October was yet another month filled with activities on the campus. And it was all the more special for us as we all became 50% MBAs! It was a corner stone in our stay at the ISB. And with the exchange students coming on campus, the mood has been upbeat!

Following were the key activities that happened in October:

Welcoming the Exchange Students
We gave a warm welcome to the exchange students visiting the ISB by throwing a hookah party. And yes, the venue was once again the Lounge of ’08. More importantly, each of the students went through the ritualistic round of dunking and was promptly equipped with the usual paraphernalia – section T shirt, section slogan and the section spirit! With ISB looking so much more multi cultural since they came, the bonding is definitely getting stronger (no pun intended!).

Diwali Celebration
Diwali was celebrated with a bang – literally speaking! After an evening full of nice Indian delicacies, we all played a couple of rounds of Housie. It was followed by a long round of cracker bursting. A ‘Fab India’ outlet was organised to give an opportunity to the otherwise busy ISBian to buy some traditional attire and dress up to the occasion.

Dandiya Night
The Atrium reverberated to the sound of beautiful dandiya tracks and everybody danced in full flow till 2 in the night. For more about the celebration read on at http://www.isb.edu/media/UsrSiteNewsMgmt.aspx?topicid=462

Section C ‘3.3’ Party
And the event of the month was the historic Section C ‘3.3 party’. Yes, Section C created history by playing along with Professor Mudit Kapoor’s experiment and managed to pull through an average grade of 3.3 for the GSBC mid term by assigning themselves grades on their own. In return, Section C did not have to take the GSBC mid term exam! It was a superb show of team spirit where Sec C-iites showed their dedication towards the common (and noble!) cause of avoiding yet another exam. Professor Mudit Kapoor also acknowledged the commendable and unexpected job done by Section C!


And the 4-Ps Changed as the Core terms ended!!
The 4Ps - product, price, place and promotion – were one of the first frameworks that we learnt here at the ISB. And for a couple on months, we religiously tried to use it everywhere – in our exams to our daily discussions to the business plan to the case study competition. And we were happy and confident that we had learnt something that would stick with us in these ever changing times.

Well, not quite. It was only a matter of few months when things changed. And now, if you ask any random student what does 4-Ps remind him or her of, the answer would invariably be - pre placement talks, pre placement offer, preparation for interview and perspiration – even more.

“Life would be much more relaxed once the core terms end”, said an alum. And we were bovine enough to take it at face value. And we desperately waited for the core terms to indeed end. Never did we know that academics might not remain as critical as they were till Term 4, but this new avatar of the 4-Ps framework would only make life more Puzzling.

With the global economy going through turbulent times, these Ps are becoming all the more critical. And all of us now look forward to the time when we can get back to applying what we originally learnt – product, price……