Question(s) of the Week - Killer Questions

One of the comments you hear frequently mentioned throughout all the doomsday news reports is that the greatest innovation often comes from down times instead of good times.  I'd tend to agree with that..."our backs are against the wall"...."necessity is the mother of all invention", etc, etc..

At my previous company, when I was working in one of their Incubating Technology groups, I used to frequently read Phil McKinney's Blog.  Not only does Phil lead one of the large innovation groups at HP, but he also gives back quite a bit of time to explain and explore the lessons he's learned about innovation in his career.  I still subscribe to his Killer Innovations podcast, but I had lost track of it as I changed jobs and got heavily invested in the MBA program.  But recently I found myself listening to the podcast again, and also spending some time thinking about Phil's Killer Questions.

When I first started this blog, I considered a segment called "Decision of the Week".   But the more I read things like Umair Haque's 21st Century Growth Manifesto, the more I think my time would be better used in trying to weave together Phil's questioning model with Umair's problem structure model and a few sprinkles of my ideas (and hopefully my classmates). Focusing on today's decisions may just be an exercise in extending 20th century thinking that isn't going to work much longer.  

More on Bits-Based Production

Yesterday I talked about how I was trying to rationalize the difference between bits vs. atoms based goods, and the associated production, especially as it related to the content of our OpsMgmt course. Today I saw this brief interview, Five Questions with Fred Wilson, where Fred talks about the pressure that bits-based economies will face in 2009. While the bits-based stuff always seems to get headlines about the innovation aspects, Fred does a nice job of highlighting that it ultimately will be about how those industries drive this bits-based functionality into their production systems....for whatever good or service they deliver.

The connections between the two are starting to make alot more sense....

Connect the Dots - Unlimited Inventory

In a previous post, I wrote about the struggles I've had in trying to grasp some of the production concepts in my OpsMgmt class.  It's not that the idea of building something in a factory was foreign to me, but there was just something that wasn't clicking.  And I couldn't figure out what it was.

This afternoon, I came across this Hal Varian video.  Dr. Varian is the Chief Economist at Google, and a Professor of IT at Cal Berkeley.  In one of the segments, he talked about the production of "goods" in a digital economy.  His explanation of how these goods were made up of bits flipped a switch in my head.  That was it, that was the thing that had been my mental block for the last couple of weeks. I've become so ingrained with the thinking of everything being online and digitized, I've become somewhat immune to the realities of creating physical goods.  I live in a digital world, and so I've adapted my way of thinking to center around bits. And as he states below, "..there is no shortage....and there is no inventory" 

"The great thing about the current period is that component parts are all bits. That means you never run out of them. You can reproduce them, you can duplicate them, you can spread them around the world, and you can have thousands and tens of thousands of innovators combining or recombining the same component parts to create new innovation. So there’s no shortage. There are no inventory delays."

One of the things I constantly have to remind myself about the MBA program is that it's not just to make me think about my current environment.  It's to also make me think about different or unknown environments.  This is one of those areas.  I just need to keep reminding myself that these two worlds run in parallel, and finding interesting and productive ways to have them intersect is the challenge.  

Connect the Dots - Activity Based Costing (ABC) and Web Computing

Wow, this Obama guy really is promoting change....2 posts about accounting in less than 2 weeks!!  

This article shows how a software developer created a model that leverages cloud computing (Google AppsEngine, Amazon S3, Twitter), which is driving new computing and business models, and embedded Activity Based Costing (ABC).  ABC is one of the early focus areas of our MgmtAcct class this semester.

So instead of having silos between the production groups and the accounting groups, it's tightly integrated via software that is open to all developers and all customers.  

While this is a small example, it does create an interesting blurring between IT, Ops/Production and  Accounting, especially when you start thinking about the business opportunities that happen when companies leverage the cloud and open development environments. 

Growing the Business - Deep or Wide?

Reading through an HBR case for ITMgmt, on Merrill Lynch's decision to aggressively move to online services (1999), it highlighted an interesting contrast in strategies.  On one hand, they talked about aligning their services in a vertical manner, "holding more wallet-share of the existing customers".  This model is less expensive for customer acquisition, but it adds the cost and complexity of providing greater value through an integrated set of products.  On the other hand, Merrill Lynch set huge 2005 growth goals with these new services, and the only way to reach those numbers would require them to aggressively add new customers, outside of their sweet-spot customer segments. These new customers were typically younger customers, with net-worth less than $75,000, and more familiar with online transactions through low-cost providers like Charles Schwab (this was pre-eTrade, etc.).

Some questions come to mind:

• Can both strategics co-exist in the same organization, especially with different capture models and different margin models?
• Does one model work better with new products than with existing products?  
• Is this just a matter of market segmentation, and not really two different strategies?
• Should a company go-to-market for new customers with a deep vertical offering, or should they initial start with a simpler model to ease adoption by new customers? 

Both my previous and existing company are both going this dual strategy challenge, so I'll be very interested to see how the discussion in class, with viewpoints from classmates experience, matches or diverges from my experiences.

Connect the Dots - Networking your Social Networks

As I was flipping through HBR this evening, I came across an article about Social Networking, written by Alex "Sandy" Pentland.  Dr. Pentland runs the Human Dynamics group within the MIT Media Lab.  Back in the spring of 2007, I had the good fortune to meet Dr. Pentland, get to know about many of the really cool things being built within the Media Lab, and actually work on the project that is described in the paper.  My former company was a Media Lab sponsor and we co-funded some of the initial work in this area of dynamic social networking.  Needless to say, it was a nice surprise to see something you worked on (albeit slightly) published in HBR.

So what does this have to do with MBA programs?  Actually, quite a bit.  We covered social networks briefly in LOB with Dr. Miller, but only to the extent that people need to be aware of where the strong vs. weak links are within their companies.  Social networking came up again this weekend, during a discussion in our OpsMgmt class, as we discussed the connection between groups within the production process (product mgmt, engineering, production, etc..). What Dr. Meredith pointed out is that many times one of these groups will be outsourced, and then eventually other connected groups move as well because the communication channels break down over distances.  

This latter point seems to be proven out in Dr. Pentland's MIT research.  As much as I enjoyed using technologies like Telepresence, distance has consistently proven to be a huge barrier to effective communication and collaboration.  So why does this matter?  It matters if parts of your business are moving offshore, or great distances from where you are located.  Chances are, if that group is really important, then they are going to get tired of the communications breakdowns and look to move your function closer to them.  All the more reason for US companies to step up their efforts to bring expertise and skill-levels back up to competitive levels with the rest of the world. Unfortunately, it's more than just low-cost labor that might move jobs overseas.   

What are the "Rights" of an MBA student?

Dr. Beatty forwarded this to us today.  More than anyone else I've met in the program, Dr.Beatty is focused on trying to get across the point that regardless of any concepts that come up in class (theory, rules, etc.), none of it is useful unless you can truly understand it and apply it to the real world.   He was definitely trying to send a message to the students with this, I believe for all the right reasons.

