YOU

We need you,
In every aspect of living
We believe in you,
In every decision you make
We look up to you,
The way you carry yourself
We trust you,
To gradually bring us together
We listen to you,
In hopes of guiding us to success
We often question you,
To clear up uncertainties
But we still admire you,
The way you apply art in leading
Without you there is no cohesion
Chaos will form and nothing will be accomplished
We are what you make us to be
The magic in Management
The power in you

Speak Your Mind Through A Keryboard!

Communicating via blog is an unprecedented tool used by a professor (at least from my experience). I feel it did indeed grant us the benefit of speaking to our classmates in ways we couldn’t have otherwise. The only problem that I have noticed is that most of the times, I actually do not know who I have responded to due to many factors: picture too small, unrecognizable face, no picture at all, etc. I feel a more effective way to handle this would be to hold a discussion the day after between the individual who posted and the people who have responded. This way, we can get to know our classmates better and be able to express face to face how we felt about their blog and hear out their answers. Of course, this would mean to limit the blog entries since it would take up most of class, but I don’t see diluting the amount of blogs to be such a big problem. To avoid overloading one group with too many respondents, the professor can assign people to reply to specific blogs that way everybody in the group has come across each other in some way. With this, all the classmates will be able to discuss their individual blogs with each other and possibly build a friendship that extends outside of the class.

Personally, I have enjoyed very much writing about the class acrtivites and seeing what my classmates have to say about my entry. I plan on continuing the blog after the semester and hope to keep in touch with my classmates and professor. Maybe even 10 years from now we can discuss the “Vision” video and the impact it has had on my life!

I High D! If I were to say this to a normal person, he/she would think I am drugged up and bragging about it to my friend "D" correct? Now if I said this to someone who took this management course, they would know that I am diagnosed to be a highly influential leader who possesses dominant characteristics.

From this test, I am actually pretty flattered that my results came back the way they did. I would say that the findings are accurate and encompass the way I act managerially. I would not want to become another type of leader; personally I think being influential is one of the hardest yet most amazing of attributes to develop in life. To have people look up to you and to be considered a referent is something I thrive to achieve. Having that dominant side also suits my personal profile in a sense. When time is running short and problems need to be solved, I like to be the go-to guy in making the final decision.

I believe these tests are indeed helpful in determining people’s management “type” and obtaining a better understanding of them. Psychologically you can analyze the way they view themselves, which in most cases accurately describes their very actions. This would also help in sorting through hundreds of job applications where time is a concern. You simple look for the ones with the leadership qualities desired and then follow up with the interview. Online dating is another example where this test can play an important role. eHarmony would be able to use this test as another form in which they can match their participants. So all the ladies looking for a dominant man, I am your second choice lol.

Ah, the winter survival scenario! Which my group (along with others) won, if you just happened to not know! ☺ For this case, I would want to have a leader with “S” High D traits. The leader needs to be steady in his actions and take into consideration that his ultimate decision(s) will affect the fate of many others. Therefore by remaining calm and directing people accordingly yet maintaining the ability to think on his feet and provide the final plan of action, I shall entrust in him my life lol.

Chinese Vision is the BEST! :)

After watching the video “The Power of Vision” in Management class the other day, I was sooooo inspired that I just had to blog about it. I must say it was even better than Seven Pounds… seriously…Joel Arthur Barker who stars in this short film undeniably deserves a Grammy. Did you guys see him fling that star fish ever so elegantly as he pranced upon the beach? Amazing…

All this would’ve not been possible without “vision,” which is the key to having anything accomplished because:

Vision without action is just a dream.
Action without vision merely wastes time.
Vision coupled with action can make things happen!

Having been so inspired by this film I have compiled a list of things that I see or envision myself accomplishing in the future.

1). First and foremost, the reason why I am in Baruch and the reason I am majoring in Marketing, is for the simple fact that I will one day become the Head Buyer for either Gucci or Mr. Louis Vuitton.
I’ve been in the retail business for over 3 years and have grown to love the art of fashion retail and everything that it entails. Selecting the right products to display is pertinent in grasping the consumer’s attention and ultimately resulting to a sale. For this reason, I have devoted my life to merchandising and providing the products that would maximize sales while pleasing the customer’s needs/wants. To make this vision reality I am currently working on obtaining an internship in Europe where I will be able to witness first-hand the foundation of all this. I have already built a small network of previous and current employees at each of the respective companies and speak to them regularly. The track that I am on, I see myself reaching my goal in the near future.

2) When I was in maybe 3rd grade? I drew up a “dream home,” according to my mom, which consisted of a gigantic backyard complete with a pool/Jacuzzi etc. It even came with a family dog surprisingly. And according to this lady, I’ve promised that when I grow up and become successful, I would purchase her this home exactly the way I drew it. Now if my memory is correct, I do not recall saying any of this, but hey what can I do now lol. All jokes aside, my mom definitely deserves this “dream home” and I will one day purchase it for her. To do this, I will have to hit the lottery or end up finding a ton of money, or if I’m realistic I will slowly save up and sacrifice buying my first home in light of hers.

