Finally seeing light at the end of the tunnel....

December 5th and 6th we had our final week end class for 3rd semester. This week end is international project presentation week.

As I mentioned before our classmates analyzed wide verity of topics. Some of the topics covered in the international projects are energy, health care, finance, travel, vacation and leisure.

Based on the presentation, I could see that teams considered every thing from political environment, culture of the people, credit risk and anything relevant to business to conclude whether the proposed business model is feasible or not.

Previous weekend in Palisades, we had an international project trip photo presentation in the eBar. It was lot of fun watching everyone's trip photos in the big screen.

Now that there is only one semester left, every one agreed in our class that they can see the light at the end of the tunnel. Some of my classmates are excited and looking forward to complete the course in five months. Some of them are already worried about leaving the school in 5 months and missing Palisades, eBar and Saturday night dinners in restaurants around Palisades.

Our residency weekend for fourth semester starts in four weeks (2nd week of January) in Ithaca. Last three trips to Ithaca were lot of work and lot of fun too. Ithaca is my kind of place, it is very beautiful. Mountains, water falls, tall trees and winding rivers, I can go on and on.

During 3rd residency, we had a party at Dean Joe Thomas's house. His house is on the river facing west. We watched the sunset sitting on his deck. I could still remember the amazing view of sunset from the mountain across the river and the water reflecting like gold from evening sun. Mrs. Thomas is very good host. She shared lot of little fun story about the house and their experience in Ithaca.

We received the 4th residency course materials during the last class weekend. We already have to complete three deliverables before Jan 10th. The third semester leadership development course also has one final deliverable before the holidays. After the first semester, you get use to all these deliverables and you know how much time you need to spend and when. Even though these deliverables lingers back of your mind, it no longer creates anxiety.

It is a holiday season. Wish you all very happy holidays.

I will try to post another blog before New Year if time permits.
If not, Wish you all a very happy and successful new year 2010.


Looking forward to see you all in my blog soon

Best regards,
Patham

Our international project trip

October is an international project travel month for EMBA 2010. Most of our classmates travelled directly from Palisades right after international finance final and couple of teams travelled week after. Some of the projects taken by our classmates are very impressive and relevant to current pressing world issues. One of such project is a smart grid project which is in the news multiple times this month. Some of you may know, President Obama’s administration announced to spend 3.7 billion stimulus money on the smart grid technology.

Our team also travelled the same day after the international finance finals to India. It was a long 15 hours direct flight from Newark, NJ to Delhi, India. After the long flight, we had the first meal at a roadside Dhaba somewhere in between Delhi and Chandigarh highway. The food was delicious. After the meal I realized that how much I missed those Indian spices. Each trip to India, I could see the country's infrastructure is slowly but studiedly improving. Our blackberry worked everywhere, highways are getting better and the wireless networks are amazing. Other than numerous Indian television networks most of the international networks are also available now (like CNN, CNBC, Bloomberg and all other premium movie channels). Even though roads are improving, it is still long way to go.

Part of our project, we interviewed several industry leaders and CEOs to understand the potential of outsourcing pharmacovigilance to India. Even though we live in the electronic communication world, still there is no replacement for face to face meetings. During these meetings, we are able to understand strategy and vision of individual CEOs. For the interview and the presentation, we used material from Vithala Rao's marketing course, advance business strategy course and other finance papers.

After these meetings, we had some time to visit family and friends. October is holiday time in India and the festival is called Diwali (Festival of light). It is a best time to visit family and friends. I had been living aboard for more than 15 years now. We rarely get time to visit family during festival time because of kid's school schedule and work. I really enjoyed this trip and missed my family back in USA.

Our trip was great success. All meetings went beyond our expectation and the information collected in these meetings are very useful. After a useful trip and Diwali celebrations, we are back in US and now it is time to focus on final deliverables for the third semester. There is only three more weekend classes left in this semester and the volume of deliverable from now to end of semester are so many. I could see myself sitting in long meetings with team mates and studying long hours in the next three to four weeks.

Fall is a wonderful time of the year, the trees are beautiful with multiple colors and the holiday season is around the corner.

Good luck with everything. See you all in couple of weeks in my blog.

Thanks
Patham

Welcome Patham Muthuvelayutham

I grew up in a small town located in south Indian state of Tamil Nadu. I received both my Bachelor and Masters in computer science from Bharathidasan University – Bishop Heber College. My professional life started 18+ years back as a programmer in a manufacturing company in Chennai, India and had an opportunity to work with software companies, insurance companies and major financial firms. Currently working in JPMorgan Chase global derivative services division as an executive director and managing work force around the world.

Working in Wall Street during this (2008-2009) financial turmoil is challenging, however the experience and knowledge gained during this crisis is valuable and it will prepare you for life. I always believe in education and got several professional certifications like PMP during these past 18 years. In order to expedite my growth in corporate ladder, I realized that I need a good business degree from a well recognized university. It has been little more than a year with Cornell EMBA program and it is an eye opener for me. The courses taught part of this program so far are very valuable and the concepts learnt in this program can be used immediately on the job. Attending an MBA program with a full time job, family and two kids is demanding. I am very thankful to my wife and kids for working around my busy schedule between work and school.