - srivatsaa - owenbloggers - mba
I am taking Managing Innovation this Mod with Prof. Dave Owens. Here is Dave's unofficial website, here is a link to his official profile at Owen, and here is a link to the class blog.
We spent the first portion of the first class talking about what we thought about innovation... its "definition," what it means to us, what we consider to be innovative, why it matters, etc. This was one of those discussions that I just wanted to hang back and listen... how many times have you thought about the meaning of "innovation?" Its one of those words that just finds its place in our vocabulary but we never really explore its true meaning and impact on our everyday thinking.
The walls between art and engineering exist only in our minds
And few have the imagination to see beyond them.
Dave said, "I want you to think about a cool idea right now..." and then KL said, "Oooh I got one..."
+
I think KL was referring to some kind of CamelBak for her dog!
I am particularly excited about our class project which we get to choose and define ourselves. The assignment describes it best:
As a group, find someone with a problem you are willing to solve. Your innovation should address a challenge that your client faces in his or her professional context. Your team is free to address any problem of any size in any way that you find to be appropriate, but you are required to implement it by the end of the course.
FYI: course is 7 weeks long, ha!
Isaac and I will be working on this project and I will write more about this as we flush out the details.
___
Managing Innovation: Mod 4 2007
Vanderbilt Owen Graduate School of Management
Professor Dave Owens: Bio | Personal Site
Class Blog
Technorati Tags: owens - owen - vanderbilt - innovation - sharran - srivatsaa - owenbloggers - mba
Turkey Sub Chris is visiting with his camera... so we decided to have a balllz skilllz challlenge... which of course led to my first YouTube video.
BUFUMUFU has the rhythm of the samba...
The Nashville Predators beat the Calgary Flames 6-3 today at the Gaylord Entertainment Center in Nashville. We were there!
See Predators Game Highlights in Video here.
Owen is on Spring Break this week... and the weather today?
70+ baby - you gotta love Nashville. The official statement from AccuWeather.com reads, "Delightful with periods of clouds and sunshine."
Here are some pictures from the game...
Chris visiting from Minneapolis. He made Turkey Sub. (This video is a must see!)
Me, Chris, Ming... or should I say Ming, Chris and I :-)
High School Band (look closely) - there was this little kid who was barely as tall as...
Predators are rockin'
Gealita was lovin' the funnel cakes
Just incase you don't know what the Turkey Sub is...
Technorati Tags: predators - nashville - tennessee - hockey - owen - vanderbilt - sharran - srivatsaa - owenbloggers
Owen Student Body President Chris Baxley is sandboarding on the dunes of Dubai. Chris, along with 23 other students from Owen and the Vanderbilt Divinity School, is on a spring break trip to India (thru Dubai) on the Project Pyramid: Global Poverty Alleviation trip.
Technorati Tags: project pyramid - sharran - srivatsaa - dubai
Are Macs just for hipster designers? Not at all! Maybe you've wanted to switch to a Mac, but you were afraid it wouldn't work with your Office files. Maybe you can't convince your parents they won't lose their vacation photos. Maybe your boss thinks Macs are toys not meant for serious adults. For all those cases, here are 42 reasons that normal people can switch to Macs.
They're compatible. Right out the box, Macs and PCs use the same:
1. Wifi. Wireless Internet works the same with Macs and PCs.
2. Internet. The vast majority of web sites work on both systems.
3. E-mail. Every form of e-mail system (except Microsoft Exchange systems) works fine on Macs. The last couple of versions of the Mac operating system, OS X, support Exchange as well, using this setup.
4. MP3 files. This is the most common form of music files. (WAV files work too. For other forms, see below.)
5. DVDs and CDs. Watch the same movies, listen to the same albums.
6. MPG files. This is a popular video format.
7. ZIP files. Mac has an unzipper just like WinZip for these compressed files.
8. PDF files. Love 'em or hate 'em, you can use 'em.
9. Image files. All your bmp, jpg, gif and png files are just fine.
10. MOV files, a video format that's popular on the web, will work better than ever.
With a little software, Macs can run:
1. WMA and WMV files. These "Windows-only" music and video files work after installing Windows Media for Mac.
2. AVI files. These work best on VLC, a media player that can handle nearly every file on Windows or OS X. It's the only program you need for movies.
3. Office files (.doc, .xls, etc.). Just buy Microsoft Office as you would on a PC.
4. Photoshop files. Just, um, buy Photoshop.
5. Windows. Yep. You can install Windows and move any files and programs that still won't work on your Mac.
Dig these nifty programs:
1. Macs come with iPhoto, iMovie, and iTunes to handle your photos, movies and music in a friendlier way than the clunky systems on Windows. Of course, if you like files and folders (so do I!) you can keep handling your media that way.
