"The things that make good headlines attract our attention because they are on the surface of the stream of life, and they distract our attention from the slower, impalpable, imponderable movements that work below the surface and penetrate to the depths. But of course it is really these deeper, slower movements that, in the end, make history, and it is they that stand out huge in retrospect, when the sensational passing events have dwindled, in perspective, to their true proportions." -- Arnold Toynbee (1889-1975), British Historian.

[Mar 9, 2009] Final Evaluation Complete

All the components of this course have now been evaluated. Congratulations to the best performers:

[Mar 9, 2009] End-Term Examination Evaluated

Overall Class Performance Report			The following students secured A+ Amrit (67), Ashwin (71), Nishith (94), and Sumit (114). Congratulations!
Marks	Grade	Students
29, 30	A+	4
25, 26, 27, 28	A	24
21, 22, 23, 24	B+	30
17, 18, 19, 20	B	43
13, 14, 15, 16	C+	18
9, 10, 11, 12	C	7
5, 6, 7, 8	D+	1
1, 2, 3, 4	D	0
0	F	0
	Total	127*

* Note. One FPM student left the programme.

[Feb 22, 2009] Summary of CompXmExaminationGuide.pdf

[Feb 20, 2009] ARTICLE: Why Some Companies Are Making the Wrong Moves (PDF, 77 kB)

[Feb 20, 2009] Some clarification about "Final Score Ranking"

Reports  >  Student  >  Success Measures -- Final Score Ranking

The Overall Scoring shows each team's performance based on their individual criteria, allowing an "across the board" comparison. Final Score Ranking calculations use a three-step process:

STEP 1: The system determines a raw score for each category:

Generally, each team gets 1 point for itself and 1 point for each inactive team -- however, teams with negative results could fall beneath this level.
Teams get an additional point for each active team they beat.
There will be times when the first and second place team for a category are very close. Nevertheless, the first place team will always receive a score of 6 and the second place team a score of 5.

STEP 2: The system creates an adjusted score for each category by multiplying the team's raw score by its success measurement weight. For example, if Andrews' ROE weight were 12%, and if it were first in that category (scoring 6 raw points), it would receive 0.72 points.

STEP 3: The adjusted scores for each category are added together. The resulting score will always be between 1 and 6.

[Feb 2, 2009] Capstone Competition Round

The competition round starts from 4:30 a.m. on 3-Feb-2009 (Indian Standard Time)

S C H E D U L E
. . .

Friday, 20-Feb (5:30 a.m.) Round 8 will get processed
Friday, 20-Feb (LAST CLASS) Discussion

[Jan 25, 2009] Capstone Practice Rounds

S C H E D U L E

26-Jan (5.30 a.m.) Start practice round 1

. . .

On 2-Feb, we will meet in class to discuss our experience and learning from the practice rounds. Thereafter, we will start the competition rounds.

[Jan 7, 2009] Quiz 1 Evaluated

Overall Class Performance Report			The following students secured A+ Arun (08), Chaitali (12), Pankaj (29), Subhra (54), Amandeep (65), Ashwin (71), Naveen (79), Neha (90), Richa (99), Satya (Padhiary) (105), Sourav (110), and Sumeshwer (113). Congratulations!
Marks	Grade	Students
36-40	A+	12
31-35	A	77
26-30	B+	33
21-25	B	3
16-20	C+	3
11-15	C	0
6-10	D+	0
1-5	D	0
0	F	0
	Total	128

[Jan 6, 2009] The Googlization of Everything

"The real brilliance of Google is the ability to monetize search through AdSense. This company uncovered the relationship between advertising and information. The old way of advertising had no direct interaction with the audience. But now the audience can click. So suddenly advertising is not a sales pitch. It's a response to an expression of intent. This form of advertising is narrowcast, personalized. It has very different properties than the old."

