Working With Groups

So here we are, a neglected blog and moving forwards at my MBA. I am currently enrolled in MBA510 – Managerial Decision Making. This is for the most part a statistics class. It carries the same anatomy of my statistics class form undergrad. Not much Managerial Decision Making done here. I am dissappointed.

While the class is challenging since I am constantly figuring out the temperature of the flux capacitor (my friends will chuckle at this) with square roots of letters and symbols that will be numbers eventually at the end of the calculation, nonetheless it is rewarding. Something has to be said however about the place of statistics in a managers/leaders brain.

Some things are just better outsourced and a granular science like statistics should ALWAYS be.

[FROM PAPER - Begin]

First Mover Advantages and Disadvantages - Alternative Solution One

UWB is currently engaging in a product launch that could potentially have a first to market advantage. In the world of first market movers companies may or may not produce sustainable advantages because of a multiplicity of controllable and uncontrollable forces (Kerin, Varadarajan and Peterson, 1992). It would serve as prudent that UWB research and benchmark other products that have garnered this supposedly prestigious status and plan for risk accordingly.

Deborah R. Ettington writes in First-Mover Advantage highlighting this inherent risk. She communicated the following which was later revised by Hal P. Kirkwood, Jr.:

• 
  Three types of benefits—technology leadership, control of resources, and buyer switching costs—can provide long-lasting first-mover advantages. However, researchers believe that in many industries, companies entering later can overcome these advantages. Sometimes there are even first-mover disadvantages, or advantages enjoyed by companies who enter later. For example, the first entrant may invest heavily in enticing customers to try a new type of product. Later entrants would benefit from informed buyers without having to spend as much on education. Later entrants may be able to avoid mistakes made by the first movers. If first movers become complacent, later entrants may take advantage of changing customer needs. As the Internet continues to develop, technology companies find themselves especially susceptible to second- or later-mover success. Follower companies are reverse-engineering many new products to develop competing products either faster or cheaper—negating much of the first-mover advantage.
  

A keen look at this type of industry commentary and what other companies have experienced could be invaluable information that managers and leaders of UWB can analyze, evaluate and take into consideration when making decisions on launching key strategic products.


[FROM PAPER - End]

Yep, I learned that the hard way at license monitor.

Let’s focus on my topic however, working in groups whether online or in person has it pros and cons respectively.

I however discovered that no one in online classes is interested in conference calls! This is so surprising to me. In this class, unlike others I am I am working with four email addresses. Conference calls are not mandatory and students seem to hate them.

So yes, I do have a negative observation of earning an online MBA.

It is that someone without any communication skills, without any phone skills and without the discipline to prioritize a team conference call can get their degree by merely just writing emails and participating in news groups. This I found very disheartening.

[FOUND THIS – begin]

In the busy world in which you work, you simply need to have every tool that can benefit you. That includes conference calling. Why is it so important? For one thing, it allows you so much more time to do the things you need to do. And, it allows you to work with your clients no matter where they are, no matter where you partners are. There are few products that work as well as conference calling for attorneys. Here, we will list some of those reasons. We’ll talk about just why you need to use conference calling in your law firm, and what you have been missing without using it.

First of all, let’s make sure you know just what the conference call system is. This system allows you, the lawyer, to converse with several people around the world. It puts you in the position to multitask and to record conversations with clients. These things are quite important in the attorney’s world. Here are some of the benefits to purchasing and using a conference calling system:

Think about time. How much time do you waste calling one person only to have to call and tell three other people what that first person said? While the message may be as simple as, “the client is ready to go,” it will take you several minutes worth of greetings, more time conversing about the weather…by the time you get to the actual point of the call, you’ve wasted valuable time. In a conference calling atmosphere, everything is done right there. You can plug into it as many people as you would like to, depending on the amount of pre scheduled spaces. Everything gets done, right there, without any additional calls needing to be made.

Time is money. Another reason to use conference calling in your law firm is that it will save you money! First, we can say that it saves you time which can then be turned into profits. By freeing up more time, you are able to get to more clients faster. You simply get more work done. And, it saves you on long distance as well. Since these phone calls can be recorded, it saves you valuable money by eliminating the need for someone to take dictation.

[FOUND THIS – End]

At the end of the day, an MBA graduate should have built out several other skills above and beyond simply just theoretic and academic accomplishments. One of these skills in improving communication. Online schools should incorporate conference calling into the instructor-to-student interaction and student-to-student interaction.

Someone did however make the point that bad communicators get their MBAs in B&M schools also and they make it somehow. I argue that at least with face-to-face interaction they will be aware of the shortcoming regardless of whether they address it or not.

An employee of mine however pointed out, that with online courses “at least you can totally drink in class”.


Cheers!
Richie Etwaru