2. Adium combines AIM, Yahoo IM, Google Talk, and a bundle of other instant messaging programs. It's slick, friendly, and customizable.
3. Firefox is a great internet browser for Windows and Mac. (You might also like the Mac's normal browser, Safari.)
4. Dashboard widgets are little programlets that can display the weather, an inbox, the white pages, flight info, how well your computer's doing, when Heroes is on next, and plenty of other information.
5. Quicksilver lets you start any program or open any file on your system by hitting a few keys (instead of digging through a programs folder or start menu).
6. Podworks lets you download music from an iPod to a Mac.
7. This is really just a super-useful feature that comes with OS X. Press apple-shift-4 to take a partial screenshot, just capturing the part of the screen you want. You drag and click, OS X drops the file onto your desktop. It's a great way to clip from pictures or show someone what's happening on your screen.
8. And there's so much more, on lists like this and this and this and this.
Isn't it nice when things just work?
1. The OS X operating system has four hotkeys that show your desktop, all your open programs, all the windows in one program, or your Dashboard widgets.
2. When you're watching a video and you use those hotkeys or minimize the video, it keeps playing on screen. Sweet.
3. Say you're moving some episodes of Heroes to a folder within a folder. If you click and drag them over, say, a folder marked "TV Shows," you can hold them there and "TV Shows" will open, so you can drag the files over to "Heroes." This way you don't have to crawl around selecting and re-selecting.
4. No draggable edges on your windows means that the edges of your programs are clickable. What does this do? Well, you can slide your mouse to the edge of the screen and use the scroll bar without accidentally shrinking the window instead.
5. How much power is left in your Mac laptop? Don't turn it on, just press the button on the case and watch the power meter light up.
6. Your software and hardware will feel beautiful. Macs don't have dangling hooks; the clips are embedded inside the laptops instead of sticking out; the power cords on the new models have that famous magnetic connection, so if you trip on the cord, it pulls out instead of dragging the Mac onto the floor.
7. None of those #$@%^ pop-up bubbles that tell you the same thing over and over.
No crashes.
1. Windows takes so much work just to keep it running. But Macs don't take maintenance. Viruses? Not much of a problem.
2. Defragging? Forget it.
3. Disk repair? Well, if you managed to whack this machine so hard that the built-in motion sensor didn't save your hard drive...
4. It's hard to crash a Mac. I drive my computers hard, so I made Windows crash every few weeks for years. I've owned a Mac for a year, and it's crashed once.
Stuff really does hook up easily.
1. Cameras and camcorders, which are increasingly shipped as plug-n-play since no one really needs the dorky software that comes with them, work smoothly with Macs. (I personally recommend this line of camcorders from Sanyo.)
2. External hard drives are a breeze too. Just make sure the box doesn't say "Windows only." Most, such as the My Book, work smoothly with Macs.
3. Scroll areas on trackpads? Ew. Those get in the way unless you stare at your trackpad as you use it. That's why Apple's laptops scroll when you drag two fingers, no matter where on the trackpad you are.
4. I'll admit one thing: It's hard for a geek to find a good Mac mouse. If you're not a fan of Apple's standard-issue Mighty Mouse, spring for this nifty Logitech mouse. Even if you just use your computer to surf the web, you'll love the extra two buttons that save you from finding the "back" and "forward" keys.
All the other Mac users will love you.
1. When you're sharing an Internet connection, they'll mooch your iTunes playlist. But that's fine; they can only listen when you let them.
2. They'll want to share tips.
3. They'll have stories to tell.
4. They may get smug about it. Please don't encourage them; just gently tell them the truth: You're a normal person.
42 Reasons Normal People Can Switch to Macs - Link to original article here
No rhythm of the samba!
This morning I spoke with Erin and Ria, Owen students on the Project Pyramid trip in Hyderabad (India), through Apple iChat. The blog entries and pictures from the students in India have made me miss India so much.
The OwenBloggers Executive Board had its first virtual meeting today on Apple iChat. I am proud of the OwenBloggers team... with support from Owen we have been able to build this into a community that ties many generations together... prospective students, accepted students, current students, alumni and even the dean... kinda.
Kudos to Isaac for building in the OwenBloggers Special Projects Section by creating platforms for Owen in China and partnering with Project Pyramid to showcase their India trip.
We are working on a lot of great stuff... stay tuned to the "Updates" section of OwenBloggers.com site
Macs have the rhythm of the samba...
