Full credit to my dear friend Sumantra for capturing the mood of our class in his academics award winning Photoshop Classic, ApnaSapna MoneyMoney. Fellow actors appearing with the both of us in this cheap flick are (from left to right) Aravind, Vikram, Shwetabh and Sudipto, all accomplished actors in their own right. All this was done to commemorate the launching of the PGPX Cricket league (PCL), our answer to IPL and the likes. With all the recruiters having left the campus after the real bidding process and the multimillion Rupee offers and all that, isn’t it our responsibility to keep the tempo up with biddings of our own? And what better way to make it happen than to start a cricket league as is the fashion these days. After all we have a lot of overexcited and underemployed cricketers like yours truly who wouldn’t mind having some fun of our own. And then there are people like Venky who are always eager to direct one show or the other.
The idea was well received by all and sundry in the class, and the formal activities started with the bidding process that was played out in a marathon session yesterday just after the last scheduled lecture of our course was over. We do have a Business Simulation Game to play over the next week, as a capstone project to codify and crystallize all of our learnings over the past year. But why simulate when we can keep it real, is the fun-damental PGPX outlook and going by that it was hardly surprising that PCL seemed to be the thing on everyone’s mind as we set out to bid for our cricketers with fake money and real enthusiasm.
6 teams had already been formed with a captain and a manager for each, which gave employment opportunities to 12 souls who badly wanted to be a part of all the action but couldn’t have made it on their own because of what we call in MBA parlance “High Entry barriers”. Now suddenly they found themselves in the thick of action, with a purse of 1000 Kuwaiti Dinars, (With the rapidly eroding US green back, we have decided to use the strongest currency in the world to transact all our business with) and more than 40 able and disable bodied cricketers to choose from. And choose they did.
The bidding started with the bowlers and quite contrary to popular belief that bowlers are always underrated and undervalued, right off the auction block their valuations really went through the roof. But this was not surprising to the discerning, because we as corporate bidders know that purchases that save cash outflows are equally if not more important in creating shareholder wealth than the ones that just maximize inflows. See I told you, we will be crystallizing our learnings. Only three bowlers crossed the psychological barrier of 400 KDs with Venky topping it all with an astronomical valuation of 550 KDs, leaving his team, really scrambling for pennies in the later stages of the bidding.
Now when it came to the batsmen, only Srinath got his projected future run flows valued with no discounting whatsoever, the final bid going easily above 400. And then came the real fun scene involving the reverse bidding for all the ‘stars’ who did not find any takers for the initial bid of 100 KDs. And the fact that there were stars, who were picked up even for as less as 5 KDs proves that PGPXians do look towards value for money when they are out scouting for talent. Or that they are just a bunch of real cheapskates. Only time will tell. For the time being though it is all play and no work at PGPX, for that one final burst of excitement.