To be completely honest, after reading a few of the posts on that page, it made me consider no longer telling friends and colleagues that I was pursuing my MBA.  Were those people serious? Just because they have an expensive piece of paper hanging on their wall, they somehow think all the things they learned about competitiveness, strategy, differentiation, etc.. are not relevant to them? Just because they did something yesterday means they are entitled to something today, or tomorrow?  Considering all the MBAs working on Wall Street, maybe that explains some of the reasons we're in the economic mess we're in..??

I'm afraid that this MBA culture is pervasive at many schools, and with many students.  And its not just graduates, but unfortunately it's also prospective MBAs.    

One of the things I really like about an executive MBA program is that most of the students are at an age where they have been through a few bumps, and they have learned the value of doing, and taking actions.  For the most part, they are in this program because they realize they have some deficiencies and are hoping to find new areas to grow and learn.  I've spoken about it before, but this just seems like another example of setting goals needs to be about something bigger than yourself and needs to look farther ahead than your next trip to Starbucks.

Connect the Dots - Relating to what you're learning

In a previous post, I wrote about how an article about the accounting model at Apple helped me connect some learnings from FinAcct (deferred revenues) with something I'm interested in both personally and profession, since I work in the technology sector.  Amazing concept...personal interest in the subject, useful learning area...1+1 = 3!!  

One of the things I'm really enjoying about this semester is that every class seems to be very focused on including assignments that make you apply the current topic to an aspect of your current or former business.  Not only does it make you think about how it's relevant to your world, but it also forces you to go meet people outside your current functional area.  It's a networking exercise, which I believe is where at least 50% of the value of your MBA comes from. 

(btw - that value is a complete SWAG, so don't ask me to do an analysis of it....bad MBA student!!...not using objective numbers to justify a decision or conclusion)

But what happens when the course work covers an area where your company really doesn't focus on anymore?  This is somewhat of an exaggeration, but let me give an example.  In our OpsMgmt course, much of the focus is on manufacturing processes, the creation of physical goods.  We also cover service-centric businesses, but the majority is product-centric businesses.  I work for a high-tech company that sells products, but we don't "build" any of them anymore, at least not the finished good to our customers.  We write software, and then put it on commodity computing hardware, which is built and distributed by 3rd-party partners. Our product managers do handle aspects of this, such as forecasting, but it just becomes a number in a spreadsheet,  So as much as OpsMgmt is critical to business survival, it's a tougher connection point for me because it's not something I actively think about.  

So the $64,000 question becomes, what's the best way to connect with a new topic when the path for connecting is either very bumpy or non-existent?  

Strategic Marketing Presentations

One of the things I really like about our Strategic Marketing class is that it is primarily focused on analysis and application of marketing as it relates to our current role (or future role).  It's not heavily focused on quizzes and exams, which often tend to be exercises in memorization (imho).  One of our group projects for the class is an analysis and presentation of an area of marketing that we believe is new, interesting and potentially of use to our companies.  The topics are chosen by the teams, with the goals being both team analysis and teaching something new to the rest of the groups.  I wrote about the Team 5 topic in an earlier post, but the rest of the team projects were announced this weekend.  I haven't seen their abstracts yet, but I thought it might be fun to list some of the things I'd like to learn, and see if any of those aspects get presented.

February 7: Team 1 – “iphone apps”

• How does Apple market the AppStore to developers vs. how Facebook markets their platform (Facebook Connect, Facebook Applications) to developers ?
• Is Apple doing enough with the AppStore concept to leverage developers (or customers) to look for applications that could work between Macs, iPhones, AppleTV, etc..?
• Apple is claiming huge download numbers for AppStore.  What flaws do you see in their model or execution?

February 21: Team 3 – “Search Engine Optimization”

• Beyond paying the highest bid for keywords, what other techniques are companies using to get on the 1st page of Google searches? (Digg, etc.)
• Are the SEO techniques and strategies different for company websites vs. personal blogs?
• Do you expect SEO models will work the same with mobile computing as they do today with desktop computing?  Does the location aspect of mobile computing offer new SEO paradigms?

March 21: Team 4 – “Social Networking”

• If you were VP of Marketing, what would your mission statement look like for using Social Networking to enhance aspects of your company?
• Success with Social Networking requires a willingness to be open and give to the community, which is often counter-intuitive to companies used to controlling information, branding, etc..  What have successful companies done to find the right balance of control vs. openness?
• Talk about how Zappos is using Twitter to impact many aspects of their business, especially as it relates to customers and the community that looks to Zappos for footwear.

April 4: Team 2 – “Interactive Marketing”

• Is it a good idea to create forums where your customers can have interactive conversations which could turn into interactive marketing, without your company being in the middle?
• What are the keys to creating authenticity in interactive marketing, as opposed to coming off as phony?
• Are some groups within a marketing organization (or any part of the organization) better suited to drive Interactive Marketing initiatives that others?  Is there a minimum or maximum distance from the customer (or target) that is required from that organization?

April 18: Team 5 – “ObamaNation: Lessons from the Front Lines of Social Media”

Discussion of the Week (casual) - Where does the Value of the MBA come from?

Sitting a lunch with some classmates this weekend, the conversation revolved to job-hunting, resumes, networking and other things that become top of mind when you read about the economy and layoffs on a daily basis.  The conversation then turned to what value you get from an MBA, especially in terms of it's brand, it's rankings, it's connections, etc...

There were a number of opinions about Wake Forest vs. Wake Forest MBA vs. Wake Forest Executive MBA, and if there should be a distinction between those programs and brands.  There was discussion about how to create opportunities between the Winston-Salem programs and the Charlotte programs (Charlotte is a peer campus for MBA programs).  And there was discussion about how we needed to look for more ways to network and explore with the students within our program.  

My personal opinion is that it's a 30/70 split between the knowledge you learn, and the people/experiences you encounter.  Don't get me wrong, what we read in the books/cases/articles are all very interesting  and valuable, but when you compare that to the 400+ years of experience across 12-15 industries that exists in our classmates, I think that 30/70 breakdown is about right.  

With more focus on case-method learning this semester, I think we're all able to learn more from each other's experience.  I've made it one of my 2009 goals to really focus on learning from my classmates, and I hope that more people make that a priority for themselves too. In December, I think we'll all look back and find ourselves better for taking that approach.

The Intersection of Marketing and Technology

I wrote Monday about our Strategic Marketing project on the social media aspects of Obama's election.  Yesterday was the Inauguration, the significance of which could cover multiple pages (or books).  I'm not going to talk about the historical significance, because I don't have the words right now to do it justice.  So I thought I'd talk a little about how the intersection of Marketing and Technology and President Obama have directly affected me, and give some previews into aspects of our paper. 

P-E Obama took the train into Washington DC, a slower path that allowed more people to join in the momentum building towards the inauguration. Building community.  Allowing multiple media outlets to add their unique angle to the moment.  

