Ricky’s Online Business Blog

This is the original version of my article sent to be published in MBA Edge Quarterly magazine April 2011 issue. The edited version published in magazine might be a little different. Your feedback is much welcome.

Continued from previous…

It was 7pm as Anita was making a presentation in her case writing and analysis class. She had written a business case based on a scenario faced by a real company. The company wanted to develop a new industrial product and market it throughout the world. But questions remained in the management. Would the new product be profitable or not? If so, what were the best business and marketing strategies to compete in the global market? How should they differentiate from their competitors?

Anita had earlier approached the company and gained access to the required data to be used in her case study. She interviewed the managers to find out about the product and issues involved. She reviewed the company’s history, its management and staffs, the current businesses, sales and financial performance. The company treated her like their free consultant. For one, they would like to hear recommendations on their problems from an MBA student. Also, it was a valuable opportunity for the company to be mentioned and studied in an MBA course!

In the class, Anita acted as a consultant of the company and presented the problems and solutions to the case. She applied strategic planning tools learned in her strategic management class to analyze the business environment and the new proposed business. These tools included SWOT analysis, SPACE matrix and BCG matrix. She presented her findings and recommended the client to proceed on the plan. She also drew upon knowledge learned in marketing management class and proposed a marketing plan for the client.

After presentation by Anita, her classmate Faeek came up on stage. He had been assigned as the critique of Anita’s case. Acting as a devil’s advocate, he criticized Anita’s case and pointed out problem areas that needed improvement. Then, the whole class started to comment and debate on case. The lecturer acted as a facilitator encouraging participation from everyone, besides providing his final comments on the case and also the quality of critique and class discussion.

This was yet another experiential learning built into its curriculum by one business school. In doing so, a student faced real life problems in the business world instead of just doing textbook exercises. Anita had learned to approach issues objectively, and developed her people skills interacting with people in the organization, creativity and problem solving skills as consultants, presentation skills in presenting her findings and analysis, and also persuasion in defending her solutions and fielding questions from others. Are these skills not what we expect from an MBA graduate?

In my previous article in this column, I mentioned the respect towards our MBA graduates is declining because they are unable to fulfill the needs of companies employing them. Now, in order to close this gap, MBA can be more experiential by exposing students to the real world situations, rather than just keep them sleepy in the class reading the books and listening to lecture. What use is it to feed students with all business theories and knowledge in the world, yet they are unable to tackle a situation in the real world?

The war game, the on-the-job training, and the case writing class mentioned above are just some examples of experiential learning. Universities, colleges and training institutions, you can be even more creative. Give what the market needs in an MBA graduate, and you will enjoy good reputation and profitable returns for churning out graduates companies in marketplace speak well of.

So b-schools, why do you let HSBC to hold business plan competition every year to dig out the business talents among our youths, when you can host the Malaysian version of Apprentice to draw out the potentials among your students? Or you think MBA should be academic only and it is the real world’s job to teach students about real world? Congratulations, for you will be dinosaurs in education field in no time.

About The Author

Ricky Soo is a biased advocate for using case method in management education in Malaysia as used widely in the US. If you feel strongly too in this matter, come and argue with him on http://www.rickysoo.com. Or if you want your organization to be mentioned in an MBA course, feel free to spam here.

This is the original version of my article sent to be published in MBA Edge Quarterly magazine April 2011 issue. The edited version published in magazine might be a little different. Your feedback is much welcome.

Continued from previous…

It was 9am in the office when Dennis received the letter of appointment as the Head of Department of the sales department. He had been rotated in his company from one department to another. In purchasing department, he learned to negotiate and push for the lowest prices and best terms from suppliers. In finance department, he learned to manage cash flow to make sure the company had enough to pay for its bills and not cause a disruption in operations. Now in the sales department, he would learn to lead a team of energetic sales force to achieve sales target of the company.

One month later, Dennis became an entreprenuer and started his own company selling environmentally-friendly shipping boxes. He drew up a business plan with five team members and presented it to investors and bankers for financing. They got the funds and started to trade. As the CEO, he managed his team members, who each had a part to play in his or her own functions in the company including sales and marketing, purchasing and operations, accounting and finance, human resources and administration.

Business did not turn out as good as envisioned. Competition was stiff, suppliers were suspicious of the new company, and customers complained of high prices. The prospects did not respond favoriably to their cold calls and staff morale was as low as sales. But the new company needed to survive and pay back RM100,000 loan from the bank plus interest. Dennis managed to motivate the team and they worked together to execute a turnaround plan. They started to collect boxes from their customers, recycle them and sell the reconditioned boxes at discount price. Sales finally picked up and the company achieved a handsome profit after one quarter. The financials were pretty and the investors complimented them for their performance.

Dennis and his team were actually full time students in one business school. They had been sent to a training company where they worked in a simulated business environment. They first worked in an established virtual company to learn different functions in the business. Then they learned to form their own virtual companies and trade with virtual suppliers and customers. The money and products were not real, but the business operations was very real.

