Ricky’s Online Business Blog

December 12, 2011 (Monday) - In view of classes and activities every night from Tuesday to Saturday, it’s quite a challenge to complete Case Study for at least 75% by this week. Focus is the only way to go. No time to waste time!

December 12, 2011 (Monday) - Completed SWOT and SPACE for Case Study on one client company. More reading, thinking, strategizing and writing ahead. Developing skills as con-sultant, but not interested to be one. Why earn cheapskate money for giving ideas to others, when we can use them to build up our own business and earn better ourselves?

December 13, 2011 (Tuesday) - Sat in International Marketing class of Dr Kenny Teoh, one of the most popular lecturer around. Listened to friends’ presentation on selling Tongkat Ali coffee. Stealing information for own case study as usual.

December 14, 2011 (Wednesday) - Intensive planning, intensive writing, intensive reading, intensive stealing.

December 14, 2011 (Wednesday) - Surprise farewell party for Tuan Haji Yaakob, my two-time lecturer in Case Writing, and Training & Development Management.

December 15, 2011 (Thursday) - The last class of the whole MBA is over. Worked on case study in Old Town while friends discussed issues. Learning much on opportunity analysis. As entrepreneurs we often come across various opportunities, and the seven domains model is one good method to systematically analyze and decide to pursue them or not.

December 16, 2011 (Friday) - Developing a “co-opetitive” business model for client company in case study. Let’s not be me-too but start to think out of the box. Learning how to think is one major skill we can gain in this course.

December 17, 2011 (Saturday) - Morning do case, afternoon do case, night do case, eat thinking of case, drive reflecting on case, sleep also dreaming of case, might as well marry someone called Casey.

December 17, 2011 (Saturday) - SWOT done, SPACE finished, opportunity analyzed, business model evaluated, competitive strategies proposed, now QSPM-ing. Case is 70% completed. Not a crime thinking about life after MBA. Bitter first, sweet later!

December 18, 2011 (Sunday) - Let’s imagine the joy of having fought a good fight and having run a good race. Then we will be most motivated towards the goal at the end. Case is 75% done and one day ahead of schedule. Next up, ready for submission by Christmas on Sunday!

December 18, 2011 (Sunday) - Working on Appendix C: Financial Statement Analysis. Who ask you to take General Management? Must do everything from strategy, marketing, operations, IT, now accounting and finance some more.

December 18, 2011 (Sunday) - Financial analysis completed. Now working on strategic action plan, strategy alignment and McKinsey 7S Framework. Whatever goal we have in life or business, we must make sure everything we do is helping us towards the goal rather than away from it.

December 7, 2011 (Wednesday) – I’ve been in GSM-UPM since July 2009, seen many batches of students and made many friends. But everything is coming to an end soon in this month. Going to journal the last moments, struggles and challenges until end of year. Stay tuned. Good night for now.

December 8, 2011 (Thursday) – Assignments come and go yet never ending. But Case/Project should be on top of mind and done every now and then.

December 8, 2011 (Thursday) – Reading up on “perceptual distortion” for the very last presentation (conduct training) on Sunday.

December 8, 2011 (Thursday) – Books are gold mine to those who know how to find. Theories are practical to those who know how to apply.

December 9, 2011 (Friday) – Had the last group meeting with members of my last group for the last presentation in MBA. We are to give a half-hour training on Perceptual Distortion. We will try to, no, we will do our best to give one impressive “performance”.

December 9, 2011 (Friday) – Finished preparing slides for weekend training. Going to depend less on slides but focus more on trainees. Borrowed textbook of Marketing Strategy class. Going to scan through for possible materials to use in Case Study.

December 9, 2011 (Friday) – Reading marketing strategy textbook and extracting possible models and theories to be used in Case Study. Pretending to be CONsultant for a client and learning to apply theories in real-world situation is great learning experience.

December 10, 2011 (Saturday) - Now left the last presentation (training) tomorrow, final exam on 28/12, and case submission by 30/12 (or 3/1?). Coming week is critical in order to submit before Christmas. Must have good lifestyle support and time management!

December 10, 2011 (Saturday) – Last-minute effort to rehearse for training tomorrow. It’s always a challenge to present a dry topic in a funny way and engage all audience from start to finish. The last time I managed to do so was on Digg in MIS class but many months ago. Hopefully the last presentation tomorrow will be good enough for lifelong remembrance.

December 11, 2011 (Sunday) – Mock training started in GSM. 6 groups to present half-hour each, 4 indoor and 2 outdoor. God bless my team’s indoor training later.

December 11, 2011 (Sunday) – Final presentation is done! My own performance is not satisfactory. But thanks to teammates Shannon Tam and Carrie Goh Yi Yi, we did fairly ok. All the best in your project and studies. I’m leaving GSM soon.

December 11, 2011 (Sunday) – One customer asked me on writing a lot about MBA lately. It’s because now is my last month in MBA and I want to journal these last moments of my course. So writing till end of year only. No, I’m still working..

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.