I watched the Inauguration through multiple sources:

1. It was a snow day in NC, so I downloaded the UStream (like TV viewer) application for iPhone, and was able to watch on my handheld device while watching the kids make snow angels outside. 
2. When I had issues on the iPhone, I switched over to my laptop to get the live stream from CNN, which had partnered with Facebook to provide an integrated Media + Social Networking experience.  
3. I watched as CNN partnered with Microsoft Photosynth to create real-time 3D views of the Inauguration the pictures of thousands of people in attendance.

Over and over the themes were visible.  Building Communities.  Allowing people to modify the experience to their desires.  Integrating technology so it got to people in ways they wanted. Giving away information to the communities to allow them to build new concepts.

Transitioning Traditional Business to Online Business

Anytime we learn something new, we frequently search for an analogy or previous experience to relate with it.  It makes us feel comfortable.  Combine this with the fact that many things computer-related can be unknown or frightening to people 30+, that weren't born with Internet DNA.  Seth makes a great point of this on his blog today.  Taking advantage of the technology or moving aspects of your business to the Internet is not as simple as "add computer".  

The good news for non-IT managers is that the equation is more heavily skewed towards their experience than one may initially think.  Their knowledge of the business is critical as a foundation for understanding what is needed to make the move to the Internet (or any automation) work.  But of course that experience needs to be combined with an open-mind that aspects of the online business make be very different from the tradition business.

Connect the Dots - Apple's use of deferred accounting for iPhone

How about that....it's Day 2 of the Obama administration and there is already change in my world!!  That's right, I'm actually going to write about accounting in a positive light. I'm not exactly sure why accounting frustrates me more than something like strategy, but I suspect that it's because accounting seems to flip-flop between defined rules and interpretive rules. Or maybe it's just because all the examples in the accounting books are about industries I don't know very well, hence I don't commit myself to it as much.

To my pleasant surprise this morning, I found this article on iPhone deferred accounting.  Being somewhat of an Apple fanboy, I started reading it with interest and all of a sudden I start seeing all these accounting terms from this semester and last semester.   And they made sense.  And I kept reading, and reading, and reading.

After finishing the article, a couple thoughts came to mind:

1. Some of the accounting concepts are starting to soak into my head.  I understood the viewpoint of the author, as well as actively thinking about the flipside from an investor vs. business manager vs. regulator perspective.  I know it seems small, but it was really a lightbulb moment for me.
2. I've been around Silicon Valley companies for 15yrs now, so I'm fully aware of the hype-machines that they can create.  But I also live in today's economic situation and understand the problems that occur when exuberance and excess are practiced above all else.  So I found myself taking the viewpoint that while Apple's decision could be short-changing stock investors in the short-term, it seems like a much more responsible long-term decision to represent the true value of the company.  It matches revenues from the phone sale (device) with revenues from the service it provides (monthly fee from AT&T). And in today's economic situation, that sort of responsibility seems like a breath of fresh air.

One of the things I'm learning from this MBA program is there are times when you need to disconnect yourself from the underlying business and simply focus on the numbers, because otherwise you allow subjectivity (or boredom, in my case) to creep into your analysis.  In this case, I got lucky that the subject and the concept held my interest.  But it also showed me that I need to keep paying attention in accounting...

 

The one thing I miss about Winter Weather...

This post has absolutely nothing to do with the MBA program, other than someday I hope to have a vacation place where I might be able to recreate this childhood love.  

I grew up in Michigan, just outside Detroit and for anyone that has never been there...well...it's get COLD in the winter. And the winter lasts a long time.  When you live there, you can take one of two approaches to life

1. Stay inside and complain about the weather from November to April.
2. Go outside and learn to enjoy all the great things you can do in the snow and ice.  

I actively choose the latter.  And one of the things I love the most was going down to the pond/river in the neighborhood and playing outdoor hockey.  We played all day, until our hands and toes nearly froze off....and WE LOVED IT!!  

This morning I woke up to that wonderful picture above, right out in my backyard. As you might be able to notice, there is a big pond in my backyard. But because this is North Carolina, and weather like this is a complete fluke and doesn't last long, I am consistently robbed of being able to relive some childhood memories, just 50 yards from my back porch. Then I read ESPN Hockey analyst John Buccigross has put his backyard rink back up and is blogging about it again. Sigh!!

364 days a year I love the NC weather. But every once in a while, I wouldn't mind a little diversity. Never the less, my kids had a great day making snow angels and building snowmen, so all's well that ends well.

Strategic Marketing Project - Lessons from the Front Lines of Social Media

I'm pretty excited tonight because we got our mid-term Strategic Marketing project approved. (The abstract is listed below) Portia Mount and I had actually talked about a concept like this prior to the class starting, so we were glad that we'd be allowed the flexibility to choose the topic and scope.

Portia is VP of Marketing for her company, so I believe she's been thinking about aspects of this since last summer.  I got the original idea while reading this article from Umair Haque, as part of a continuing series he's doing on Edge Economy and the need for radical innovation to break us out of the challenges of the current economic crisis.  It also connected for me as I reflected back on stories from both Wikinomics and The Future of Work, as they looked at the value of sharing information externally, building communities, building partnerships, and truly building companies that can survive in the pace of the 21st century.  Listening to Seth Godin's podcast on Tribes and Leadership today completed the circle for me, showing how all of these pieces and ideas came together in the 2008 election.

The other element of the project that I'm excited about is that we're hoping to show how this 21st century approach can be applied to more traditional brick & mortar companies.  Portia and I felt like this would be an interesting challenge to research, as well as our way of giving something back to the rest of the class.

The paper and presentation aren't due until mid-April, but I'm already looking forward to starting on this project.  I'll be sure to post updates as we move along.

=======ABSTRACT========

ObamaNation: Lessons from the front lines of social media.

This presentation will look at how the Obama campaign used social media strategies to mobilize grassroots audiences to win the White House and what business might learn from this success. In this presentation we'll highlight noteworthy examples including:

1. The use of Social networking sites such as Facebook, YouTube, and Twitter that created new online communities.
2. The Campaign website and its use of targeted messages to create urgency to generate record breaking campaign donations
3. How mainstream newsmedia outlets took advantage of the unprecented online presence during the campaign season to connect to new and younger voters
4. How the rise of the citizen journalist and an expanded blogosphere allowed Obama, a virtual unknown at the start of the campaign, to gain global recognition in one campaign season

Follow Up: Setting Goals - Part II

About a week ago, I wrote about a conversation I had with a classmate about his goals and concerns about doing something meaningful.  Since then, I've been thinking about that on almost a daily basis, trying to come up with suggestions or examples that he may want to investigate.  

The last night, as I waited on my wife to get ready for dinner, I found myself watching movie previews on TV.  One came up for "Horton Hears a Who", with Jim Carrey providing the voice of Horton.  In an interview, Jim Carrey is talking about his mental approach to the character, and the character's viewpoint on the world.  (NOTE - I wish I could find the interview video online, but I haven't had any luck yet.  Will post it if I can find it.)

