Head of the NUS MBA Blog - nusmbabuzz

Hi

I have always loved writing and believed that I have a talent for it. But I have a novel which I have still not published. I have a book of short stories which is half finished. I have another novel which is incomplete. So, for all my perceived talent in writing, I have never accomplished much. So, when the oppurtunity came to head 'nusmbabuzz' (our nus mba blog) I was really excited. I thought that I could genuinely use my perceived writing talent to make the space better.

The oppurtunity was handed to me by Srikanth, the previous NUS MBA club president, who saw my talent for writing. So, it was upto me and Koel, my batch-mate, to take the blog to the next level. The blog itself was a year old and had been decently active. But it had been sagging of late because it had become the baby nobody wanted.

We started with the usual fanfare. I had mails from the top brass at the NUS MBA office wishing me the best in this venture. We drove a communication campain, mainly through mails, to say the 'buzz was back' and the blog was active and running again. But, to my disappointment, the fanfare died down over time. Our communications decreased with time and the number of posts declined. There are a number of factors I can attribute to this. One was that the first semester became insanely busy. I was caught in a web of projects, assignments, studies and parties. Second was my lack of execution. I had several ideas in my head but never got down to executing them. My inhibitions withheld me. I was not sure whether the ideas would work or have the support to execute them. In hind-sight this was probably a mistake. Third, I was on exchange during my second semester and thus away from NUS events. This limited my ability to get posts during the semester.

It also did not help that I struggled to get posts from my batch-mates. Somehow people seem to never have time when it comes to writing. I would get empty promises that the blog would be completed by xxx time but the promise would not be delivered upon. And I didn't know how far to push for a blog. After all, this was only a voluntary effort and I couldn't compel or threaten anyone. I used to mail people once or twice a week to remind them about the post they had promised. A lot of times this did work. But there were occassions when people got pissed off and diplomatically said, "to hell with you and your blog."

But there have been successes. We managed to revamp the blog's layout during the second term. It was long overdue and thanks to everyone in the blog team for that. Perhaps the biggest success is that we have been able to keep the show running. The blog stays active till today and the mba office has acknowledged and referenced a few of the posts in their web-site (though the blog is a student initiative and not an official blog of NUS). Reduced number of posts - yes. Inactive Blog - no.

It is my hope and belief that we will be more active in the coming semesters. 'Succession planning' (a b-school buzz word) will play an important part. I am confident that we can find an efficient group of folks in the incoming batch to take the blog further. The quality of NUS students has been improving every year. I met some of the guyz in the incoming batch a few weeks ago. There is every sign that this trend will continue.

And once again 'The BUZZ will be back' with all its force...

P.S: To have a look at the NUS MBA blog, visit nusmbabuzz.blogspot.com

Cheers,
Suraj