Globonomics!

IIFT EMIB 2004 - 2006 (Source: http://www.iift.edu)

It’s been exactly five long years since I joined for my EMIB (Executive Masters in International business) from the prestigious Indian Institute of Foreign Trade (IIFT), New Delhi! I joined it on 9th August 2004. Time flies! But can say for sure that this degree has been my best investment made on education till date. With zero opportunity cost (it was held only on weekends – non stop for one and a half years) and the schedule was honestly grueling with no respite and kept us busy on weekdays with assignments, quizzes every weekend, mid-term exams, classes and of course, the end terms. Read the rest of this entry »

A Rolodex

With my burgeoning business level contacts I have managed to so carefully develop over the years, I wanted a Rolodex desperately to store all my business card contacts and have been researching a lot on the Internet. I have a powerful contact list on my LinkedIn as well but I still am a firm believer that the old fashioned way of business cards is key to successful business relationship building. Read the rest of this entry »

It’s been a long time since I blogged about this endeavor I have undertaken.

I have to say that I found this course more demanding than what I envisaged. I had to postpone taking up my examinations to Jan 2010 due to time constraints I faced in balancing both my studies at NLSIU and my work schedule that has become hectic. I had 4 papers and 1 viva voce that I will take up in January 2010. Read the rest of this entry »

It appears this correlation appears to be quite high. The last economic crisis hit in 2001 with the dot com and telecom bubble burst and that was instantly followed by 9/11 and then the SARS crisis in South East Asia and the Anthrax cases in USA. Read the rest of this entry »

Congratulations to Ross Brawn. The ex-bosses of this team back at Japan must be kicking themselves that they were so near yet so far from their incorrect decision in withdrawing from F1 a tad early after all the hardwork!

But, nothing can be taken away from Ross Brawn and the way he interpreted the rules for the 2009 season and even managed to rope in their first main sponsor, Sir. Richard Branson’s Virgin group!

Is the reduction in purchasing decisions/actual purchases made a good thing or a bad thing during recessionary times. While technically, India is still motoring along at over 5.5% GDP growth and is tipped to be the 2nd fastest growing economy in the world for 2009 (a miserable year for other world economies), should the discerning consumer cut down on his purchases of items? Read the rest of this entry »

http://www.berkshirehathaway.com/2008ar/2008ar.pdf

You can’t be mistaken when you are reading from the greatest punters in the Financial space – Warren Buffett. The Chairman’s letter to shareholders did not dissappoint me. It was filled with the usual interesting titbits on his insurance ops and business, the concept of insurance ‘float’, his profit margins, the stake he took in Goldman Sachs, GE etc. during the troubling cashflow starved times of late 2008, the usual caveats on on the derivatives business and the future of Berkshire! Oh btw – there was no mention of “fruit of the loom” as marketwatch said there would be!

As I have said many times before, I am a self proclaimed protege of Warren Buffett and anything he does interests me. His annual reports are always looked forward to by much ado and this time was especially different to get the views of the man who I consider is king in stock market investing alongwith with his mentor Ben Graham and associate, Charlie Munger.

I had blogged about retail opportunities in India about an year and a half ago here - http://ecofin.wordpress.com/2007/07/25/retail-opportunities-in-india/

It was not even an year ago that we witnessed almost every large corporate worth their salt open up stores in the name of “retail” looking for every opportunity to outwit and throw out your neighbourhood “kirana store”.

But, less than an year later, they have a sad story to tell. Read the rest of this entry »

He is the ultimate modern tech savvy Blackberry wielding Mr President of the United States of America. For once, I see genuine hope in the way the US will go about sorting out its financial mess and it’s foreign policies.

Checkout: http://www.whitehouse.gov

As with most Americans and millions from other countries and their citizens, I did not miss his swearing-in ceremony that was held in Washington DC on 20th January 2009 on television – that marked a new era in world history!

Good luck – President Obama. May god be with you in all your endeavours! We have hopes on you to revitalize the world and of course, with it, the United States and my country, India!

Brand Obama is sure flying high!

Sorry for not blogging about this earlier. I did not have access to broadband Internet at my home for the last 3 days and was working off my Blackberry for office related tasks.

While the economic and financial implications have been written about far and wide and everyone is busy reading the tea leaves, what are the lessons one take’s away from this? Before I begin my analysis, I would like to remind my readers that I had blogged on Corporate governance and sound accounting practices as early as 1.5 years ago on this very blog: http://ecofin.wordpress.com/2007/07/06/importance-of-accounting-for-the-business-world/ and on http://www.accounting101.wordpress.com AND on Corporate Ethics here: http://ecofin.wordpress.com/2006/11/16/corporate-ethics/ more than TWO years ago! Read the rest of this entry »