About half way through the interview, Carrey talks about making a difference in the world.  He said that people tend to get caught up in the notion that they must do something spectacular, but he disagreed and believe that each of us has the opportunity to make a huge impact by just doing small, positive things on a daily basis.  How we treat people at work.  How we treat our neighbors.  His point was the ripple effect of somehow making somebody's life a little better through a positive attitude, positive feedback and other little things. 

Makes sense to me.  It's funny where good advice or viewpoints can come from.  Sometimes it's a work experience.  Sometimes it's the classroom.  Sometimes it's a comedian and a cartoon.  

More WFU EXFT2009'ers join the Blog Discussion

I'm happy to announce that WFU MBA classmate Jim Schweitzer has joined the discussion about our program in the blogosphere. Jim's blog can be found here.  Jim runs multiple aspects of a regional software development company, so his insight into that side of ITMgmt should be very interesting. He's also an excellent economist, so I suspect that he'll bring much more than a technical slant to the discussion.

Welcome aboard Jim!!

Connect the Dots - The Give and Take between Old World and New World Media

As I've mentioned before, one of the things I hope to do on this blog is draw some linkages between the topics we study in the classroom and their usage in the real world.  One of the discussions from our last ITMgmt course was the pace of technology change and how it's impacting many traditional businesses.  Most of the discussion was about how innovation, specifically technology-centric innovation, was creating something called creative destruction.  

The USAir plane crash yesterday actually did a nice job of highlighting both sides of the discussion.  Initially, several people commented on the speed of content which emerged from citizen journalists using social networking tools like Twitter. They lamented that journalism and mass media were becoming dead industries as media companies weren't able to keep up with the pace of information flow that could be achieve through today's popular consumer technology.  Today, CNN representatives commented that they weren't worred about the pace of the information, but were actualy happy that they now had a free content source, instead of what they were used to paying for.  

It's interesting to look at both sides of that argument.  While I believe that CNN should still be concerned about continuing to maintain viewership to their flagship product (CNN TV), it's good to see that they are farsighted enough to embrace the technology change to the advantage of their business.  

Don't be afraid to ask...

I was a latch-key kid in elementary school.  Not a big deal, both of my parents worked full-time and I learned very quickly how to take care of myself.  Good life lesson.  But when you start life like that, you tend to learn how to figure things out for yourself, and aren't inclined to ask others for help or advice.  Needless to say, it's a trait that I've carried with me for most of my adult life.  

One of the great things about MBA programs is that you're surrounded by people with very different backgrounds and experience.  You also tend to interact with them in an environment where some non-work behaviors come out.  Not to mention that you're with these people a lot. So after a while you realize that it might be a good idea to ask their opinion on something. What have you got to lose?  Hopefully their experience will give you a unique angle on something.

Over the last 3-4 weeks, I've asked a few people for some feedback and the responses they gave me were refreshingly honest.  Not only that, they phrased their responses in a way that completely opened my mind to new viewpoints which have been extremely helpful....one on how I interact with classmates, and another on how I might interact with my daughters.  

So to those folks, I am extremely grateful....thank you!!  Maybe this asking concept just might work.  Maybe I need to update my goals to include asking a few more questions of my classmates.

Three Steps for Inspiring during Challenging Times

While we don't specifically have a course called "How to be a better Leader" in the MBA program, there are frequent classroom and hallway discussions about how to be a better leader, or examples of great (or poor) leadership.  

A number of us have been sharing tips about how we're managing and motivating our teams through these challenging times.  I recently saw this article about Obama's Inaguation Speech and it does a very nice job of laying out a simple blueprint for highlighting the challenges and plotting the course when difficulty is ahead. I think it's a very useful model, and something I plan to use sometime soon.

"Decision of the Week" - Building a 21st Century Car Company

OK, here goes...we're going to see if we can create some interaction on the site. This question is open to everyone, and all comments are welcome. I'm thinking this one relates to everyone (we almost all drive cars) and it relates to class, as we're taking a mix of Marketing, Operations, Technology and Accounting classes.

We've all been watching as the Big-3 US Auto companies fly to Washington DC and ask for money (bailout, bridge loans, etc.). I believe the total is somewhere between $25-$34B at this point. While these companies all have their share of HUGE challenges (retirement costs, union costs, inefficient operations, poor brand images, etc.), they also have a number of valuable assets (engineering knowledge, production facilities, etc.).  

So here's the question... 

What if the US Gov't (Congress, TARP, Treasury..whoever) decided that instead of giving the existing companies the $25-$34B, they were going to give it to you and asked you to create an automotive start-up. You'd be allowed to pick and choose from existing US Auto expertise, personal, facilities, suppliers, etc., because they all went under. How would you build a 21st century automotive company?  

Some initial thoughts...

My initial thought was to see if I could envision an automotive company being setup and run like a Silicon Valley company that sells hardware and software.  So this new company might look something like this:

• Design - This would be a combination of world-class engineering talent (in-house) and the use of crowdsourcing efforts to continue to stimulate innovative ideas and leverage "proudly found elsewhere" mentality for global ideas.  Build communities of potential consumers to give you real-time feedback on potential designs and demands.
• Production - Why do the automotive companies need to own their own plants?  I wouldn't advocate outsourcing all the production, especially since the funding came from US Taxpayers.  But I would advocate using some of the funding to kick-start a few production facilities that would be spun-off and allowed to compete against each other for the business.  
• Sales and Distribution - We buy books and media from Amazon or iTunes.  We buy groceries and homegoods from Target.  But we have to go to a brand-specific dealer for a car?  No way does that model continue.  And I'm not even sure the Auto Superstores are the right answer either.  
• Messaging & Vision - Maybe this is really advertising, but the American automotive companies really need to start making ads that create a desire to be in their cars. Knowing that I get the employee discount does nothing to give me that awesome feeling you get in a new car and the adventures it could bring.  

OK, that's a few starting points.  I'm interesting in other areas of innovation, or other aspects to consider for change.  Ideas are welcome....

2nd Semester Class Poll

Finding Balance

Stand on two feet.  Learning to walk.  Learning to ride a bike.  Swinging a golf club under control.  

Throughout every stage of life, we experience activities where finding balance is the critical element of success.  As we grow older, the events become less about physical activities and more about decision-making and prioritization of time and resources.  But never the less, it's still about finding balance.  I've written many times about the challenges of finding balance between work, school and life in an MBA program, as well as the balance between smaller things like grades and exploratory learning.

But I think there is a misperception (by some people) about balance, that it is a universally consistent thing across all people, and that it's always present.  The end of our last semester, and the recent frauds and failures on Wall Street are excellent examples of this.    

