While the winter break in business schools around the world brought about a significant dip in traffic to my blog since mid-December, for me personally it was a very productive period in my MBA blogging. I mostly kept my promise to keep up with regular updates to this site and in the process I was able to publish all of my self-reflection journal from the Conflict Management and Negotiations class; I uploaded five new business cases analyses from my past MBA classes;. So if you have been away from reading the blog (and rightfully so) for the last month or so, you will find a lot of new reading material.
Apart from blogging I had wonderful holidays season with the family and friends, and even managed to squeeze in a short Caribbean getaway with my wife. Now is time to get ready for the upcoming Spring Term at George Washington University School of Business. Not only it is my final, but also most intense term in my whole MBA journey. With that said, it is possible that I won’t be able to update this blog as regularly as I managed to do in the past month. Still I hope to stick it out and give you some updates on my MBA classes and extracurricular activities. Stay tuned.
Around this time two years ago I learned what the flash mob was. Even though it was not completely novel phenomenon at that time – it was such for me. In that post two years ago I made a passing remark on the great potential flash mobs held for marketing purposes. And it seems that two years later this idea has eventually caught up with some Business Schools.
In this YouTube video from Carlson School of Management they did a very fine job with promoting their school. One of the things I greatly appreciated in this promotional video is that they were able to cooperate with the University’s School of Music to put up a professional performance. This is remarkable in the sense that the business students (well, administration most likely) were able to tap into “core competencies” from the Music students, instead of putting up another amateur performance by themselves. And by outsourcing the artistic part of the flash mob, they instead focused on their own true “core competency” of marketing. And they did a great job at that: in less then three weeks from posting it on Youtube they got over a million and a quarter views! Another point they scored was at featuring their School of Management building, which looks like a spanking new facility. Great visual to entice potential undergraduate and MBA students.
While we are on the topic of flash mobs, I would like to mention yet another video featuring Christmas flash mob. It was shot in November last year and to date got over 35 million views. This is probably the most popular Christmas flash mob out there yet. I hope you could enjoy it too.
Another milestone in my blogging experience. Don’t have too much time to reflect on this now, but if you are interested in some background information on how this blog came to be, you can read the post I had a year ago on One Year Anniversary of this blog.
I would still like to share some brief facts on development of the direction of the Part-time MBA blog and some basic statistics. For two years I have a total of 182 posts published, including the one you are reading now. About a year ago I started sharing some of the business cases analyses I prepared for my classes in part-time MBA program at George Washington University School of Business. I did not really know at that time what kind of response it would get, but it turned out to be the most popular section of the blog in this past year. So far I published just 12 cases, and I will continually add more from my stash of prepared business school cases as the time permits. I probably have three times as many cases that I could share by now, but it takes time to re-format them for this site, so it is going to be a while before I put them all out. Still, keep checking out periodically for new additions to that section.
In this past year I had a privilege of becoming one of the contributing authors to Beatthegmat.com site – one of the leading sites for people preparing for business school. It started in 2005 as a source of information and help for those who prepared for GMAT test. But since then has grown tremendously beyond that original mission and now is a major authority not only on GMAT preparation, but on “all things MBA”. Here you can learn the short history of that site and its current staff information.
So, you are curious to learn what the most popular posts/pages of this blog were in the past year? Apart from the home page, the top five most popular destinations on this blog are:
Each of these posts received over one thousand pageviews in the past year. I hope all these visitors for business cases are not there for plagiarizing, but to help jump start their own thought process, get some ideas and reference points, and may be learn some different approaches that they have not considered in their own preparation of the cases – as I originally stated in my introduction to that section.
This is my year-end results of blogging in brief. See you around for more!
Fortunately, the fall term of MBA at GWU School of Business did not kick in into the high gear yet, and I can take some time to relax without going into great bouts of stress. Even though it is going to change very soon, as the first module is almost half-way through, and I have my first deliverable this week already. So the pressure is definitely ramping up.
However, I was still able to catch the last moments of lull this past weekend. I went to Synetic Theater with my wife and elder daughter to watch Shakespeare’s Macbeth. Undoubtedly, the play itself lends a lot to the thriller part of the Synetic’s production. But the way they have been able to super-charge it and turn into a live high action show is truly amazing. I have been to quite a few of the theater’s shows in the last few years and I already mentioned that I am repeatedly astonished with how they manage to bring something new in both interpretation and implementation of the classic text every time without fail.
Since Synetic is performing in the genre of physical theater, most of their performances are a fine blend of drama, music, choreography, and even acrobatics. So most of the shows are quite dynamic, but this time I was finally able to articulate to myself the catch phrase to describe it. This is the phrase I used for the post title: high-octane action-packed live thriller. And the only way to truly understand what it means is to see it with your own eyes. So you have a chance to witness this true marvel, but only till October 2nd.
