The Introspection Begins....

2006 has as I already mentioned been by far the best year of my life so far. Best because of serveral reasons:
1. I have spent a month or more in five countries
2. I have visited a total of 10 countries just this year
3. I successfully graduated from INSEAD (the one thing about the year I was certain about)
4. I found three jobs that I actually felt like doing
5. I spent quality time with Family and Fiancee despite the uncertainities 2006 held.
6. I have read about 7-8 books and have left a few unfinished (even if its short of my 'book a month' target)
7. I started exploring a journey least explored in my life till date: Entrepreneurship

But there is more to this year than the seven "bullets" above suggest. I for the first time feel like there is no pressure to climb to the top of a hill. Its like a year where I have reached atop a small hill-lock and can afford to enjoy the view before I move on. I think the impact of the decisions I made this year is to come for several years to follow. The industry, location and role choice I made had some surprising elements to myself as much as to people who knew me well. I made my trade-off decisions rather quickly. I was quite decisive and did not follow the crowd. I did discover my strengths in a pattern of qualitiative subjects like Organizational Behavior and managing my emotional intelligence.

And about the definition of achievement has been redefined. For over 5 years now, the one thing I wanted to do most was an MBA. When I think about it now, it feels like I have "crossed the river" and "crossing the river" itself cannot be a goal. So I am starting 2007 with a great degree of excitement about the year that got over. My priorities for 2007 are likely to be very different from what they were all these years. I have never thought beyond jobs (career occassionally) and travelling to far off exotic countries. 2005 and 2006 were two completely different years. When I started 2005, I knew exactly how life would look until mid 2006. The uncertainity was beyond 2006 June (INSEAD graduation). I was right on that, but the stress started around March 2006 and I am proud of the way I handled the year. I did make a couple of blunders on personal finance (right after some intensive finance training) but it was well worth it considering the family and relationship priorities that got handled because of the shift in priorities. I start 2007 knowing well a race has begun. A race in life where the peers are very different from the peers I had 2 years back. It is my MBA classmates. It is the guy who was a pilot that is doing investment banking today. The ex-nike employee who will run a football club starting this year. The steel company employee who switched to consulting and the guy who returned home to run his Father's business. 2011 is not far away. When I am quite jealous of some of those who have a head start in the race, I am glad I am not starting where some others are. But the question that bothers me most is not where we are starting the race but should I choose to run it. I am opening 2007 with an open mind about the race. I am undecided. However, knowing myself - running the race and not winning it will break my heart.

Running the race on my own terms (pretty much the way I handled INSEAD) will ensure both 'victory' and personal gratification. So I started brainstorming some ideas on what can possibly be my personal priorities over the years.

(1) Family
I think this one time, I am letting this take precedence over my "Professional life". This is not because I think professional life is unimportant but it is important to have a few cheerleaders for what i do. I also think, thanks to my exposure to things over the last few years, I am in a position of "power" within the family. I can infact leverage the newly created power to ensure that things remain happy in the family and the priorities are right. Of course the new addition to the family will be an asset (a wife) and integrating her in mine and integrating as well as I can within hers is going to be a key focus for the year to come.

(2) Finances
As unfashionable as this sounds, I think money management (although I have none now) is a key part of the way I look at 2007 and beyond. I need to start on a portfolio of investments (sigh b-school did get this into my head) including the entire spectrum of risk. It should consist atleast the following
(a) Emergency funds - Able to buy me expensive airtickets for "immediate travel home" and take care of home expenses atleast for 2 months without a job.
(b) Essential Investments Planning - A house (or more) and a dog and what it takes to keep them fed.
(c) Pension Allocation - Systematic investment plans with an annuity return after retirement. I hope also to allocate a large part of this to "Risky assets" atleast until I hit 40 after which I would move a large chunk to non-risk class.
(d) The Entrepreneurship Fund - Need to start allocating funds for possible investments in start-ups and any idea that is worth exploring. Who knows, maybe this will help me turn an angel one day.

Apart from this I want to make atleast a small "investment" in society. I want to set aside some money to help community organizations that I believe in. This indeed will give some meaning to life and will truly define "Running the race in my own terms".

(3) Active Professional Relationships
I think this is more important than ever. I seem to have more clarity on likes and dislikes than ever before and I am starting to get inspired by some thoughts of "never eat alone". Although I don't think I can ever be a super extrovert in every party I think I need to start building a network to which I can give and take. This is a weakness for me currently because I don't seem to "Plan" relationships or put in as much time as it deserves. Although I do end up with a reasonable number of friends and accomplices, I think I need to get a little more organized about it and the theme here is going to come from "Never eat alone".

(4) Self- Development
I think this is something I am good at and sustain. I have improved dramatically with the INSEAD exposure. I need to continue this aggressively. The key areas I need to continue are
(a) Credibility Building - Build credibility through research and rigor. Although I do research, my impatience does not allow rigor. This is a key area to improve over the year.
(b) Listen more - You can never listen "enough" and I seem to be missing this occassionally.
(c) Speak less - When you speak, you are not listening. So these are related :)
(d) Be Decisive - This is something I have heard from colleagues (Thank you 360 degree survey) that surprised me - I have portrayed myself as terribly indecisive. I need to start changing this. Let us see how this turns out.