At the end of last semester, grades were posted.  As expected, there were a range of emotions, mostly frustration, by a group of people that have high expectation of themselves.  I told my team that my frustrations were a wake-up call to me, that I needed to focus more on exploratory learning and less on purely grades.  I had lost the balance that I originally brought to the program.  I thought this thinking would be useful to the team.  But I was incorrect in my thinking that "my" balance was a universally consistent sentiment, or consistent motivator. Everyone has their own balance, and each person needs to find their academic "level".

On a broader stage, Wall Street obviously lost it's balance over the last 3-6 months.  There were obviously bad decisions made, and fraud, and all sorts of other financial "actions" taken that will be well documented in the press.  But ultimately the people that occupy Wall Street lost their balance.  They saw huge $$ and they all believed that they would walk out to the edge of the plank.  They failed to realize they only a small number of people could sustain that tight-rope balance for long periods of time, and their remind of balance has been a crashing reminder to us all.

This isn't a cry for conformity or some sort of socialism, not in the least.  If nothing else, it's a personal reminder that even if I get to the edge of the plank, or find that high point, that balance is right around the corner, waiting to provide me a smooth or rough push back to some sort of level.   

Group Decision Making - The Case Method

We hear the saying all the time, "It's a jungle out there." The pace of change in today's business world is constantly getting faster, and companies are forever looking for that innovative advantage to stay alive. At the intersection of Marketing, Technology and Operations Efficiency is a decision that many companies have to make.... should they eat their young? (Or more accurately, their first born).

For years, Product Managers has struggled with this decision. But with the new rules that will emerge from the crisis of 2007-20xx, I believe that we'll begin to see a change in the way they make their decisions. I don't believe they will be able to build products, develop markets, establish profit levels and then stretch the transition to the next-generation products. I believe the new rules will require Product Managers to begin thinking about living with the economics of the next-generation product as soon as the previous product ships. This means greater margin pressure from competition; greater swings of market requirements; and more niche competitors willing to sub-segmentize your markets.

So what does all of this have to do with an MBA program? The case method of learning. I've talked about it before, and I'm starting to believe it is even more critical as we move into the next phase of the 21st century.

At my previous company, our CEO began implementing a structure which combined a centralized and decentralized model, which he called councils and boards. For a while, I was somewhat skeptical that this was the only way to manage what had become a huge company. But the more I think about it, it's the case method on a huge scale! By bringing all the right minds together, looking at a problem from different angles, and under a short time window, you encourage rapid generation of ideas and you eliminate much of the politics that can happen within silos.

At WFU, some of the classes use the case method of teaching, but it doesn't seem to be universally accepted. I wish it was. I believe that more than ever, the next phase of the 21st century is going to call for cross-functional groups to look at challenges with open minds, difficult cross-examination, and very tight schedules. Our schedule this semester has a nice blend of Accounting, Technology, Operations and Marketing. A perfect fit for looking at all angles with the case method. I'm hoping my classmates take the opportunities to look our challenges from all the angles. It's a skill that we'll need to survive in a world where eating your young will happen faster and faster.

IT for Competitive Differentiation

Following up on my recent post on the impact of IT for market change and differentiation, I say this article from HBS Professor Andrew McAfee.  He makes a nice analogy about how competitors can buy the same conversion technology (for raw materials or digital information) and create completely different outputs.  It all depends on how they want to apply it.  How they want to create competitive differentiation.

IT is just a digital process factory.  

That's an interesting way to think about it.  I'll have to wrap my head around the concept, especially as we have both OpsMgm't and ITMgm't courses this semester.  Academia often tries to keep topics in silos, but in this case, it'll be very interesting to see how they merge and intersect.   

Setting Goals - Part II

I've written about my goals for the MBA program here and here, often focused on how I sometimes struggle to get these well defined.  

Yesterday in class, I had a conversation with a classmate that I really respect. Smart guy, great leadership skills, confident and currently leading his company through some difficult changes. During the break, he made a comment about this blog and we started talking about hobbies, passions and ways that we'd leave our mark on this world.  The conversation basically boiled down to a simple question, "How do you know what you should be doing, and are we doing enough?"

Successful career, good friends, good health, happy marriage and trying like crazy to raise children so they become good members of society.  A lot of people would say that's something to be proud of.  But that doesn't seem to be enough in the MBA mindset.  Most of us are Type-A personalities and our natural inclination is to seek out more.  More of something. But what is that something?

What I've observed is that people at our age seem to fall into three buckets.  

1. Career Climbers - If they aren't running their own business already, they are laser focused on a title or a level.  The job is their life, it's what gives them their sense of pride and worth.  They are willing to make the major sacrifices to get to that desired level or title.
2. Manage the Bar on the Beach - Their end goal doesn't involve a corporation.  They realize that they can make a healthy living and move towards that "after corporation" life by making some sacrifices now, to get that long-term goal.  Their hobbies and personal lifestyle are building towards that next stage goal.
3. Where do I go next? - Smart, Successful, but 'tweeners in some category.  They are completely capable of being that great leader, but they've made sacrifices/decisions (usually family) where they aren't willing to give up everything else for the big job.  They have hobbies, typically activities with good friends, but they don't think of them as next-step-in-life activites.  

The only answer I've been able to find for people in that third group (which is often me), is to experiment and try new things.  Take a chance on failing.  And once you learn a little bit, and find something enjoyable or interesting, see if you can combine it with another or your experiments. 

For example, here's a couple things I'm interested in exploring:

1. I don't give back enough to charities, at least in terms of time (which I don't have much of with the MBA).  As a father, I'm always looking for ways to teach my daughters lessons about life.  And from a business perspective, I'm extremely interested in the alternative energy markets and technologies.  So at some point in 2009, I'm going to explore charities that are involved in alternative energies.  Maybe I'll find one where I can give of my time, involve my girls (or teach them something), and learn something that is business-useful for myself.
2. I've always loved to write, and I've been lucky enough to get some exposure to the publishing world.  Just as I'm doing with this blog, I'd like the opportunity to write about things on a personal level.  I'd love to write fiction, or children's stories.  And if I could find a way to combine that with learning for my daughters (or other children), that would be a bonus.  I've got 100s of thoughts, ideas and sound bytes collected in something I call "Letter's from Daddy", about things I've observed for my girls.  Maybe someday I'll publish these.  

I wish I had a better answer for my classmate, because I really enjoyed the conversation.  I suspect that we'll continue it throughout 2009, and I hope we both can make some progress on finding that something.  

The Pace of Change

Following up on the recent Discussion of the Week, I found myself reading a recent BusinessWeek article on the World's Most Influential Companies. I thought it was worth highlighting this article, as it provides an alternative perspective on the pace of business change, which I previously highlighted. Sometimes really big numbers are good to get people's attention, and sometimes it's useful to bring a more focused lens.

Let's take a quick look at the list, and compare it with the 1990s and even the early part of this decade.

