MBA Review Part V

So we've reached the final part, the classes that I excelled in. Not necessarily the best classes, though there is some overlap, but these are the areas where if an employer would ask where my strengths are I would need to start.

• 4. Brand Management and Strategy
• 3. Economics for Managers
• 2. Consumer Behavior
• 1. Managing Behavior in Organizations

Those that know me from undergrad would be surprised to see Economics up there considering how much I learned to hate the subject at UEA. The course was taught really well here though and reminded me why I chose it as an undergrad major in the first place. The two professors (one for micro, one for macro) concentrated on how people act with regards to economic forces and used that as a starting point, then went straight from there to how these economic forces apply to businesses. There was also a large section on game theory, which is always fun.

Brand Management was taught by a new arrival at UW, Professor Thomas O'Guinn from the University of Illinois. O'Guinn is well known for his work on Brand Communities and the course revolved around that concept. Control of the brand is with the community of users. Brand management in this case is an oxymoron. It's more like brand stewardship. The goal of a brand manager should be to make sure that the brand and everything associated with it is true to the users. The only way to do that effectively is to keep close contact with said users which is great for people in my line of work.

Which leads to Consumer Behavior. Consumer Behavior is my class. I loved every minute of it. If I had to take only one class at UW I would take that one. Go Professor Mitchell.

The number 1 class for me at UW-Madison? Managing Behavior in Organizations. To be honest as a class it was a bit haphazard and from the very beginning it suffered from the disdain of the quant jocks who saw it as a waste of time and a bunch of pseudo-scientific mumbo-jumbo. I on the other hand soaked it in. I aced every assignment, I covered every reading ahead of time, even the optional ones, I took the lead on all the team assignments (which we aced).

To conclude, this should be the last post on my MBA experience. It's not been easy, but nothing worth doing is. It has definitely been worth doing though. I've learned a lot, made a lot of friends, and come out with a job I would never have earned without the degree.

Onwards to the real world.

Quote of the Week

"It is better to know some of the questions than all of the answers."

-- James Thurber (1894 - 1961)

Sssh, Don't Tell The Wife

Ian McKewan has a new book out. Lindsey is trying to finish hers and then she has sixteen books already in her "To Be Read" pile.

Fortunately she'll never read this.

Be very quiet everyone.

MBA Review Part IV

• 10. Current Topics in Marketing Research
• 9. Reading and Research – Marketing Research
• 8. Ethics, Integrity and Society
• 7. Advanced Topics in Marketing Research
• 6. Operations Management
• 5. Business Strategy

And on to the top 10. Classes I did well in I guess. Starting it out with a bit of a cheat as Current Topics and Reading and Research are really both the same class. The name change happened at the beginning of this year. It's a catch-all class that involves seminars, lectures and site visits organized by the AC Nielsen Center and is by far the most applied of all of our classes. All subjects that were covered are those that we WILL use in our first year or two on the job.

Ethics, Integrity and Society is a difficult one. It was an end of program class for us, but because of feedback from last year's students the business school had moved it to the first year for the class of 2008. This meant that all 230 students were taking the class at the same time. With one lecturer. In classes of 65ish. I think they made the right decision making it a first year class (apparently the first years were much more vocal in their lectures that we were). However, for this year the sheer size of the classes and lack of personal teacher/student connection betweenmeant that it was more an exercise of making sure everyone attended than actually having meaningful ethical debates.

Operations Management and Business Strategy I enjoyed immensely. The way I approached both, and OM in particular was to try to apply each concept I learned directly to marketing research or consulting/services as a whole. It made everything more personal and encouraged me to think a little bit beyond the confines of the class. Thinking critically I really should have done this for all the core classes, but it's a little late now. So there's my little bit of advice for new entrants to business school or those thinking of applying.

Next, my core strengths!