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.
MBA 735 – Reflections on Module 1 Concepts
A new six-week period and a new class. MBA 735 begins and we move from the launch phase of a business into managing its growth. This course will focus on the leadership necessary to move a company into rapid growth and hopefully manage it into a mature product stage. Businesses can often make or break during this time. If a strategic plan has not been put into place, this business will be challenged to handle the incoming rush of business. Here are this weeks reflection questions…
How do growth characteristics vary depending on the waves of change an organization experiences?
Depending on the change waves, a company may experience growth simply in terms of the number of items produced and ordered. Or, the business may see development of technological advances as being the key to their growth. These are just a couple of examples. If a business is more industrial, for example, it will probably see its growth focus on hiring more employees or increasing facility capacity. A more knowledge type company may be more focused on improving the technology training inside the company in order to expand the production abilities.
Have you experienced growth in your current or other employment? What factors led you to believe you did or did not experience growth?
I have experienced growth in a couple of my employment settings. One factor that really seems to convey growth is acquisitions. When my company realized that there were customer needs not being met, we looked for companies that were already providing best-in-service products. Once located, we acquired these organizations and were able to grow our business to meet the needs of our growing customer base.
If you were given the new project assignment of managing a fast-growing division/department/segment of your organization, what personal skills would you need to improve upon to be successful in your endeavors?
The biggest challenge I would have in meeting this project assignment is learning to manage others to meet the goal. I am very much a person who will typically do the job until it’s done. It’s important to bring others on board and manage them to completion of the project. When working to grow a segment, I will need to improve on delegating tasks out and expecting the team to assist in accomplishing the goal, and not taking everything on myself.
MBA 725 – Reflections on Module 5 Concepts
As the former Cincinnati Reds pitcher Joe Nuxhall would end every radio broadcast… we are “Rounding third and heading for home.” MBA 725 has one week left. Week five was extremely challenging in reviewing financials and other cost factors of a startup. We also discussed benchmarks and their impact on a business. Here’s the questions for review…
Why is it important to understand the factors that impact cash flow? How can the factors vary based on the waves of change?
Cash flow is critical to a business. It is its lifeblood. If a company does not have cash flow, it can’t pay the bills and won’t remain in business very long. A business leader needs to understand how cash flow is affected so that changes can be made when necessary to maintain a positive flow. In terms of the waves of change, I would imagine one big difference is in the newer era, more businesses are dealing in “paper money”. Stock creates cash flow for the business, but is wealth only on paper for the stockholder. This is much more common in the current waves than in the past. The newer wave is more technological also and will have much more detailed analysis than the earlier waves.
Does a leader’s lens perspective impact the benchmarks he or she identifies as critical for his or her organization and/or the analysis of such benchmarks? Explain.
Certainly. A leader who is more analytical, for example, will be more likely to utilize highly analytical benchmarks. A leader who is more people oriented is probably going to select benchmarks that focus on the people aspects of the business.
Many organizations that use the balanced scorecard approach require different people within different functional areas as well as different levels of the organization to complete a balanced scorecard evaluation. Why would it be important to obtain different evaluations? Would you recommend this approach? Why or why not?
Different evaluations bring different perspectives. Just as in the last example, it would be valuable to have multiple lens perspectives in the reporting. The purpose of a balanced scorecard it to bring a balanced view of multiple areas of the company. By obtaining these differing evaluations, it will add to the “balance” of the scorecard reporting. I would recommend this approach. While it may be time consuming, it will give more breadth to the data presented in the scorecard.
MBA 725 – Reflections on Module 4 Concepts
How would you go about communicating your desire for a strategic alliance to another organization? What would you have to do to persuade them to strategically align with your organization?
When looking back over my learnings so far in the MBA process, social capital comes to mind. By developing strong social capital with the planned alliance partner, it will be easier to open a dialogue to pursue the alliance. It will be important to convey the idea of a win-win situation by entering into the alliance. The potential partners will also need to agree on the stipulations for performance and create contracts to codify these stipulations.
How is technology impacting marketing channel operations? How does a leader keep well-informed of what is happening in the marketing channels that may have a direct impact on the business activities?
Technology continues to evolve at a unbelievably rapid rate. Information is literally available in the blink of an eye (or the click of a mouse). Marketing methods that worked in the past are not always as successful today. Television commercials have been overtaken by digital video recorders that allow bypassing the commercials. Companies have begun using more blatant “product placement” in movies/TV shows in order to combat this potential loss of an advertising stream. With the world of blogs (just like you are reading now!) “word-of-mouth” advertising goes a lot farther than just your neighbors. Consumers do a lot more research today before buying items, particularly big-ticket items. The internet has become a consumer tool and companies need to be highly aware of the power this tool carries.
A leader needs to stay current. Technology changes so rapidly that it is important for a leader to stay on top of what is happening. It may even pay dividends for the leader to build a team that focuses on forecasting what the next technology of advertising will be.
Integrated Marketing Communications (ICM) systems are typically designed for external audiences. As an effective leader, why would it be important for you to establish an IMC internally within your organization?
If the plan is to be integrated, your internal organization needs to be just as aware of the plan as the external organization. Developing an IMC internally will allow your team to be on the same page and have a guide to keep everything integrated. An internal IMC will pull together marketing, sales, operations, and other departments so that everyone is aware of the marketing plans for the organization.
MBA 725 – Reflections on Module 3 Concepts
Do policies limit the creative tendencies of leaders? How can an organization establish policies yet still foster creativity and innovation?
Policies can sometimes limit the creative tendencies of leaders. By defining policies with too much detail, the leader may be worked into a “box” and stifled in his ability to think creatively. Although, if a leader is extremely creative, he will come up with ways to be creative even while maintaining the policy. A good way to establish policies and still foster creativity is to build some leeway into the system. The organization should identify what policies are firm and unchangeable and make those as detailed as possible. Safety guidelines come to mind in this instance. Other policies might be a bit less defined in order to allow creative thinking. In all cases, there should be a system to allow suggestions for change. Even on a safety policy… perhaps the leader might think of an even safer way to perform a task. If a system is in place to suggest change, then it could be adjusted.
Are policies and procedures viewed in different capacities by leaders of different waves of change?
Certainly. In the earlier waves, where a more managerial approach is used, policies and procedures are usually enforced by the manager. As we move into the current wave and waves of the future, leaders will be given more autonomy to create and have flexibility to think outside the box and not be “trapped” by a policy.
Why is cultural understanding essential in establishing knowledge management within an organization?
Without an understanding of the business culture, the method of conveying knowledge may be totally wrong. An example I used in our class discussion… if your business is full of engineers who all have advanced degrees, the method of storing, retrieving, and presenting information will be totally different than that of a company made up of high school graduates.
Historically speaking, culture has been considered a longtime process. Yet in a society that is characterized by more frequent change and greater levels of uncertainty, how do the more rapidly changing effects impact the culture of organizations? Is it necessary for the culture of an organization to keep pace with the rapid changes?
A book that I’ve referenced other times comes to mind. It’s titled It’s Not the Big That Eat the Small… It’s the Fast That Eat the Slow. In it, author Laurence Houghton discusses how the businesses that are going to survive are the ones that adapt quickly. The Titanic-size organizations of old will not fare as well unless they learn to accept change quickly. The culture that needs to be created in the future waves is a culture of change.
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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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