1. Apple - Two things are amazing here - First, we don't call them Apple Computer anymore, because while that is still the core of their business, the influence they have created are in Lifestyles, Telecommunications, Music, and Video. Second, they've overtaken Microsoft. Actually, both Apple and Google (also on the list) have ovetaken Microsoft. 10 years ago, Microsoft was fighting a worldwide anti-trust suit because of their might and size. 10 years later, they are quickly becoming a non-player on the Internet and are seeing their marketshare for computing reduced.
2. Google - The article makes a great comment, "Ten years ago, all Google had was Larry, Sergey and an idea." There it is again, 10 years. That's all it has taken for Google to not only capture 70% market share in Internet search and advertising, become a verb, and crush Yahoo and AOL, but also prove that by freeing information to the masses, people are able to create new economies.
3. Unilever - I don't know as much about Unilever as some of the other companies on the list, but the explanation given for their global success - reaching out to and building emerging communities, giving away knowledge to communities, rapidly adjusting their product at the edge to experiment with new business models - all of these align with the 21st century way of thinking about Edge Economics, Long Tail Economies and building value through Tribes.  This should be an interesting battle to watch between Unilevel and P&G in the consumer space, as P&G has also been extremely active in "Proudly Found Elsewhere" innovation model.
   
4. JP Morgan - While JPM has been around for years, it was their (relative) prudence and foresight that allowed then to come through the crisis head and shoulders ahead of Citi, Lehman (R.I.P.), Merrill, BoA, Wachovia and many others. One interesting aspect for MBA'ers to realize is that Jamie Dimon (CEO) was fired by Citi because he wasn't able to implement the ideas has has since implemented at JPM. It's important to build a network of people that look at the world in different ways, and be willing to understand them (although not always agree), because you never know when you'll be able to tap into that network.
5. NewsCorp - Not AOL, not TimeWarner, not NBC. None of these companies had the foresight to see that two critical elements were needed in a digital entertainment world - First, you have to build a platform. Silos don't allow integration, sharing and flexibility to adapt to new markets and technology. Second, you have to embrace and adapt to the Internet and digital media. NewsCorp has done this better than almost anyone (although ABC/Disney/ESPN isn't far behind...plus they have tight ties to Apple/Pixar because of Steve Jobs).
6. Toyota - Even though all the signs were on the wall, few people truly believed that Toyota could overtake GM as the #1 auto company. Not only are they far and away #1, but nobody really talks about Honda or the Europeans (BMW, Renault, Mercedes-Benz) anymore, other than as a niche. What's amazing to me is that they will let you tour their factories and teach you their model, but we haven't seen any of their executives leave to run one of the other companies.
   
7. Huawei - Never heard of them? You're not alone. Outside of the telecommunications industry (and China), Huawei is a well kept secret. But they are quickly eating into 900lb gorilla Cisco Systems in the race to build the next-generation of connected networks.

10 years!  Just 10 years....  

That's all it's taken for this list to go from Microsoft, Cisco, Citi, Big3 Autos, and TimeWarner to Apple, Google, Huawei, JPMorgan and Toyota.  

A lot of this change had to do with companies that truly embraced the new technology, but it's also highlighted by companies that took a very different view of their markets and changed the rules.  

It's a potentially scary place to be if you're looking for long-term success with models from the 20th century.  But on the flipside, it's an extremely exciting place to be if you're willing to look outside the box (maybe a long way outside) and challenge some conventional thinking, rapidly adopt technology, and explore some of the concepts that will be demanded by the global economy in the 21st century.  

Discussion of the Week - Exponential Times

We had several interesting discussions in class this weekend, but I'll go ahead and pick a discussion from our IT Mgm't course as the introductory "Discussion of the Week" topic.  I actually learned more in the early discussions in the OpsMgm't and StratMktg courses, but I think this discussion had broader relevance to our overall MBA program.

The discussion centered around a snazzy Exponential Times video, looking at the pace at which our world is changing due to this technology they call "the Internet".  Prior to watching the video, we were asked a simple question, "How do you see the trends of the last 10 years continuing (or failing)?"  The responses ranged from Globalization to Big Box Retail to Greater Customization, alot of stuff that you read about in the press on a daily basis.  All good answers, but then we watched the video.  

As a group of (on average) 30-40yr old folks, the immediate response in the room was fairly quiet.  When you're between the Boombers and GenY demographics in the US, and the mass of humanity in both India and China, it's an interesting place to be...to say the least. 

As a group, we face several challenges and opportunities:

• While we're technology literate, we're really the first generation to move through this as a learning curve, not as a part of our DNA (sorry Boomers....you're on the way out, so I'm not counting you anymore)
• We've grown up in a world where companies followed the strategies and models defined in the 20th century.  We learned and been trained in companies that sold locally and regionally, and that survived over many decades.  Our MBA program is somewhat of a bridge between those 20th century models and scratching the surface on 21st century ideas.  

Having lived on Internet time for the past 15 years, I felt comfortable (as much as anyone can be) with the explosiveness of the numbers in the video.  I've lived with growth on that scale for a long time.  What I need to get my head around is the idea that many of the current business models I know will be (or already are) obsolete.  The good news is I have Fred, Seth and Umair to balance my work experience and MBA learnings.

Setting Goals

After all those times when I praised Seth Godin, he had to go and write a logical post about setting goals, completely going against my claims of no defined goals for the output of my MBA. Great - now I suppose I need to come up with some. OK, here goes.....in random order, off the top of my head:

1. I need to find a better fit between my personality skills (which I'll go into more detail in later posts) and my role, whether it's at my current company or somewhere else. Right now it's a terrible fit. I don't do well in environments where there is no discussion about why we're doing things (especially when data and experience show the opposite to be true), and I need to be more involved with solving difficult problems, not working through projects.
2. I need to build stronger relationships with my professors. Up to now, I've only had a student relationship. I need to pick their brains more on some ideas I have that are outside the structure of our current classes. Last semester, I got too hung up on only reaching out to them for class-related topics.
3. I need to start an online business, really soon. It may only be a service-oriented business, which isn't exactly what the United States needs these days, but I need to start driving a faster learning curve of these MBA ideas, in an environment that I can better control.
   
4. I need to work on my Chinese/Mandarin. I told myself that I was going to learn at least enough to be not-useless during my trip in May, but I need to set a higher goal than that. I need to sit down with my co-worker (very nice Chinese woman) and come up with a year-long goal. I also need to come up with some goals about how to increase my cultural awareness.

Hmm....I'm four deep into this list and I still haven't written one goal that is objective.  That's never been one of my strengths.  I just don't think like that.  I think it has something to do with the fact that I always tend to think about things from a systems approach, which seems to make goals into vision.  

I'll keep working on this....

Was excited about 2nd Semester..Now I'm Torn

It's 11:15pm on Wednesday and I'm almost finished with my prep-work for this weekend's classes, which kick off the 2nd semester.  While I'm still not that excited about Managerial Accounting (because it's Accounting), StratMktg, OpsMgm't and ITMgm't all have aspects that I'm looking forward to exploring.  