Seasons Greetings Everyone !

I have been on flights for 24 hours thanks to bad connections and the noname city to noname city I am travelling. Its good to be home eating home-food and doing nothing. Well I don't think that will last for long. Anyways...life is good.

Happy Holidays Everyone !!!!!!!!!!!!!!

The Week that Went by ?

I think my review was so biased I even chased loyal wannabe away :). Anyways, I have generally been a little euphoric about things here. Partly because it is christmas season, partly because I know I will get to see family for a little while later this year and partly because I have taken stock of a year that has actually given me a lot more than the last three decades ! (Sigh I am old).

Last week was generally good. Caught up with a few INSEADers on the phone. I also got a chance to see some hot chicks in the Bologna Motor Show. Spent a ton more time than I am used to doing powerpoint presentations myself. Househunt is on as usual, no confirmations. Packing up gradually and lazily.

Consulting Career - A Balanced Review.

Let me try to do an objective assessment of consulting as a career as I have gone through the entire "Consider,Interesting,Not-for-me" Cycle. Luckily for me, I did go through it long before recruitment season started unlike for some who did it well after spending a couple of years in the career. Consulting is meant for a an elite group of individuals. In the words of a McKinsey senior partner it is "Individuals who are always aspiring to improve and are EXTREMELY INSECURE" about themselves. Consultants are also individuals with extreme political savvyness. They are "happy go lucky", eternal optimists, outside in (always receptive to feedback), and risk averse (on a relative note lets say compared to the other end of the spectrum of entrepreneurs). Now that is a lot of personality traits. As you rightly guessed that is a very detailed "Personality profile". Now there are a lot of individuals who disguise to be this person and make it into consulting. Please note that a business school like INSEAD has as many personality types as there are as there are MBA participants. So when the consultants come with a template to verify the number of people that fit, everyone squeezes and begs and acts attempting to fit the template. Very few naturally fit. The consulting companies add an "artificial barrier" to the individuals by adding "uniqueness factors" about themselves (That in reality is very marginal compared to the overall personality required) to make it even more difficult for the "aspirant". But some beat the system, some naturally fit in. Either ways, both parties are happy with the combination as the business model revolves around "churn".

So now, what does one have to take into account? Personality. If you have the personality, you will end up in consulting without trying (because in all liklihood others would hate you and you won't care about why mediocrity hates you). If you don't, you can try (if you are smart enough to get into a top school, it means you have already pretended enough ;).

Hope that answers your question wannabe. But remember I am an outsider talking about consulting. Thats a consultants job not mine :)

My first Picture Posting.

Although I have not been as big a geek as some people who do all sorts of things in their blogs with technology, I am starting to find a few things that make the blog entries special. One for certain is pictures. So I thought with this visit to one of the wonders I will begin posting pictures. Being in Europe, I think it is also my responsibility to enjoy it and preserve some memories and the beauty around Italy certainly has me trigger happy (not as much as olivier mineau from INSEAD) who seems to be busier clicking pictures than enjoying great moments but still ;-).

For pictures to be qualified to be a part of my blog, they need to be clicked with my own trigger happy fingers ! Lets see if that rule remains for the rest of my blog's life

Now to the trip, it was a day trip thanks to "Journe di immatriculation" or the day Virgin Mary conceived Jesus. I promptly saluted christianity by visiting the cathedral next to the leaning tower !

So to my weekend, it is a longer than usual weekend and the last real one perhaps before I pack my bags to leave the country for christmas. I really don't know when I will be back in Italy as I have some visa issues to address. So with the uncertainity looming in the air, I thought I will take a day off to get out of the small industrial town I live in. I was amazed how different the Italian regions are. I have so much to discover in this country.

I met a guy today at the breakfast table in the hotel I am staying in and he is from the "Indian" entity of my company. It was interesting to have some small talk ! He had visited Venice and felt the "place was not worth visiting alone" as it is too romantic. Well so I have one more reason to wait until next year to visit Venice. Venice, Florence and Rome certainly wait until the girl makes it here. They are her favorite places to visit as well. Maybe I will try doing trips to Milan and the alps the relatively "lower status" they enjoy in the tourist hierarchy of THIS country. (ok ski fans no offense, its just not a country that is popular for skiing).

Dinner with classmates !

A couple of classmates working for a consulting company in a city nearby are consulting with companies in town and were nice enough to drop a note. We had dinner together after their 9:30 close of business. It was kind of sad that they "never leave work before 9". It seems to be an important metric in the job ! Anyways, I was quite embarassed to talk about the fact that I actually got into work an hour late in the morning because of an appointment with a house broker and yet got out at 6 in Punto. Eeks, does that mean I never get a chance to be CEO of any company ever? I guess. But cruel ! It was fun how lives have taken different trajectories. I have noticed that the consultant is always a "scarce resource" within the company and the partners always are pushing you to come back and work in the middle of your vacations. I have heard this like 20 times so far in my INSEAD year and heard it one more time. I was however suprised to hear M2 (one of my ex-housemate consultant) was actually sticking to her vacation plans. Knowing her (and where she comes from), I would think atleast 5 senior partners have called her so far to tell her she should consider coming back from south america to work on a "Sexy project" they have. Atleast when I last heard, she hadn't returned.