3) Personally, for my self-pleasure, sometime in the future I would love to be apart of a big-hit movie. It has always been a dream of mine to act and take role in that one movie where people are continuously gossiping about how amazing it was. This is the one vision that may seem far-fetched but anything is possible. Maybe if my goal mentioned previously of becoming the head buyer of a fashion powerhouse were to come true, I may have built a big enough network to get contacts in the entertainment industry, which at that level I’m pretty sure would not be that hard. And if I do end up making it on the big screen, this would provide me with enough funds to fulfill my mother’s expectation. See, if all goes well each vision will lead to the success of another!

These are the three visions that have always been wandering in the back of my mind. I’ve finally come to express them thanks to the starfish thrower. One thing I have noticed is that I would rather not cloud myself with too many visions, doing this would blur and obstruct my view, eventually leading to my failure. (Mr. Joel Arthur Barker was also the inspiration behind that previous analogy). Instead, I shall focus on the main 3 and develop more once they have all been fulfilled.

VOTE OR DIE!

Within the class activity on “decision,” I believe there was balanced mixture of all the different ways to handle conflict. It is presumed to be that way since our class is so large; therefore we needed a mediator to gather the various approaches. This came about within minutes of the professor initiating the discussion between us, which in turn, proved to serve us well. Once the mediator was established we were then able to start communicating our ideas. Unfortunately, not everybody’s thoughts were being written down which was not fair and discouraged individuals from further contributing to this “agreement” that 100% of the class was to abide by. Noticing this habit of the moderator-only accepting ideas that “he” thought was right-and attempting to voice out an opinion myself (which got shut down), I soon decided to withdraw myself from the conflict along with a few other classmates. This avoidance approach that I decided to take was based on the chaos that was going on and me already being disappointed from the grade I received on the test; a big mistake on my part. I have learned before to always maintain composure in order to achieve results, no matter the situation. I also don’t like when people don’t listen to me, so that may have angered me more lol.

An alternative method that I believe would have settled the chaos between all the members would have been various groups coming up with their own proposals. Once the moderator emerges he/she splits the class into different groups and asks that each group cooperatively come up with their own proposals. Now within each group we will have another moderator who will guide that discussion and ultimately serve as the spokesperson for their respective group. The argument has now boiled down to ONE central moderator to come up with a conclusion along with the several representatives from the groups. This method of handling conflict will eliminate the massive interruptions and yelling between members. It is more organized and controlled while maintaining the equality of the final decision.

In sum, our class activity was successful due to the ability for the one individual to adapt to the changing situations. He began to notice that the initial moderator was being bias (student’s complaining), so he went up and took over. As a whole, our class was competing to win. We needed to come to one conclusion that would benefit every individual. It may have been a ton of students, but we were essential ONE group with the same goal in mind. The leader provided the accommodation, not being selfish and considering everybody’s ideas. Again, we did not solely rely nor act on one approach; it was more of a combination.

Save an Egg!

Another group activity for extra credit! Amazing! I love these in-class experiments that we periodically do. This time, it was about saving an egg from total demolition when dropped at arms height while braced by only a couple of straws and tape!

When we got into our groups, we already knew what our goal was, as explained by the professor, so “Step 1” of the planning process was basically provided to us. I did, however ask my group members if anybody had any previous experience with this activity since it was a popular one. Unfortunately, no one had the familiarity to propose a possible design that would guarantee the prevention of the egg cracking, so we proceeded to “Step 2.” We knew we had a limited supply of tape and straws so it was obvious they needed to be used wisely and thoughtfully. I told my fellow members to jot down any ideas that came to mind that would serve as a promising solution so that we can later combine these thoughts and come up with an ultimate plan. I guess this part can be considered the alternatives…we then came up with a final outline of how the straws will be applied to the egg in attempt to brace the fall and protect it from cracking. Unfortunately our strategy did not work out the way we thought it would’ve and the egg ended up breaking. We didn’t evaluate or take corrective action due to lack of time and since this was only a temporary in-class activity.

For this activity, I believe we planned on a mediocre level. More organization could have been applied to the planning instead of all of us not knowing where to go next with the activity. Some members were also shy and did not want to speak their mind. It is pertinent to obtain as much information as possible even if it may sound stupid because a greater idea can emerge from that thought. Although we failed in saving the egg, I believe we succeeded in actually coming up with a plan and implementing it!

Time Management

As the new semester kicks off, I am faced with a big problem. That problem would be that of "time management." It has haunted me here and there throughout my academic career but I have yet to address it seriously and it may finally affect me drastically. I have lost concentration in school and have spent endless hours being unproductive either watching t.v, surfing the web, chatting up a storm with friends, dancing senselessly by myself for no apparent reason, etc. Those hours could have been geared towards reading required/non-required material for courses/personal enlightenment and the like. I feel like every hour something can be done to ease the load of work school has thrown at me but I fail time and time again in trying to doing so. It is a major problem and needs to be fixed as soon as possible!