I've been giving OpsMgm't quite a bit of thought, as the first class is focused on Operations Innovation, and the concept that 21st Century business success will be driven by new thinking about these types of innovations.  With the Internet and global competition able to commoditize so many things so much faster, it makes sense that OpsMgm't has the ability to provide consistent financial & strategic buffers between product innovations.

But then I'm scanning my RSS Reader and noticed an updated post from Umair Haque, 21st Century Economics.  On the surface, Dr.Haque probably comes across to some people as an angry guy because of the tone of some of his posts.  I've never met him, maybe he is and maybe he's not.  But one thing he definitely is is passionate about the need to really, REALLY think hard about the types of changes that are going to be needed for the world to recover from the mess it's in today.  I'd love to get access to his lab research and better understand some of his analysis, because on the surface they make alot of sense to me.  The concepts around edge economies, asymmetric competition, creating actual vs. perceived value seem to align very much to the other global topics we covered our the BGE class.  We've seen this environment where short-term rapid consumption and lack of concern about global results has consistently caused crisis (US Currency Crisis in 1970s; Formation of the EU; US Credit Crisis of 2008, etc.).

Why do I bring this up?  Because there is part of me that's eager to learn more about these interesting topics, and part of me that wants to throw out many of those existing theories and explore "innovations" in those areas that will sustainable for the 21st century.  Hopefully there will be enough flexibility to find a balance.  I've told my team that I intended to push that envelope quite a bit during the semester, so we'll see how it turns out.  

The long break for work and school is over....back to the routine.

1st Semester Summary - "The Numbers Classes"

"So sayeth the data" could easily be the mantra of any MBA program, and for good reason. While previous generations of business had their fair share of data to collect and numbers to crunch, today's world of data has exploded with the connectedness of networks, computerized analysis and a willingness of companies to share their data via APIs (Facebook, Twitter, Google, Yahoo, Amazon, etc.). But behind all of this data analysis are still the fundamentals of Financial Accounting, Quantitative Methods and Managerial Economics. These three courses make up what I called "The Numbers Classes" in the 1st semester. For most MBA students, these were either love or hate classes, depending on your predisposition to mathematics and problem solving. I tended to follow more on the love side of the spectrum, although I will deny all claims to "love" accounting...it's a black magic that still leaves me scratching my head.

Without going into great detail on these classes, several themes and lessons did emerge from the coursework:

1. There are lies, dam lies, statistics and then there is accounting. For anyone who believes that accounting is a cut & dry, boring, purely numbers crunching exercise is sorely mistaken. As we've learned over the past 10 years, accounting can make or break companies and economies if not understood and monitored properly. It is a science that is grounded in principles and rules, but the shades of grey between those two is enough to fill a 64 box of Crayolas. For managers at any level, it is critical to understand how your company manages their accounting, and how your work impacts the accounting and results of your business. It was incredible to watch all the subtle ways that Balance Sheets, Income Statements and Cash Flow Statements could be affected by decisions that could be viewed as proper or improper, depending on which shade of grey-colored classes you happened to be wearing that day.
2. Anyone can generate or collect data, but only those that can use it to communicate important concepts or make critical decisions will ever be paid to analysis that data. Standard Deviations, Normal Distributions, Probabilities, Pricing and Stocking via Critical Fractiles, Confidence Intervals, Variance, Regression Analysis - all of these quantitative methods can either make your head hurt, or make you appear to be a genius when trying to analysis the data related to your business. More than anything else, Dr. Boone's course provided an outstanding introduction into critical thinking.  Considering how complex and critical quantitative analysis has become in modern business, I actually wish this class had been slightly longer so we had time to cover some of the more complex topics in more depth, but for now I feel like I have enough of a foundation to apply to the rest of the courses in the program.
   
3. While every manager would probably prefer to take a long-term approach to their work, the reality is that much of our work is short-term and succeeds or fails based on our ability to live "on the margins".   Managerial Economics provides an alternative look at the data and accounting for business, by looking at what marginal value, cost or utility our next decision or action will create.  For some people it seemed like a way to manipulate decision making because it didn't always deal with real costs or revenues (just the next cost or revenue), for for others it provided a clearer picture of how to analyze the options between decisions.  The techniques learned in this course are definitely something that we'll build upon in later classes. 

No matter how much anyone wants to talk about vision, leadership or strategy, the fundamentals of any MBA program (or analysis) is the data.  It provides a foundation from which to look at both sides of a decision, as well as to create relative comparisons vs baselines, history and predictions.  

Crowdsourcing for Better Results

I've spoken in the past about how I'd like this blog to be more than just a personal journal, by engaging my classmates in the discussions and comments.  It builds on the ideas highlighted in best-sellers like Wisdom of the Crowds and Wikinomics.   Fred Wilson writes a nice post today about some of his favorite parts of the upcoming book "What Would Google Do?", highlighting how group-based contributions elevated the discussions and learning.  

I'm almost back to real-time for this blog (starting 2nd semester....next week), and now starts the challenge of trying to figure out a way to get a group of people that are already overworked (Professionally & MBA) to share their experience and ideas.  If I do a good job with that challenge, I will have learned a very valuable skill.  If not, this may end up being an 18 month "dear diary".  

Let's hope for the former....

1st Semester Summary - LOB (Part II)

The final project for the LOB class was a self-analysis paper and presentation, in the context of the topics we studied throughout the class, along with an action plan to improve the areas we identified as weaknesses.   Everyone was given 15 minutes to convey not only their analysis, but also an aspect of their personality that the class may not be aware of, or what made them unique.   I talked about my presentation in earlier posts, so wanted to touch on a couple of other presentations that I thought were very interesting.  I'm hoping to explore some of these topics in more details in later blog posts (interviews, Q&As, video discussions), but I'm working out the details at this time.

Cradle-to-Cradle (C2C) - One of my classmates runs an architectural firm, and is in the program to expand his business skills to augment his outstanding creative and engineering skills. His presentation highlighted some work that he started in 2004, based on the inspiration that he received from the book Cradle-to-Cradle, which explores the biomimetic approach to the design of systems.  To say that this was "work" is really underselling his efforts.  It really was a mission, or a crusade, to not only explore this area for his own work, but to encourage a worldwide audience to help drive this thinking forward and bring it into reality. What excited me about this presentation were two things:

1. The opportunity to spend time exploring "Green" initiatives with someone that had been living and working in this space since before Al Gore invented Global Warming.  
2. The opportunity to spend time exploring how he created a tribe around his initiative, and how that effort spiraled into results that far surpassed his wildest expectations.

