Business
My name is Ml. I earned a BA in Nutrition and Food science in 2008. My major in the MBA is Technology Management Stream (ETM).When I decided to get my MBA I was afraid a little bit, but I challenged myself. I was not thinking this decision would change my life direction. Before I came here, my dream was to work in a big hospital as dietician but now that I have the skill and the knowledge that I need to run a successful business; my dream is to open my own health center.
I started my long trip in Orientation week, September 2012. This week was full of activities. We received very important information regarding the program. We were introduced to students from other countries. We also gained a clear understanding of exactly what lay before us that year. I was able to begin some new friendships during that week because there were several activities performed in groups. We spent the first few days at Lily Lake. Then we moved to the uptown campus. One of the activities involved collecting information from around the uptown area. It was very exhausting but extremely fun as well. The next day we rode on the pink bus and then went for boat trip. During that week, the MBA faculty assigned us to different activities. One of them was in the uptown; we visited the fire department, the police station, and some other places in the uptown area. That day we really got tired because we had to walk for a long time. That week was a great start for me, though I did not relax as I had thought I would in the first week.
What the Course help me improve
I was a leader of my class for 4 years in college. Although my friends choose me for this position the first year. It was difficult. However, I got used to it after the first semester. I came to the MBA program with no business background apart from working as a secretary for 2 year. Nonetheless, it still was not enough for me to consider myself an expert in the Business world. The business world is interesting and full of secrets that are critical to further my ambition.
The first module of the MBA program was compulsory and we had no choices regarding the groups to join or the courses to take. Even though I disliked the course part, I had to join with other students from other countries and get down to learning. This was a bit disappointing because everybody felt the need to make a choice of what to read or not to read. For example, I had no background in accounting and faced many difficulties because the subject involved a lot of math. Despite giving my best, I failed the mid-term test and felt disappointed with myself. After the mid-term, I consulted for advice from my instructor to see what I can do to improve on the subject. She smiled at me and assured me that the second part of the subject would be easy because it involved less of financial accounting and more of managerial accounting.
I found it much easier for me to understand. I passed the course and learned a lot from it. Practice is very important in a course like accounting. I learned from that class that I do not have to be an A student in all courses. It is good to understand the general concepts of each topic to be able to take the right decision for the organization. In the first module, I also took applied business and statistics course. I did a lot of research during my study in the college, but I used only one method. In this course, the first assignment was about comparing and contrasting research approaches and methods from text. From this assignment, I learned about two different methods of research, when and why one should use these research methods. This will help me a lot in my future career, that is, if work in a R&D department. After I finished the first module, I expanded my knowledge of many different topics. Although I never expected to pass this course, I enjoyed learning the material. I felt that this was my first real step in the business world. It was a hard module, because dealing and working new people proved to be a hard task. Despite these odds, I managed to achieve it.
In the second module, group work was less than module one. I studied five courses and most of my friend took four. In this module, I expanded my knowledge of economics. Now I am able to read economic studies and use them in an effective way to understand business around the world. Initially, I wanted to step back from this class. I had never studied anything about economics before; and I wanted to learn about the subject. I was not sure if I could do it. During the class, I learned about microeconomic tools, analyzing an economic situation, and using statistics to make decisions about launching new products or continuing or stopping product lines. For every class, we had an online quiz. We submitted the quiz before the class every week. My friend and I studied for the quizzes .One of my friends majored in economics (Roaa). Weekly, we booked a room in the library and sat together, and she tutored us. She was a very good teacher. I really enjoyed the course after a few meetings because I understood it better. By the end of the course, I was no longer afraid of economics. I started enjoying learning about it because it helped me to understand things around me. I was also surprised by my ability of learning economics.
I gained a rich experience from the MBA program. I learned from my mistakes, feedback from failing in particular task, not achieving my goals to receive specific grade among other things that happened. Looking at my past, I have improved a lot given that I have a shy personality because I did not like social media. However, I have since become a responsible person that is capable of achieving my goals, and being able to lead people to complete task. I mixed with people all time and share with them important moment from their life like their birthdays.
During the MBA program, we did many surprise parties for each other even just wishing them happy birthday on their Facebook walls made them feel they meant something to you. I gained this great skill through the MBA program. I passed through hard times because of conflicts I had with some of my friends. These conflicts will help me to be a leader when I am close enough to my follower not to the personal level but to the level that will make them feel valuable to me. I changed a lot; my way of thinking and analyzing problems. I know I see myself older in some case and I start to use critical thinking in some issue that I face in my life. What was making since to me in the past does not make since to me at some point like using the social media to contact my friend.