[Jan 1, 2009] Introduction to CapstoneŽ

Creation of a sensor industry -- six competing companies	Possible generic strategies -- developing strategic positions	Taking strategic and operational decisions
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[Dec 30, 2008] Instructions to Register for CapstoneŽ on the Web

First note down your Industry ID and Team name from this page > Industries and Teams and then follow the instructions given below:

1) Please visit http://www.capsim.com/ -- You would see the "Register" button; please click on it. Thereafter, please click on "I Agree." Then enter your Industry ID (C28855 or C29043 or C28857 or C28858). Please provide your last name/first name, e-mail, UserID/password, and other details.

Remember your UserID/password.

2) Once you are done, please visit http://www.capsim.com/ and login with your UserID/password. Then, click on your Industry ID (C28855 or C29043 or C28857 or C28858).

3) Please click on "Getting Started." You will now see "Form a Company." Please click on it and then join your company (i.e., your Team).

Go through the enitre menu under "Getting Started."

4) Please download "Student Guide PDF" from under "Help" and go through that in detail. Especially all the TIPS that are scattered across various pages of the Guide.

5) Please complete "Tutorials" under "Help."

6) Please click on "Downloads." Here you will be able to download "Capstone.xls" Excel document. Once you have the document on your machine, please launch it. To begin, open Capstone.xls and enable macros. In the pop-up menu, choose the option, "The Rehearsal Simulation" (choice #2). Then enter your UserID and password. A coach will pop up to guide you through the rehearsal rounds. Just follow the coach. Once you have completed the Rehearsal Simulation Rounds, please close Capstone.xls. It will be nice if you did Rehearsal Simulation Rounds as many times as you can.

Rehearsal simulation rounds give a hands-on introduction to the functional areas of the simulation. At the end, you should have an understanding of the decisions required in each functional area (Research & Development, Marketing, Production, and Finance), and the interactions among them.

I would really appreciate if you completed all the Tutorials and did the rehearsal rounds of the simulation. It will enhance the level of brainstorming and learning during the actual simulation.

Primarily, at this stage, you as a group may want to brainstorm on following:

What is the purpose of running your business? ("homework" > success measures)
Which market segments will you serve or not serve?
Which strategy you would adopt for a specific market segment? (from the six basic strategies)

Finally, to summarise, it will indeed be great if you did the following:

* Tutorials, under Help
* Rehearsal rounds of the simulation
* Completed reading the "Student Guide PDF"

[Dec 29, 2008] Strategic decisions --

1. affect long-term direction of the organisation
2. achieve some advantage for the organisation
3. alter the scope of the organisation's activities
4. match the activities of the organisation to the changing environment
5. stretch resources or competences to create or capitalise on an opportunity
6. have major resource implications
7. set off a wave of operational decisions
8. are affected by values and expectations of stakeholders

[Dec 23, 2008] Introduction

For the first session (on Dec 24, 2008), we shall discuss how organisations are experiencing and coping with the so-called "downturn" -- please read anything you find interesting, including newspaper articles such as the following:

(a) ET Roundtable: Tackling the downturn
http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/News_by_Industry/ET_Roundtable_Tackling_downturn/articleshow/3876749.cms
(b) Slowdown teaches new work culture to Indian firms -- The Economic Times [ET], Dec 22, 2008
(c) India Inc beats slowdown blues, fires on all cylinders
http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/articleshow/3821037.cms
(d) Jewellery sales in India buck downturn
http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/Gold_sales_buck_downturn/rssarticleshow/3833837.cms
(e) Luxury brands: In a downturn, go back to basics
http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/Brand_Equity_/Luxury_brands_In_a_downturn_go_back_to_basics/articleshow/3816191.cms
(f) Indian IT sector sees only brief downturn pain
http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/Infotech/ITeS/Indian_IT_sector_sees_only_brief_downturn_pain/rssarticleshow/3738008.cms
(g) Market: Upside to downturn
http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/News/News_By_Industry/Services/Advertising/Market_Upside_to_downturn/articleshow/3194659.cms