When Family Calls - One of my classmates is one of those people that you just know are impressive before ever meeting them.  They just carry themselves in such a way that you know they are intelligent, confident and successful.  They never get rattled, they ask interesting questions, and you're constantly asking yourself how they always seem to get things right?  This classmate of mine presented an interesting aspect of their life, and a decision they must deal with that I suspect many of us have to address at some point in our lives.  That question is, "When is the right time to prioritize personal growth or desires over family needs and commitments?"   In my situation, it's the realization that I have an obligation to take care of family in North Carolina, and that (at least in the short-to-mid term) means that I will need to sacrifice opportunities that would require me to move my family outside the state.  In my classmates case, it's the decision between a more glamourous lifestyle and one that impacts a family legacy.  It's a decision that I'm glad I don't have to make, because the consequences of any decision are more impacting than anything I have to deal with today.   

One of the downsides of a non full-time program is that you don't always get the opportunity to get to know all your classmates, as we meet less frequently and much time is spent in group study.  I don't know this classmate very well, so I'm not sure that I'll be able to expand much upon this aspect in later posts.  But I have a year, so maybe that's something I should make a goal for 2009.

Selling the Big Idea to Management - The final presentation that I wanted to highlight was a classmate/teammate that told us a story of trying to sell a future-looking, industry-changing idea to his upper management several years ago.  He talked about the research and prototyping he had done to create a working model for demonstrations.  He talked about the late nights and weekends he spent teaching himself computer programing and working with potential technology partners to integrate his system.  He spoke passionately about his plan for selling his idea up through his management chain, getting buy-in along the way.  And then he told us about the stumbling block that so many of us have encountered as we try and sell a new idea to management.  This part hit particularly close to home, as I've spent years trying to figure out the formula (timing, competition, technology trends, management bias, sunk costs, "not-invented here" syndrome, etc.) for bringing new products to market, or changing market dynamics through a new model.  

My classmate and I have put this at the top of our priority lists for 2009, to share our stories, experiences, scars & scabs, and see if we can come up with some better guidelines for selling that killer idea.  This will definitely be something I write more about in 2009.

By only highlighting three presentations, I'm significantly short-selling my classmates experience and background.  I apologize for that.  I would have loved to write more about my Indian classmates that speak 5-10 languages (the variants from the states in India), or my classmate that fights fires for a hobby, or the classmate that started the program as an IT administrator and now has at least 3 business models ready to engage.  

As the old newspaper adage goes, there are a million stories in the big city.  I'm not sure we have that many in our MBA program, but there is plenty of experience for me to learn from and explore in 2009.  Hopefully many of them will join the conversation here.

The 2nd Semester Approaches

I think I'm finally caught up with my summaries and impressions from the 1st semester, so it's now time to take a look at the upcoming (2nd) semester, which starts next weekend.  The course list looks like this:

Operations Management - Dr. Jack Meredith

Managerial Accounting - Dr. Bern Beatty

Strategic Marketing - Dr. James Narus

Financial Management - Dr. Sandra Dow

IT Management - Dr. Charles Iacovou

Commercializing Innovation - Dr. Tom Clarkson & Dr. Stan Mandel (Elective)

Based on some initial reading and syllabus review, both Strategic Marketing and Operations Management appear to be extremely interesting.  StratMktg includes an online simulation model, and OpsMgmt appears to be very much about active discussion and the case-study model.  As much as I like Dr. Beatty, I can't say that I'm really looking forward to another accounting course.  I know it's good for me, and so are certain vegetables, but that doesn't mean I have to like them.  Luckily I have a few teammates that seem to grasp it better than me, so I'll be leaning on them again this semester.  I'm interested to see what is covered in the ITMgmt course, since I've spent the past 15 years in the IT industry, although almost entirely on the side of the vendors selling products as opposed to the day-to-day management of those systems.  I'll be interested to see what ROI models and metrics are discussed...maybe it'll help me position and sell my vendor-side products better. The FinMgmt course doesn't have the syllabus released yet, but I suspect that will also be a favorite of mine, as I'm a closet finance junkie.  

I suspect this semester will be as challenging as any in the program, both in terms of the coursework (seems like quite a bit in several courses) and the navigation in the economy in early 2009.  I suspect that we'll all be learning alot from each other as we cope with additional layoffs, economic swings, a new government in place and the overall uncertainty in our connected world.  

The break for the past couple of weeks has been nice and much appreciated, but I'm looking forward to getting back in a routine next week.  I just need to keep reminding myself that 2009 is not 2008, and new thinking and optimism will rule the day.

1st Semester Summary - LOB (Part I)

Let's continue with the 1st semester recap and dive into the Leadership and Organizational Behavior (LOB) class, which was taught by Dr. Chet Miller.  While my grade didn't necessarily reflect that I understood this class extremely well, in hindsight I'd have to say that this class will probably prove to be one of the most valuable I take during my WFU MBA program.  I say that for a couple reasons:

1. Dr. Miller brings so much energy and passion to every class that you can't help but have fun and be enthusiastic about trying to understands the concepts he's teaching.  His enthusiasm and delivery style definitely taught me the power of bringing energy to the room and allow people to gain strength from it.  It's something I need to better incorporate into my presentation style.  In addition, Dr. Miller was separated at birth from NBA coach Rick Carlisle, and his style throughout a typical class is not unlike watching a basketball coach go through a game.  It starts up with a crisp coat and tie.  The tie quickly loosens as the teaching begins.  The coat comes off after the 1st period.  The sleeves are rolled-up after halftime and by the 4th quarter he's pacing the classroom encouraging the discussion to another level.  We often worried that he may pull something as he frequently "punched" the air or slid across the room to emphasize a talking point, but as far as we know he never went on the Injured Reserve list during the semester.  
2. The core of this course is people and how they are organized, motivated, led or manipulated within a company structure.  It dives into optimal and flawed organizational structures.  We looked at personality traits and styles of leaders in different industries and levels of companies.  Leadership styles were examined in depth, to better understand what worked best under certain circumstances.  Motivation was studied in depth, in terms of compensation models, individuals vs. groups, goal settings and analysis of success.  And throughout the course, we were always reminded to balance our analysis of this content against analytic data, either through direct measurement or research in this field of study.  "So sayeth the data" was a mantra that we heard over and over, as "common sense", "intuition" or "gut feelings" were often proven to be in opposition to the previously mentioned analysis data.   

This course covered topics and business cases that I expect that I will refer back to time and time again throughout my career.  It taught us the value of creating systems that allow high commitment and high involvement management, and how to address people-specific issues within those systems.  

Bullish on 2009

I suppose I couldn't officially consider myself a blogger unless I jump on the bandwagon of making predictions and look forward to 2009. As I stated in an earlier post, I believe that the turmoil that so many companies, markets and countries are dealing with now will begin the spark of great things to take us into the next decade of growth. So the only attitude to take into a period like this is to be positive, show leadership and look for greatness. Some of my favorites echo those sentiments - Fred Wilson, Om Malik and Seth Godin.

As I told my MBA team a few weeks back, "2009 is going to be an interesting year. I'm filling my glass up to at least 3/4 full, regardless of what happens. Too many opportunities ahead."

Happy 2009 to all of you!!