After studying 3 modules, I felt very tired and I needed to experience the real business environment to test my abilities and my skills. I contacted with a number of companies until was able to get two seats for me and for my colleague in the Nexus and this was another experience and a very different world for me. I had moved from classroom to Office work. The workplace experience was very different from the classroom experience. Some managers think you are their superhero and able to finish given task in short time. However, it was a great experience because I got chance to stay close to my family. I applied the
MBA 7130 Product Design & Development course. This was a very fun course because it taught me how products are designed. In every class, we have guest speaker and then we had student presentation to explain book chapter. After that, we came to the fun part where we had watch for product life cycle. We watched videos for several products thereby expanding my experience.
Star management taught me a very important skill to understand how successful business like Zara are run, what kind of strategy they used in their business, what their business module was. This was fun and tough in the same time. Tools for assessing and developing competitive strategy are discussed and students apply these techniques in individual case studies.
After I finished the module, that I study it on this course I go back home to do my internship training, I have understood that we have wrong ideas about American brands. This course allow us to think out of the box and study how business can help to improve the society, examine profit organization and non- profit business model for social enterprise. I did a wonderful assignment that make me think back of my childhood time and reflect on my life from age 0 till know (see Appendix 3)
International Business Government and Society - Ethics & Social Responsibility
Being unethical is hard thing to do specially know in competitive business world. It is important to be ethical to save the value of your business. Some big company use a very cheap labor to manufacture high price goods and they do not pay for them enough money. For me, I will not be buying from them anymore because this is inspiration. In the lecture last, we watched a video called the last lecturer for Randy Pausch. In the beginning, I felt terrible. I had attended enough lectures in my life. I was against the point of wasting our time watching a video of a man talking about how he achieved his dreams. However, watching one more last time would not hurt. I was surprised to find myself watching the video carefully and listening attentively because the video was interesting and full of ideas.
What I've learned in this video or matter the
1 -I was very impressed with how he was able to achieve all of his childhood dreams2 – Something inside me got influence, such as when he said enabling the dream of others is fun. Yes, this is true. My mum stopped her education when she was in the elementary school. When I decided to get my master degree, she was so proud of this dream. Even though it made me stay away from her, she let me follow my dream and she told me she wanted me to achieve the dreams that she was unable to reach at that time. My mum now is a fashion designer. She is a very successful businessperson, but she always told me if I had a chance to continue with school, I would be able to have a bright future.
3- ‘ when you’re screwing up and nobody saying anything to you anymore that mean they gave up’ this is really a good and important lesson we should always know when someone cares about you and you did something wrong they will try their best to get you back in the right road . I get mad and I do not like people who criticize me too much. Often, I get angry of them, but when I feel I do whatever I want without any reaction from my friend or family around me do I stop and think what I did wrong that make them stay away from the situation will be the same. If your manager talks to you and asks you to change your behavior, work structure or whatever note from him and you did not change this will not help you to move on with your carrier path.
4- The brick walls are there for a reason. I agree hundred percent with this. I remember going to volunteering in organizing event in my sister school and I was in that last lecture I learned allot and I start to connect different thing going back with my life. In addition, my professor Debra told us a great story about her job as secretary when she was in her twenty. The lesson I learned from that story is change will not be real if you force someone to do thing they should believe that they have to do it in the way you want to be.
Conclusion
Despite busy schedules, the most important aspect is the presentation of an idea that would generate increased returns. Through the MBA program, I improved my writing skills through writing many report in research. The MIS class provide an amazing experience because I used the important information to present my idea within the shortest time to get the attention for my idea. Other important experiences learned from the MBA program include the strategies to be used in leading an effective metting, handling difficult scenario through informed decision-making procedures, and interacting with people from all occupations. Group assignments, class work, industrial attachment, and relating with individuals from different cultures helped to strengthen my career.
