Behavioral Economics

Have you ever wondered why in our day-to-day experiences at times we may choose something over a more seemingly rational decision..like for instance, an employee may willingly forego a promotion to continue doing what he/she excels in?, why a satisfied customer defects to competition?

The answer lies in understanding human nature -- and that human beings do not always behave rationally.

This intrigued me and i wanted to gather some information on this subject- came across various remarkable studies done by Dan Ariely, Richard Thaler, Daniel Goleman

Behavioral Economics as a discipline assumes people are irrational even though it is not against classical economics..it attempts to collaborate with classical economics..it is planned psychology in the classical eonomics

Economics does not encompass everything, we need to look beyond.. in a broader perspective, we need to analyse human nature- that is what we are..!!

Thus, Behavioral Economics experiments, what we are good at when we are actually irrational, it is about accepting certain facts that we certainly do get easily confused-human conditioning is such that, we make mistakes, we are vindictive,we just can't think about the future.. but recognizing where we fall short..is the promise of behavioral economics

In addition, to such studies i came across a very interesting concept by Daniel Goleman..it's an evolving concept which talks of an entirely new science of human relationships..one interesting study is about how humans connect with the 'brains' of other human beings and our eyes act as catalysts.. :)

Painting the College- Blue, Red, and all the other available marker colours...!!! :))

This picture is of one of our class assignments- believe me we have tried to be 'decent' and thoughtful about the house-keeping guys- considering this time the walls, glass windows, ceilings and the floor were spared....!!

This is the power of mindmapping.. 'pictures- do speak a million words'...it is a depiction of a lot of ideas flowing in an encapsulated form..

This diagram, in particular is of a business idea, we designed completely driven by customer experience.. with the power of group think we came up with fantastic ideas of how technology at various touch points could act as a catalyst to enhance the customer experience at a retail shopping mall..

In the last one and a half years of my (MBA) life.. I somehow feel 'innovation and design-thinking' have become overused words, abusively used too often as we tend to do analysis by paralysis by getting into the semantics of it..
however, if we come to think of it 'innovation' is the buzz word.. It is 'The Gameplan'.. because to be saleable you have to offer something different or same thing differently.. but just a thought, if it is soo obvious than why are not everyone doing it.. or wouldn't have all different ideas been taken.. ??

Life Before and After Internet

Before internet- computers were glorified word processors, not much storage capacity, etc.

Coming of the internet- the evolution and impact
If we come to analyze the impact of internet on our lives to how facebook, twitter, IMs, RSS feeds have became an indispensable part of our lives and yes, blogging :) ..which is a mode of social expression for some.. :)
we realize that the web has become an indispensable part of our eco system, it is all pervasive.. today, we are 'growing up online'

it has affected the modes of communication, the way one searches for their resources, our expectations and offcourse our patience...!!

Life after the internet
i remember my first stint with digital multitasking dates back to around 9 yrs..vaguely, 2000..when i could use the same time span to do instant chat with 3-4 people online
and thus, i set up the internet skills for a bigger internet experience with each passing year..
during college and post graduation, it offered me the largest pool of resources..
with the evolution, we have social networking sites wherein I can check the updates in my friend's lives, invite them for events hence, loosing the sheen to call them up and find out 'what's happening'?
we are using e-learning tools like moodle to learn a new language..!!!
On hindsight, we find it easier to 'manage' digital text..as it is flexible and fast (assignments can get completed last minute too..)

Internet is impacting global business: you get paid to write e-books, buyers buy and pay online, internet has infilterated in our lives so much that we are focusing our lives and business on web based models..but a thought, does it not affect the way we would be employed..
businesses need to be there when it counts.. information has to be transformed into a digital format is an obvious conclusion

interesting fact, when one makes an e-product you never run out of supply..!!

Particularly, in the case of India..
it is interesting to look at how different countries and cultures use the internet..1/5th of the earth population..2/3rd of the country's population is in abject poverty..but the internet affects everyone from top-bottom..

Inflexion Points- Introduction

‘INFLEXION POINTS’… ahh haan seems like a very intense subject… but with my first stint at blogging.. I wanted to use it as a sharing space not just to share my learning’s academically/professionally, but also experiences or observations that may be small in magnitude but have made me think or reflect upon in life and thus, the terminology ‘inflexion points’
My belief, ‘each day we are given new opportunities to choose and act and, in doing so, we create our own unique journey’…so keep going… ☺
In my first blog, I would like to reflect upon a continuous learning experience called ‘MBA’ which has been a major transformation platform for me. I dedicate this blog to the ‘change in my life’ during the tenure of my course, due to a set of varied experiences, opportunities and nuisances (the best learning’s).
The best part of the journey- meeting a lot of new people, making friends, managing change and learning to accept and love the change, and can never ever undermine the importance of education..
The over-used statement actually holds true..!! MBA is not about JUST class-room learning.. But, is a great collaboration platform
Now, am one and a half year old in the city, and 4 trimesters old in the institution..and, we are the ‘seniors’ at college..And in this tenure, the evolution from 1st year to 2nd year has been majorly between making the ‘best-looking’ PowerPoint presentations, to a business plan as soon as we opened our mouth to top-notch turnaround strategies…it’s now time, when we delve into something that ‘we’ are very passionate about in our lives. I can safely assume ‘we’ as most of us have chosen our specializations based on what we are passionate about in life or at least are interested in investing our time and efforts in.