Citigroup getting new CFO

The business standard reports that Citigroup has announced that Sallie Krawcheck would take over as CFO replacing Todd Thomson who moves over to head Smith Barney. At 39, becoming CFO of Citigroup is real cool eh :P

XLRI wins XL-IIMC 2004

Wohoho !!! - We've just won XL-IIMC 2004. Awesome, considering we managed to beat them in both football and cricket.

"Life is like topography, Hobbes. There are summits of happiness and success.. flat stretches of boring routine.. and valleys of frustration and failure. But I'M dedicating myself to experiencing only PEAKS!"
- Calvin and Hobbes

Lehman Ranks 1st in Fixed Income Research

According to recently released Institutional Investor Rankings, Lehman Brothers has Ranked 1st for the 5th consecutive year. It is followed by J.P.Morgan and CSFB in order.

XL-IIMC Meet 2004

The XL-IIMC Meet 2004 begins tomorrow. The jokers :P of IIMC descend on XLRI at 1am tonight. We hear that 5 busloads full of orcs are on the way, but the fellowship of XL hath no fear. For 2 days, the battlegrounds shall rumble. The rain gods seem to have given their blessings - we have a quick shower in progress at the moment. :D.

"A day may come when the courage of men fails,
when we forsake our friends
and break all bonds of fellowship,
but it is not this day.

An hour of wolves and shattered shields,
when the age of men comes crashing down,
but it is not this day.
This day we fight!"
- Aragorn: LOTR, Return of the King

Professors

Prof. Mohanty writes on his blog that the focus on research is the reason why US Bschools are at the top of their genre. This "publish or perish" mentality is however, often at the cost of quality teaching time. Adding to that - profs as i see fall into 3 basic categories: 1) those who have awesome knowledge but are shoddy teachers (the kinds who keep bowling bouncers well above the head :P and never come down to those of us mere mortals), 2) those who are wonderful teachers but somehow their breadth of knowledge is limited and 3) best of both worlds - very good teachers and very knowledgeable too.

The first variety are, as they say, "dime a dozen". The second, not so many, but the membership to this category depends on perceptions (mostly decided on how well they are able to stand up to questioning etc.). Third, the real gems, are very rare to find. Feynman, i believe used to be one.

The problem lies in 2 aspects - teaching is a totally different job altogether from research. Teaching does not require immense knowledge - it only requires the ability to bend down to the level of those who do not know and the ability to lead them in the right path - in that sense it is a more people-skills thingy. Research, on the other hand, is more about stretching the boundries of knowledge - in that sense its more a mind-power/effort game. Feynman kind of guys fall into a category of people who amazingly seem to have obtained the right balance of both.

Ensemble 2004

Ensemble 2004, XLRI's bschool fest is scheduled between Oct 15 and 17th. Online registrations have begun.

Visit [http://www.xlri-ensemble.com]

Cat bonds

In view of the recent hurricanes devastating the carribean and florida, catastrophy bonds seem to have gained prominence - an article in the NyTimes.

A9.com

Have been testing out A9.com (thanks to gautam) - Its a search product with a difference - keeps track of history of searches & provides a diary feature - to keep notes on any page we visit - but all stored online. Don't know how they'd maintain privacy though - but this product owned by Amazon is a very possible google-killer. Infact, the search results and the speed seems to match google !

Interview with Anshu Jain

Interview with Anshu Jain - mentioned in the previous post: How to succeed in business

Deutsche Bank - a hedge fund run by an Indian ?

Found an interesting economist article: A giant hedge fund: says Deutsche is on its way to become a huge hedge fund - given its reducing focus on retail banking and very highly risk investments - infact says that the popular joke in Frankfurt now is that its actually run by an Indian bond junkie Anshu Jain (head of markets). Its VaR seems to have shot up in recent periods and it has also invested heavily in hedge funds - infact runs its own in-house hedge funds. Finally an interesting insinuation:

A ?passion to perform?, Deutsche Bank's current slogan, does not translate into much more than a passion to make money for its investment bankers. Two banks which previously lived by that motto barely survived: Bankers Trust, which made a practice of putting clients second, was forced by regulators to merge with Deutsche Bank in 1999; and CSFB, which carried on the tradition until a regime change in 2001.