My artifacts demonstrating mastery of this outcome
My Reflection on meeting
this outcome
The Strategic Management outcome demonstrated that I had developed a mastery of concepts around developing a strategic vision and executing a strategic plan within an organization. The Strategic Management course was, in my opinion, the most challenging course of the program. In addition to the advanced subject matter, this course had an additional participation component. One of the course requirements was to take part in the Business Strategy Game. This involved working with a team of classmates in an advanced online business simulation meant to provide the experience of developing and executing a strategic plan for a shoe company. The team was responsible for making financial and operational decisions with the goal of delivering the highest overall investor satisfaction. My team did not come in first place in the simulation, but did turn in excellent financial results including:
- Grew company from $250MM in annual revenue to $493MM (97% increase)
- Stock price increased from $30 a share to $191 (630% increase)
- Earnings per share increased from $2.50 to $11.92 (476% increase)
- Maintained a solid A+ credit rating
- Overall market share increased from 20% to 24.5%.
- Met or exceed investor expectations every year except for 1
The Ethics in the Global Marketplace outcome demonstrated my understanding of the importance of ethical behavior by corporations and individuals competing in a global business environment. This paper examined 2 separate situations, namely the fall of Enron and the housing collapse of 2008, entailing extreme lapses in ethical behavior and the wide ranging impact those lapses had on the lives of company employees, clients and the global economy at large. The paper further explored the topic of corporate greed and how it fueled the choices made by business leaders who acted in their own self interest with little or no regard for the negative impact their choices would have on others. This course allowed me to explore some areas that I have been personally passionate about over the past several years, primarily the corruption and malfeasance that seems to run rampant in the corporate and financial sectors of the corporate world. This course provided me with some additional tools and a different lens with which to view these topics as I continue to research and watch the effects of these events unfold.
The Quality and Statistical Analysis learning outcome demonstrated my ability to apply concepts related to quality management in a manufacturing environment. This project required me to complete a case study involving a faulty process that was causing significant delay and rework in a parts manufacturing business. In the case study, I utilized quality management tools like cause and effect diagrams, force field analysis and as-is and to-be process mapping to identify root cause and present a recommendation for improving the process and the quality output of the facility. This project also demonstrated strong communication skills in creating a presentation suitable for explaining the issue and the recommended process improvements to senior level management.
The Business Law learning outcome allowed me to demonstrate my understanding of the concepts in this course by writing a paper highlighting my key learnings. The concepts that resonated with me most in this course were the complexity of the law, the criticality of attention to detail (especially to those with a fiduciary responsibility) and the growing importance of the internet and e-discovery to the legal system today. Each of these topics represented an area for me that was either something of a blind spot or simply an area that I had not given sufficient examination to prior to this course. In the paper I discussed the fact that I have a large number of people in my family who are or have been in law enforcement and how that instilled in me from an early age a love and respect for the law. This course built on that love and exposed aspects of it that had not been clear to me before.
My Future Learning Goals
related to this outcome
Each of these artifacts represent a portion of what I have learned in the course of this MBA program. It would be impossible to fully represent everything that I learned over the course of the past 15 months. Much of what I have learned cannot be simply represented in a paper or a presentation. Things like how to work together with a virtual team, how to think critically and examine a problem from multiple angles and how to distill an issue down to it's root cause so it can be clearly communicated to business leaders and stakeholders are a few of the more abstract concepts that I am taking with me. Each of these artifacts are examples of how I translated the course concepts into a physical deliverable, much as I am expected to in my career. The concepts that I learned in classes like Business Law, Quality Management, Marketing, etc are all things that I can apply in my current role or could conceivably apply in a future role. More importantly though, the artifacts included here display that I am capable of adapting to new learning environments, absorbing and processing complex material and translating that into real business scenarios. I believe that learning is a lifelong process for those who are open to it. My participation in this MBA program was motivated in part by a desire to advance my career professionally, but on another more personal level, it was truly out of a desire to increase my knowledge and to become a more rounded person and to continue the process of learning. I plan to take the concepts I have learned and look for opportunities in my future personal and professional endeavors to build and strengthen these skills.
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