Being exposed to such working environment was impactful to students who had no or little working experience. The training was counted in their résumé as valid working experience. They not only learned to appreciate the various business processes in a company and work harmoniously with one another, they also discovered their seed of entrepreneurship in selling products in their own enterprises. They would graduate from their MBA course having a competitive edge over their peers. The training was useful even for trainees who had prior working experience, as many of them had been working in their own field and did not get to see the helicopter view of a business and the interdependence of various departments in it.

Read on here…

This is the original version of my article sent to be published in MBA Edge Quarterly magazine April 2011 issue. The edited version published in magazine might be a little different. Your feedback is much welcome.

It was 5pm as Amin and his soldiers marched into the jungle. The weather was warm and their heart was worried. They were sent into the forest to fight against the guerrila force who had stole a prized treasure. Guided by a compass, they nevertheless boldly trekked the jungle towards the coordinates given. There they expected to encounter the enemy to complete the mission.

But they were not the only squad going after the treasure. There were also other millitants vying for the prize. Amin needed to compete with these forces to reach the destination, and even engage them in fight if necessary. The reward was bountiful, for they would earn money for each rival soldier killed. But for each own soldier downed by their foe, Amin had to pay ransom to redeem the life of a dead member. Keeping enough cash was important to keep the enterprise afloat and pay for expenses as they arose.

Staying alert against any attack on the way, Amin and team each held a bomb in one hand, while carrying a bag of weapons and food supplies in the other. But the terrain was just too challenging, and not all team members were fit enough to hike up and down for hours. By 8pm everyone was hungry and worn out. So they stopped and started campfire to cook dinner with rice and water bought.

Unfortunately, as they relaxed their guard, bombs started to fly across the trees. They had been ambushed! Three members got killed in the dark. They smelt badly as stinky water spread around their bodies. Fortunately they managed to bomb a few opponents too. Money exchanged hands and the mission went on. Unless the treasure was recovered by any team, the jungle fight would go on and on. Nobody would be allowed to walk out of the jungle, even if it meant continuing until the next morning.

Well, the weapons were as fake as water bombs, and the killings did not really happen. But the enthusiasm was real and team spirit was high. This was a corporate strategy simulation camp informally called “war game” by one business school for its MBA students. The participants were grouped into “companies” in the war game and required to earn money by winning games and competitions, the jungle war being only one of the many activities. The company with the most cash at the end would emerge as the winner.

Though Amin’s company did not win, they learned a lot in the process. They undertook many tasks over four days and three nights. These could be as simple as building bridge across the River Kway, designing the most efficient process to pass balls around, and performing role-play on stage. But some activities could be as challenging as building a raft, rowing it in the open sea towards a goal post. They even overcame their water phobia by swimming 300 metres in the waters back to the beach, and of course, brought out their fighting spirit bombing enemies at midnight in the jungle.

Critical success factors facing these challenges included strategy, leadership, creativitiy, confidence, communication, teamwork, delegation, trust, crisis management, motivation, and even behaviour correction. But on top of these common lessons in team building activities, participants also got to experience and apply on the battlefield many theories they learned in their MBA class including competitive and cooperative strategies, theory of constraints, entrepreneurship, business process reengineering, financial management and even blue ocean strategy.

Read on here…

This is the original version of my article sent to be published in MBA Edge Quarterly magazine October 2010 issue. The edited version published in magazine might be a little different. Your feedback is much welcome.

Continued from previous…

Understanding these diverse backgrounds of students, together with the values and behaviors that they bring to an MBA course could help us to understand and work with one other more harmoniously in our MBA study. Not appreciating these differences might bring to culture shock and even conflicts for certain students.  Imagine Rocky attends an executive MBA class consisting of senior managers and business people. He can get bored and lost following their discussion on obviously topics unrelated to exam. Now imagine Dato’ Muni joins a class of fresh graduates. He can easily get disillusioned by the lack of culture for learning and sharing.

Talking about learning, a learning-oriented student should have no problem identifying and appreciating the practical value of what is being learned in the course, especially if he or she has had some working experience. Take the theory of constraints in operations management. Dato’ Muni should be able to apply immediately in his business to identify the bottlenecks limiting the sales of his company, and so do something about it.

Also, consider the Big Five personality trait theory, career-minded Lisa can immediately use it to assess her own personality in terms of openness, conscientiousness, extroversion, agreeableness and neuroticism to discover her strengths and weaknesses, and the kind of work most suitable for her, in order to chart a career strategy for herself.

As for Rocky, studying the marketing concept can immediately unravel the secret of finding his love.  Consider what Peter Drucker says about marketing,

“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.”

Consider applying this in Rocky’s situation,

“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!”

Trust me, in MBA, there is just SOo much to learn!

Ricky Soo consists of both a business person and a working person inside. He thinks that no matter what our aim for MBA is, by no means go for it in full force. There will be heavy workloads and peer pressure to sway us away from our desire. But let’s not be transformed by the pattern of the crowd, but keep reminding and motivating our self to strain forward towards our goal post. Ricky can be followed at http://www.rickysoo.com