Don't judge a book by its cover

Here is the second blog post for SBS:

Right then, what do I mean by the title of this post? Am I getting too philosophical now that I am in Oxford? Or I am just being a poser, throwing a cliche at you?

Well, at one level, I am being rather simple. Look at my profile photo for this blog. I don't look quite as smart as this (I believe its too flattering while my wife thinks it doesn't do justice to me. Since women are usually right, guess you know who is right on this subject)

If you think about this blog its in a way similar to my profile photo. This is a representation of a person's life pursuing one's MBA at SBS. Or is it? One could argue that the school has self interest to cherry pick students who are prone to writing good stuff (or possibly write anything well at all! :p) Possibly even give a slight nudge (or maybe even a dictat) to be 'fair' in one's assessment of one's eniviron. Allow me to share that we have not been given any such nudge or a dictat. If anything, Oxford and SBS encourages dialogue in a Socratic method (its ok if you don't know what it means, more info at: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Socratic_method Even I didn't know about it till a few weeks back:)) What I mean is that our professors have repeatedly asked us to think critically about an idea that we are discussing in a class. Their belief probably is that one learns best and is most convinced of an idea when there are no more holes that one can punch in the argument. Of course, were I to attempt to extrapolate the argument to criticising my wife's cooking, I would go hungry. So I keep quite and don't discuss how awesome the food is. But may be that's the exception that proves the rule ;) So yea, critically analyse an idea before accepting it.

Simply put, my request to you as the reader of this blog is to read this blog, ask people, research rankings, etc but don't take any one component to be the only truth that exists about life at SBS and Oxford. Discover your own truth. Discover what you truly want and what really entices you. Be honest and you'll succeed.

Sorry, if you came to this blog to get an inside scoop on life at SBS and Oxford and I bored you with hocus pocus philosphy. I will try to be more useful in one of my next posts.

Cherio!

PS: To continue the photo analogy, below is a how I look right now. I am sporting a moustache as part of Movember to raise funds and awareness for men’s health, specifically prostate cancer and other cancers that affect men and look rather odd with a tash. Please donate (even if its a pound, dollar or a rupee!) at http://mobro.co/KinnyKiMooch So yeah, don't judge a book by its cover :)

Who am I?

I've just began blogging for SBS and below is my first post there to introduce myself. If you are new to my blog, this should also be a good (and a slightly more formal) introduction:)

"Hi all!

My name is Kinny Kohli. I am a 20-something (with an MBA you’ll probably learn to be accurate and inaccurate enough at the same time:)) Indian guy. I have an unusual name for an Indian, and will be happy to share in person the story of how I got my name:)

Prior to coming to Saïd Business School for my MBA I worked in the operations and strategy of Financial institutions. I started my career as a call center agent (yes, the (ill)famed industry in India!:)) at GE Capital. Worked there and IBM for a total of ~5 years. During this time I worked in the back office operations of a business to collect payments from customers who had missed paying their credit cards. I worked for US and UK based clients (private label credit cards, high street banks, etc) and thoroughly enjoyed growing from the ranks to lead diverse teams. I also relished finding ways to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of the work we did (how do we get more work from the same shift hours, how do we improve our cross sell rates, how do we improve our customer satisfaction, etc) Then I got an opportunity to work with Capital One as a Supplier Relationship Manager. The role was to manage the kind of services I was delivering earlier. I worked there for 5 years and was promoted to lead a team of Supplier Relationship Managers. In my last role I was managing our outsourced business from US and UK to firms in India and Philippines, worth approximately $18 million per month. I also led operational and strategic interests (look at ways to improve effectiveness and efficiency and also who are we partnering with, who should get a bigger pie of our business, etc)

Outside work I enjoy meditating (sometimes that is required at work too!), running and writing poetry. I’ve been plagued with injuries and they’ve kept me away from my dream of running a marathon. But I recently ran a 10k with a slightly dodgy ankle so the dream lives on. I also published a book of my poems. The sales number was a ‘respectable’ two digit figure. That’s all I’ll say about that.

At SBS, I’ve had the opportunity to be trained as a Peer Supporter and am also the Secretary of our Student Advisory Board. I recently beat someone in Table Tennis who has represented Oxford, so I am gravitating towards focusing on that too.

There are tonnes of things going on in Oxford and I am sure I will have a great year in Oxford. If only there were more hours in a day to do justice to everything! Well, through the year I will try to share my thoughts and views of what’s going on here. This should hopefully give you a flavour of life here. Ask me if you have any questions. I’ll welcome replies to blog posts or email (kinny.kohli@sbs.ox.ac.uk). Wish you success in your journey! ”