MBA is an investment in Knowledge
Managerial skill development as I mentioned in my last journal enabled to acquire important skills. I attended the workshops organized by professionals in the field of development and training. The course was fulfilling in many aspects. The first entailed a phase of discovery whereby we identified our learning style. This allowed us to understand the most appropriate way to work on a particular task. We were asked to write three goals that could be achieved in eight weeks. For a while I was confused about what is important to me and why, but I think this exercise was a good start for me. In the second stage, we moved from knowing ourselves to knowing the people around us. It is our nature as human beings to know a lot about people around us. We are now studying in a diverse environment in terms of culture, religion and everything. The world is actually referred to as a global village. In this stage, I broke a very important barrier in communication with people from different backgrounds. Usually, if we have a question about other cultures we do not ask directly but go to Google or other sources to get the answer. However, now the school environment is multicultural and we face different situations daily. We cannot judge others based only on what we knew; but we must ask to get to the right answer. This stage helped me to communicate with students from other cultures in an effective way. At first, when I learned about the topic of coaching, I wondered how would benefit my academic or professional. In my academic study, I could not find a clear answer, but after we completed the training session I realized that the topic is not just about professional life, but is a technique used in any situation we face in our lives, whether academic, professional, or personal.
After that, we got through the second stage, which is coaching; we tried to apply our knowledge from our experience in certain situations we face in daily life. Most business requires working in teams and not individually. One must always be coaching, and trainees need a coach who has the ability and skills to guide the team on the right path. Trainees often see coaches as wonderful role models. When I worked in a group, I had conflict with other team members. Some of these conflict got through and some we did not at the beginning of the pre-MBA program. I had one group member who was not able to talk in an effective way; she was not willing to change her opinion. She thought she was always right and she wanted to be a leader all the time. I always tried to challenge her, which I found out is wrong. I should have talked to her at the right time and tried to convince her to agree with me and not just fight. In this course, we learned how to deal with difficult situations in effective ways.
In the fourth stage, we learned how to listen effectively. The first step to get to the right solution is to listen well. Often the problem we face while working in groups that the other party does not hear us well or does not want to hear us. Listening does not mean only to listen; it involves asking questions while listening. This plays a very important role in transferring a message to the other party, indicating that what he\she says a has significant value and demonstrating that the listener are interested in what being said. One should not find solutions while listening. For instance, in my family, when I talk with my sister or my best friend about is what has happened at work or university, I do not want her to provide solution or to judge me or tell me how should I have behaved at that time. All I want her to do is to listen to me only. In the beginning, it seems very difficult, but with training, it becomes easier. I have trained a little bit and found that there has been very significant progress in many of my personal relationships. In professional life, when we be responsible for staff, we must expect to be exposed to such situations, so Pathways is very helpful and will help me a lot in my life.
Each of us in life has many dreams and hopes that we want to achieve, but some dreams are forgotten or lost. It is thus very important challenge to yourself by writing your goals in life, whether long-term or short-term. Before this course, I did not care that much about, but after we were asked to set goals and develop a plan to achieve them I chose the goal to lose weight and go to the gym three times per week for eight weeks. When I felt improvement in my weight I felt happy about myself; I then realized the importance of self-challenge and goal setting.
Human behavior and leadership
In this class, I expand my knowledge about how leadership is an influence process. We learned how leadership and followership are similar. During class, we had an interesting discussion about how leaders develop. Are good leaders born, or are they made? In my opinion they are born. I think the essential skills required for leadership exist from early in life. It is hard to learn to be a successful leader, if you are not a real leader on the inside. Leaders affect people. They trust them and believe in their ability to lead them to successful outcomes. If you are not a leader on the inside and on the outside, people will not trust you as leader. This helped me to improve and discover the leader that inside me.
I learned a good theory in leadership, called the Path-Goal Theory. This is a contingency approach to leadership in which the leader’s responsibility is to increase subordinate is motivated by clarifying the behaviors necessary for task accomplishment and rewards. I think this is a good theory to apply in a managerial situation to get the job done easily and on time. Sometimes people fail at a task, not because they cannot do it, but because they did not have someone to clearly define their goals.
When I was a child, my Mother bought me a coloring book. In the book were pictures of cartoon characters, and I was supposed to color inside the lines to make a pretty picture. At first, I would go out of the lines sometimes, but with training and guidance from my Mum, I became a good artist. In work it is the same situation, if the followers had a good leader with a clear mission they can reach their task easily. I believe this is a beneficial way to get the job done perfectly. This class enabled me to discover a lot of information about myself, much of this information formed the part to rediscovery.
