Garbage in...

In our Marketing class today, the professor mentioned that things will get less structured, and that we should expect that as we go along in our courses, the right answer will be less and less clear and that we should expect a certain level of discord among our team members. Huh?! I thought education was supposed to elucidate and dilineate, not confuse and obfuscate. You would think as companies and consumers get more sophisticated and more efficient, that business would become more predictable. However, it seems that things in the real world just don't work out quite like they do on Excel spreadsheets. Part of the problem is is incomplete or inaccurate information or metrics. Unlike word problems on a quiz or exam in which all the variables are presented in black in white, it is far less clear in the real world what the probability for certain events are. For example, what is the probability that this new product my company is developing will be readily adopted by the industry? 80%? 75%? And what sort of market share would we expect? 10%? 25%?

Certainly there are principles, models, historical data and frameworks to consider, and they can be useful for constructive discussions, but in the end, there will always be risk and uncertainty with business. But rather than throwing our hands in the air and say "who knows," and least I can now say, "we can build a model around that and test its elasticity and utility functions..." Garbage out.

I'm Back!

...And live to blog another term. I am happy to report that I successfully passed all my classes last term, even Financial Accounting (partial credit...it's a beautiful thing). My best class by far was Managerial Effectiveness, which I managed to effectively knock out an "SP" (superior pass).

The three week break between terms was quite nice and much needed, allowing the stress and worry to wash away and the dark bags under my eyes to gently yield to a more lively shade of pink. Did I mention I lost five pounds in the first term? My classmates look at me incedulously and ask, "how can it be?" It's a combination of stress and lack of sleep, I joke. But really what has kept me from tipping the scales is the voice of my conscience made manifest in my workout buddy Laurence, who calls me to the gym every Monday and Thursday. I must say I have never been one to mess around with "dumbells" (or dumb belles), but I have been pleased with my progress since the beginning of this year.

This term promises to be an interesting one - we have Decision models, Microeconomics, and Marketing. I think Marketing is going to be the most relevant and helpful to my biz. I actually used the 4 "P's" of marketing with one of my employees the other day and felt kinda smart for a couple seconds, until I realized he knew the 4 P's also...