But all that apart - I loooooooooooved being back with INSEADers. There is indeed a bond. It is even more amazing to hear the stories following graduation than it was when we were all together.

Else not much happenned. There was a party last weekend of my class in London and guess what ?????????? There were crazy people I knew who flew in from Dubai, Boston, and Some God knows where south east asian country :) !!http://picasaweb.google.com/dimitrios.stratakis/SaturdayParty
And all that for drinking and saying "how is it going in the "Abu Dhabi Office"????". I guess, network effect is starting to take effect :). I don't think I am thaaaat social. Maybe I will travel if there is a wedding or not, for drinking I have the local italian hangouts! But I will certainly set time aside for guys who care to say hello to me when they stop by my little town and there have been three in the last 2 months!

Drunk Drunk Drunk !

Hello All - I got drunk drunk drunk last night ! I was at a dinner with 59 italians all speaking Italian, so I decided to speak the INSEAD global language that works like a clock :). Well to be fair, I am starting to cherish the company of a great Italian friend who does not happen to work for Fiat but I know from INSEAD. He still calls me by the first half of my last name after knowing me for a month and a half and is one of the 5 nicest italians I have ever met. Ok, I am digressing as always with my rambling. Now back to the weekend.

Friday night we had a work party and I ended up seeing a lot more diversity than I can handle. The women outnumbered men in the party and I met a couple of interesting ones (French, German and Italian) but none to scare Ms. Fiancee who seems to be clicking from a unique geography (finally) around here :). (That clustermap has got me addicted). But that evening was fun. Had a few vodkas and had a very sociable evening and ended in bed. That was friday.

Saturday night had to be different. I ended up at the birthday party of three italian friends (college friends of "the" INSEAD friend) in a very very very italian place. We went to Bagna e Caoda. If you know that place, you probably know me as the ONLY "non-italian" that ever went there and got drunk on a couple of bottles of wine in a "Competition". Well the place had this spicy food I kind of enjoyed and oranges that I looooooved and finally wine that I kept drinking. I did not realize how strong the wine was until I first went to the bathroom about 2 hours into the long dinner. But the 80 house bottles finished and me and a newfound friend (who spoke no english and wine was our language of choice) ended up finishing EVERY half bottle on every TABLE in the small and cozy restaurant. (talk about politeness). Result? - Well I puked all around the restaurant, all around the "Residence" I am staying in and all around my room. Well I am cleaning most of the damage to the room myself today and don't have any hang-over because of the overeating.

I think I still feel a sense of the wine in my throat but no hangover ! Ciao people !

Last year this time - Chao ?

Well, I couldn't help but notice, last year this time I spelt Ciao as Chao and I barely knew it was Italian. Today my blog is called "Vita Zingaro". Talk about evolution !

European Visitors / Invitations Christmas Break and Quotable Quotes.

Well, although I did not have a story to tell for today, I think its a good time to actually do an inventory of the many things going on. Work is going pretty well. Social life sucks (vaccum created by INSEAD is unfilled yet) and blood alcohol content is at an all-adulthood-low ! With blogging (read rambling to self) becoming a key entertainer, (sigh, my life sucks), I thought why not do a quick inventory on things going on.

(1) As you all might have noticed, I have this little "origin" of the "visitors" to my blogs and I was surprised I have more than 50% of my visitors from Europe, and absolutely no visitors from emerging markets :) (with the exception of Malaysia and we all know who visits here from Malaysia). Lets see if I get ideas on how to promote my ramblings to such exciting countries like India and China because as analysts say "if you need to survive, you need to be there".

(2) Invitations for wedding. Well there is a huge controversy around the number of invitees and the way the ceremonies should be conducted etc., especially in a cross-cultural wedding. Wannabe - if you can foot the bills of travelling half the world to a wedding, let me know - maybe I will consider inviting you as the only regular visitor around here :). But the subject of wedding is not a great topic because everyone who is helping me get ready for it thinks I am contributing nothing...and thats true :). As long as I don't see a dot on my clustermap of a "wierd" country, I can make such bold comments :)

(3) Christmas break - As the italians now frequently say - I am "going back to mama". Hopefully I will view my blog and keep clicking "Refresh" and claim some "home visitors actually have visited me". Thinking about the extent to which both my job and family requires me to travel, I think I can paint a large part of the world map red with dots :). But I still need the japanese and american visitor to keep clicking refresh. Sigh I can't believe KV (the LBS blogger) has got me all obsessed about the clustermap.

(4) Quotable Quotes

"Career is a marathon, stamina is all that matters"

"Leadership is not about leading extra-ordinary people. Its about leading ordinary individuals to achieve extra-ordinary things"


Well, for some reason both these are the most impressive "management quotes" I have heard in a while and I just thought I should put them together here today.

I guess I will sign off now ! Its a friday evening, I don't think no one is working around me :)