MBA 735 – Reflections on Module 6 Concepts
I have survived! This entry will wrap up my last week of MBA 735, the growth phase of a business. It’s been a good class, particularly because we got into a lot of the mechanical portions of the business… finance, capital budgeting, HR and so forth. Next up will be MBA 745, the Maturity stage of the business. Just one question to address this week…
What are the key leadership characteristics needed to lead an organization during growth?
The number one characteristic, in my opinion, is that a leader has a good understanding of him or herself. A leader needs to know where their strengths and weaknesses lie. When a business moves into growth, particularly rapid growth, there are very few leaders who are “jack-of-all-trades”. A good leader will know when they need to hire in the expertise necessary to perform well through the growth phase. This will allow the leader to focus on his or her skills. The leader also needs to be skilled at bringing together those who are in various waves of change… agricultural, industrial, knowledge, and judgment. A growing business will have many waves represented, and the good leader will get them all performing well together.
MBA 735 – Reflections on Module 5 Concepts
Even if you are not the top decision maker of an organization, why is it important to understand your organization’s competitors?
In order for a business to remain competitive, it is important that everyone understand the competition to some degree. While a “C” level person may have a good overview of the competition, they are often not aware of the “detail” information. Those who report to the executive level should be even more aware of competitive information to be able to provide the necessary details.
What are your personal competitive advantages? What do you do better than your counterparts in your current job? In your industry? Compared to workers in general (in and out of your field of expertise)?
I am very well versed in database tools and data analysis. My particular strength is in understanding retailer data systems (Wal-Mart’s RetailLink, Target’s Info Retriever, and so forth). I learn very rapidly and can quickly pick up new systems.
As a company grows, will its competitive advantages change? Have you seen this happen in your place of business? Is this good or bad? Explain your responses.
To an extent, competitive advantages change. As the company grows, it learns. The more experience it gets in the marketplace, the more it knows what works and what doesn’t. The core drivers and the advantages they entered the market with usually do not change. Advantages should improve as the business grows.
MBA 735 – Reflections on Module 4 Concepts
How will your knowledge of information management help you in your future projects and proposals?
Knowledge management is already a part of my everyday work life. It will continue to be important to me in order to have an understanding of who and what I am dealing with. Maintaining the right data in the correct amounts will make proposals and analysis considerably easier than having to go out and find the needed information.
How can you work to improve the internal marketing activities at your organization?
Improving internal marketing can be done in a lot of ways. One in particular is making my voice heard. If I see better ways of communicating internally, then it is up to me to make the suggestion or recommendation. If I do not make my voice heard, then my suggestions will never have the chance of being reviewed and possibly implemented, thus no improvement.
How will your preference of the four-lens approach impact your ability or desire to assist new employees in becoming acclimated to the culture of your organization?
I am more on the relational and creative side. I enjoy training and instructing, so I’m able to show new employees “the ropes” with minimal discomfort. Some personalities do not do well in showing others the road to follow and would prefer to stay off on their own. Where I am challenged is in organizing and planning the methods to acclimate.
MBA 735 – Reflections on Module 3 Concepts
Week three has wrapped up and 735 is halfway complete. As we continue to pursue the concepts of the growth stage of a business, here are some questions for review.
How will your knowledge of the financial concepts help you in your future projects and proposals?
In order to better analyze projects in my job, the financial concepts reviewed in this week of class will be very beneficial. Understanding capital expenditure budgeting will be of particular importance. There are often projects that I get the chance to review that will involve capital expenditures and it is important to have the knowledge of how to budget these expenses.
Does the risk level of a leader come into play when making such financial decisions? How so?
A leader’s characteristics will most always bleed over into all of the decisions he or she makes. If an entrepreneur, for example, is a risk-taker, he will most likely be more aggressive in making his business decisions. If a leader is more conservative in her approach, she will probably be more likely to be conservative when budgeting for business decisions.
Will the decision-makers’ preference of the four lens impact his or her decision making based on the financial models reviewed in this module? Why?
A decision maker will be impacted based on their four lens preference. If a decision maker is more analytical, then the financial documentation for decisions to be made will probably need to be very detailed when delivered for review. If a decision maker is more direct, then he or she is most likely going to want to see just the bottom line results of the analysis for the impact on the company.
MBA 735 – Reflections on Module 2 Concepts
Look at your own organization. How has supply and/or demand changed at your organization within the past year? What factors impacted or instigated the change?
The steel industry has a lot of ups and downs, and it supplies the chief component of our products. There has also been a shortage of some of the metals used in our valve components. Due to that, the price of our components went up and had to be passed along to our customers.
Reflecting on your past professional life, briefly describe one mistake you have made in your professional career. What have you learned from that mistake?
Not delegating. It is a challenge, even today, for me not to do the job myself so it gets done the way I want it done. I learned through that particular instance that a lot of stress and additional work could have been avoided if I had assigned certain tasks to others in my department.
If factors are changing rapidly, which is common in growth organizations, when do leaders find the time to “reflect” on the mistakes to make corrective action?
Unfortunately, in many cases it’s after the leader leaves. He takes the time to look back on the mistakes made and learn how not to make the same errors in his next venture. If it’s possible, the leader should try to build time somewhere in his agenda in order to review his performance and fix things while they are fresh.
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This blog was originally created as part of an assignment to track my MBA journey. Hope you enjoy...
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