Technorati Tags: owen - vandy - owenbloggers - owen bloggers - vanderbilt - sharran - srivatsaa
The Vanderbilt MBA students are going to be traveling for the holidays and are coming to a Starbucks (or another location where you can get a tasty beverage) near you. This will be a great opportunity to connect with students 1-on-1 and talk about the Vanderbilt MBA experience.... oh, and the Venti White Chocolate Mocha is on us! I will be organizing a coffee break in the San Francisco Bay Area. Dates for each event will be announced very soon...
Leave a comment below or send us an email owenbloggers@gmail.com if you are interested in attending any of Coffee Breaks... and let us know if you have any specific questions. If you are in the US and don't see your city below, please let us know and we will shake the building up to get someone to you! :-)
Atlanta
Austin
Blacksburg, VA
Boston
Buffalo, NY
Chicago
Cincinnati
Cleveland
Columbus, OH
Dallas
Denver
Florida - East Coast
Hartford, CT
Honolulu
Houston
Indianapolis
Los Angeles
Louisville
Memphis
Michigan
Minneapolis
Minnesota
Nashville
New Jersey
New York City
New Orleans
Philadelphia
Pittsburgh
Portland, OR
Sacramento, CA
Salt Lake City
San Francisco
St. Louis
Tampa, FL
Washington DC
India
New Delhi
Surat
Mumbai
Chandigarh
Technorati Tags: owen - vanderbilt - vandy - mba - vanderbilt owen - sharran - mba - owen bloggers - owenbloggers
This is to all blog readers especially alumni, recruiters, and prospective students... we want to thank you for your readership and your feedback (comments and emails to us)
Prospective Students: Please post comments on the blogs or email us... we probably know exactly how you are feeling right about now!
Alumni: We would love to hear from you and get your advice on how can take these blogs to the next level
Recruiters: We know a lot of sharp, bright, extremely well-qualified MBAs looking for internships and full-time positions ;-) We would love to hear about your experience on our blogs and any comments that you might have.
Fellow Bloggers: We (heart) you!
Finals start tomorrow!
Technorati Tags: Vanderbilt - owenbloggers - owen bloggers - owen - vandy - vanderbilt mba - sharran
You will hear the bskool buzzwords like networking, relationship management, working the rolodex etc. but my favorite part is about Owen is the people that are at the school everyday... students, faculty, and administration.
Keip-dawg is one of my favorite people at Owen... she is awesome. Everyone knows Keip-dawgger and its super fun to hang out with her and her lovely puppy, Maddie. Keip hangs out with the students at school, supports student events, interfaces with faculty, and always has a dazzling smile on her face. She is the best second and third-hand compliment-giver-person in the world... it really shows her warmth and care.
Kristin was recently published as well, you can read her article here. Her next piece is going to be on the OwenBloggers!
Technorati Tags: owen - kristin - keiper - sharran - vandy - vanderbilt - mba - healthcare mba - healthcare
The last thing I should be doing right now is blogging... finals start a week from today and surprisingly Owen is empty... there were seven people in the library today, and I was one of the lucky ones to be in a room all day. I cannot even begin to explain how much there is to study... sometimes I am glad that there is only one mod worth of stuff to review, then I remember that we have packed an entire semester's worth of learning into seven weeks... wow, this is nuts.
But even if I had all the time in the world, I could not make a video like this one... nice job Chris!
Technorati Tags: vandy - owen - mba - vanderbilt - sharran - cljazzy - karate-kid
I wish Owen students would blog more... even Dean Bradford is blogging! Investment Banks advise aspiring i-Bankers to refrain from blogging for various reasons but there is no reason for other business school students not to blog. The Internet is such a wonderful medium to share stories and successes... I wish more students would blog, set up personal websites, play with videos on YouTube and Google Video and find new ways to create and develop content that showcases their talents and experiences.
Technorati Tags: owen - vandy - vanderbilt - blog - sharran - mba
I miss my friends... these are the guys who I went to college with, played tennis with, studied with (not you Rob), even worked with... and I miss them because they have always been there for me.
Right to Left: Rob "Bert" Gerdts, Randy "Smack" Mack, Super Ninja, Adam "Wabi" Wolkenhauer, and Chris "Jazzy" Jasper (whoa... right to left? didn't that mess you up? normally everyone goes left to right and it seems so easy... you easily conditioned lump of carbon!)
And yes, the turkey sub was co-invented by Jazzy, that way.
Technorati Tags: turkey sub - sharran - wabi
Somehow my ability to deliver quality content (ha!) seems to be in the wee hours of the morning. Around 10 weeks ago, OwenBloggers.com was just and idea and Ike and I were talking about how great it has been to see an idea develop into an online community dedicated to bringing transparency to the aura of exclusivity that surrounds a b-school education.
We have been working hard behind the scenes (I love saying that because there is no way you can check up on me!) and I am excited to share some wonderful news with you.
