Data Analysis: Aarmbh
I think the first time where I got a whiff that I was in a management course was on Sunday (Yes we have classes on Sunday). It was a class on Data analysis using XL……. At first I thought to myself why the hell you need excel to analyze data…….. In my family business I was used to the idea of taking a magnifying glass and analyzing the data….. Each family member would come with their analysis and the analysis would be the topic of discussion during Sunday’s lunch……

Analyzing data was something I grew up to……. The analogies the professor gave me an insight to a domain outside the family business…… One of the reasons for me to do an MBA was to get knowledge or an insight in completely different domain (Probably one of the challenges set to myself). All the things he told in class (besides showing how powerful Microsoft Excel is) had one common thread, how a person should use his common sense (probably one of the most uncommon things going around these days)…… Was it so hard to use ones common sense? Does someone have to give us analogies or stories to open the part of the brain which uses common sense? I think common sense is in all of us it is just that we decide not to use it or some of us don’t have it!!!! Anyways we had a surprise Frequent Class Quiz (FCQ) I call it Fucked up class quiz!!!!! Everyone failed miserably (Obviously there were a few who did well)…. Then came the big one a big assignment…… It was a simple case where we were given that a new toll bridge had been constructed and we had to calculate when it the company collecting toll would break even…… Everyone went crazy trying to estimate how the cars would increase year after year or how to increase the toll every year…….. When this assignment was announced it was also told to us that we have to prepare for a cultural event called Aarmbh….. Everyone was so mind raped during the event as it was one day before the submission of the assignment…… We put up such a bad show that the entire senior batch and faculty thought that we were one of the worst batches to enter the institute…….
The Data Analysis professor had told us during his first class that it will be only natural for a person to fight with the authorities during the first semester…… It happened that night one of the girls of the batch fought with the person who looked after the computer lab…….. What I learnt was that one should not get his/her mind agitated, once that happens you lost the battle (something I need to practice myself).
The learning from the assignment… no one used their common sense. A person did not need to forecast the increase in toll or cars….. but think of debt swapping……