Ricky’s Online Business Blog

Recently a friend started a discussion on Facebook about boy-girl relationship. Then people started to liken courting boys and girls to marketing.  I commented about it and guess it might be funny to post it on my blog too…

Marketing is applied everywhere, whether we like it or know it or not. Maybe we can learn from Peter Drucker on what he says about selling and marketing in his book Management: Tasks, Responsibilities, Practices..

“There will always, one can assume, be need for some selling. But the aim of marketing is to make selling superfluous. The aim of marketing is to know and understand the customer so well that the product or service fits him and sells itself. Ideally, marketing should result in a customer who is ready to buy. All that should be needed then is to make the product or service available.”

Now let’s apply and adapt marketing vs. selling (courting) to boy-girl relationship and see if we can get any insight from the wisdom

“There will always, one can assume, be need for some courting. But the aim of marketing is to make courting superfluous. The aim of marketing is to know and understand the guy/girl so well that you fit the target and sell yourself. Ideally, marketing should result in a target who is ready to accept your proposal. All that should be needed then is to make you available!”

I have recently been interviewed by two local authors for their upcoming book on MBA in Malaysia.  Here are my original replies to their questions.

14. Did your studies help you in any way in your work? How?

Certainly. I have always found practical applications to work.  For instance, many accounting concepts such as revenue recognition have been directly useful in doing my own accounts.  Others include marketing concepts. Many a times I just cannot concentrate on reading up the marketing textbook, simply because my mind will drift away thinking of applications in business!

Furthermore, I have found concepts and models useful even in personal life too!  These include balanced scorecard, SWOT analysis, branding and repositioning that could be directly used in assessing our own self and making strategic decisions for our own life.

15. What do you expect to achieve with your MBA in 5 years?

An MBA will be of no use if it is not applied in real life cases.  I expect to be able to use what I have learned in busniess, especially in making informed decision and strategic planning.  I also expect to raise my soft skills such as presentation and public speaking to the next level.

16. What is the most recent book you read? Did it help you?

In preparation to write a marketing plan for one assignment, I borrowed from the libarary and just finished reading the book titled “The Marketing Plan: A Handbook” by Marian Burk Wood. It has helped me understand the steps in creating a marketing plan.  It is defintely not just start writing, but needs to go through real life analysis and decision making before coming up with a sound marketing plan.  This is directly useful in my business.

17. Looking back, what would you have done to prepare yourself before starting your MBA? Why?

I am working while studying at the same time, but I enjoy my life back to school again.  If I could have a wish, I wished I could just take a leave from work for one to two years and immerse myself in studies.

I have recently been interviewed by two local authors for their upcoming book on MBA in Malaysia.  Here are my original replies to their questions.

10. Describe a typical day at work.

I am a mobile worker and can work from anywhere with a laptop and Internet connection, even from school.  In a typical day without class, I normally intertwine working and studying throughout the whole day.  When I go out to meet customers and attend events, and sometimes travel outstation, I will bring along my mobile office wherever I go.  I can work in Starbucks and hotel room for hours.  I am a workaholics but have been sincerely trying not to work at night!

11. Describe a typical day in school.

It depends on whether my class is in the morning or evening.  The classes are 3 hours normally with half-hour break in middle of the session.  In a typical class,  the lecturer teaches for the first half of the session, and then students take stage to do presentation in the second half after the class break.  But this varies from lecturer to another.  If it is a morning class, I normally will stay back in school for one to two hours after the class to work in my mobile office!

12. Do some of your classmates struggle in class? Why?

All students do have their share of struggle in pursuing an MBA degree.  If one is not challenged, he and she might have chosen the wrong program.  Yes, some classmates may not be used to the student-centered learning approach as they are accustomed to the traditional teaching methods such as lecture.  For those who lack working experience, they might struggle in understanding, appreciating and applying the course content. As a result, some may not be able to produce work of quality expected in an MBA program.

13. What weaknesses do you observe in some of your classmates?

The lack of working experience among some classmates is certainly an area we should look into.  Other weaknesses such as lack of critical thinking, analytical and presentation skills are typical among students under the education system in our country.  The education system needs to be transformed to the next level to enable the country to march into high-level income country as according to the proposed New Economic Model (NEM).