I had the opportunity to connect with Susan Strayer last week. Susan is a second year MBA student at Owen, consultant, business and HR Professional, career strategy expert, author of two books... and now an OwenBlogger! The first year of b-school is tough enough, and Susan was able to balance that and finish her second book during her first year in business school. We are excited to have Susan on our team!
All funk and tons of spunk, Hwee Chong, a second year MBA student from Malaysia has joined OwenBloggers! Hwee has had a successful career as a CPA and is studying Marketing at Owen. She was an intern at Intel last summer, and she will bring the Intel spirit and give you the "Owen Inside!"
Nat Robinson loves everything that is far away... second year MBA student and world traveler Nat has joined the OwenBloggers team. A finance maestro at Owen, Nat spent his summer as an intern in China and is gearing up for a spring break trip to India as a part of the "Project Pyramid" class to use business to solve poverty. Welcome Nat!
Jose is drawing some loyal Spanish readership.... and we are excited to introduce Merry Li who has joined the OwenBloggers team to start writing in Chinese and Yujin Yu who will be our resident Korean blogger. All the foreign language blogs will have on-demand translation to english as well (Thanks Ike!)
Wait, there's more! We are in the process of getting a logo for OwenBloggers.com... so be on the lookout for the new logo for your favorite business school blog. I am sure we will take t-shirt orders in time for Christmas gift shopping!
Now do you believe me when I say that we have been working our buns off behind the scenes? ;-)
Ummm and someone needs to do something to Hawaiianize this city... I have been freezing my bottom off lately. Wow... look at what it is like on Maui (Lahaina, I should have learned about opportunity cost before I came to Owen.
Technorati Tags: owenbloggers - owen - vanderbilt - sharran - mba
I have been up for about thirty six hours straight and my brain is not sharp enough to even hit the "I am feeling lucky" button on Google. I have tried all kinds of sleep-killers such as White Chocolate Mocha, Lettuce, Sprite, and Yogurt covered raisins but nothing seems to be working right now.
Its Thursday already so let me give you the update on the Owen-work-week in haphazard order (well I could organize it chronologically for Sam but Justin might appreciate the context-insensitive jumps from subject to subject as there is not much neural activity right now... and what is left is targeted at forcing me to close my eyes and sink into this atrociously comfortable chair in the library.
There is a higher purpose ZZZzzzzzzzz.......
Technorati Tags: Owen Graduate School of Management - Vanderbilt University - Vanderbilt Owen - sharran - tivo
I stole this picture from Gizmodo but I must admit that I agree with most of it. Maybe I will draw another one and put this to shame! But the reason I put this up is because I have found a strange inner feeling - the feeling to celebrate by getting a new gadget. Frankly I don't have any desire for a new gadget except for the iPod Nano and the matching Nike's. Well, I also would like one of those awesome plasma computer monitors but since I am glued to my laptop screen all day that would not be a practical gift.
Going back to my wanting a gadget to celebrate... our Mod 1 grades came out today and just as Mom said, it was a reflection of all the hard work. To explain it in statistical terms, if we did a regression with a bunch of predictors that determined my vowel filled transcript, I think the Work_Tail_Off predictor will have a T-Ratio > 1. All I did was work my tail off... and I have to thank a few people who really got me through this Mod...
Ikeomania: Ike spent more time with me than with his newly married wife. And I must say Kim is so efffen cool. Ike proofed my papers, helped me with homework, and called me out when I was being a jackass.
Sammy: Although Sammy and I are as different as they come, I really appreciate all that Sam did to help me become a better student... a better writer, a better thinker and a better group member. Sam is a great writer... and Sam can write an intro to anything.... I don't know how, it could be about how the relate marshmallows to Seven of Nine's regeneration chamber and Sam could write the perfect intro.... thank you Sam. Now only if we could get Claudia out more... ;-)
Kat: I don't know what we would all do without Kat. She is awesome. Kat somehow makes me a better me, and that makes me a better me. I am happy when Kat is around, and I think that pretty much summarizes it.
Asif: No matter what the situation, Asif's ability to break it down and put it back together impresses me. Everyone studies and works differently, and Asif and I seem to have similar objectives but approach b-school in entirely different ways. Asif's ability to articulate and his soft-spoken nature is a pleasure to have around.
Tony: Tony makes life so fun. Tony can talk about anything and make it fun and sometimes, that's all you need.
There are other people, but they all don't have blogs and no easy way to reference them... so I will recognize them differently. (hint: video clips coming soon!)
Its 2am on the weekend before Mod 2 and I still have my business plan to finish. Wow, the party never ends.
Technorati Tags: Owen Graduate School of Management - Vanderbilt - MBA - Vanderbilt University
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