True to my mind-set influenced by the MBA experience though, I had a nagging thought at the end of the show. The show had been on only since Thursday, and it was a Saturday night when I went to see it. Nevertheless the theater was filled only about half. I am aware about the problems with attracting, or rather creating new theater-goers in our time. And I am confident that Synetic attracts a lion’s share of the theater-going public in the DC area. Still I believe that given their unique unmatched talent and the genre of the physical theater in general they have an appeal and potential to attract much broader audience not only in terms of demographics, but even geographically. In my opinion, with proper marketing they should not have any trouble to fill their shows and have people scapling tickets before the shows, just like Bolshoy Opera and Ballet don’t have issues with filling the Kennedy Center on their tour to Washington, DC.
// Sorry for not having any updates lately. I am enjoying my summer vacation with my family in Riviera Maya, Mexico. Just to keep you in the loop I am going to a upload a few pictures. I promise to have more extended report on the resort and other Cancun adventures once I come back. [...]
Updated on July25, 2011. Though I was able to post a basic post including images using the WordPress for Android application on my smart phone, I still needed to do some fine-tuning of the post from the regular WP interface. Also, I posted a follow up post on the weaknesses of my smart phone. // [...]
Yes, you read it right. It was one year ago exactly when I embarked on this journey of keeping the record of my progress in part-time MBA program at George Washington University in Washington, DC. The year was eventful both in my business school studies and on the blog itself. Now I can look back and [...]
I am almost done with the book – The McKinsey Mind. It has been a quite enlightening read and made me think about how my present company measures on the scale. We could use quite a few ideas to improve some of our processes, I will leave it at that. But it’s not a discouragement. [...]
Since the term had been winding down to its end, and I was basically done with all my deliverables, last weekend my wife and I had a little treat: another theater night at Synetic. I had a post back in February about this theater and their Antony and Cleopatra play. I know it may sound ridiculous, [...]
This style of management -herding the flock- is actually not as uncommon as it might seem in our “enlightened” era and all the advances in management theory. Quite many managers in business and leaders in public arena are still treating their subordinates and constituents as a flock of sheep which needs to be herded and manipulated into going through the “desired” gates. Even if it is done in more subtle inconspicuous or sophisticated ways, this still is the underlying philosophy of those “shepherd dog managers”.
One of the two books I attempted to read on my break between the Spring and Summer Terms in my part-time MBA studies was The 4-Hour Workweek by Tim Ferriss. It is really a great read, though I have to admit I haven’t finished it yet. Not everything in the book is really applicable, or even [...]
One day at the end of April I had a breakthrough, thanks to my MBA Entrepreneurship class. Not that the breakthrough had much bearing directly to the class, but it was definitely induced by the ideas I had been introduced to during the course. One night on my way to GWSB I got a brilliant business idea. I don’t really [...]
It just happenned that way that both our kids had sleepover arrangements out of house on Saturday night. Not a very common occasion in our family. So I decided to make some fringe benefits from this coincidence: to have a night out with my wife. Regular a la carte menu for such occasions for us (not that we [...]
Bookmark this on Delicious I have been reviewing the material for Global Perspectives final exam on Wednesday (tomorrow), when I incidentally found out that the final is actually on Friday. I was not planning to post anything until after my both exams, but now as I am getting a little breather, I decided to place these [...]
I have had a placeholder on my site for MBA Resources since I started this blog. But unfortunately I was not able to fill it up with any content so far. Admittedly, there are other sections of my site that are empty too for now, but eventually I am going to put some helpful links and [...]
Bookmark this on Delicious Yesterday at the Managerial Accounting study group we drifted at some point on the subject of how the exam methods are different in various countries. This discussion was prompted by a comment from one of our group members from China. We all found the pecularities of examination modes at college/university level, and [...]
// Who could know. Yesterday there was a news about former Vice President Dick Cheney being hospitalized at GWU Hospital. Seems he is doing alright already. I remember when I used to work on the campus of Navy Medical Center in Bethesda a few years ago, once a year in Spring we had the whole campus [...]
On Saturday I had a night out with my wife to watch a play ‘Antony and Cleopatra’ by Synetic Theater on Lansburgh Theatre stage of the Shakespeare Theatre Company. If you are a theater-goer and have a chance to see only one show while in DC, I would definitely encourage you to go to Synetic’s production. Labeled as [...]
Today I found yet another derivative of apocalypse in relation to the double snow storm that hit Washington, DC area earlier in February. I already expressed my opinion about the use of strong epithets in regards to these storms. However in this case it felt more like an irony than alarmism, so I let it slip. [...]
Update 9/17/2010: I posted a business case write up “Toyota Recalls and Public Relations Management Crisis” which I had prepared for my Business and Public Policy class in summer 2010. With this scandal unravelling in the last 3 weeks about Toyota recalls connected to the sticking accelerator pedal, and speculations about how much and for how [...]
// I don’t intend to downplay the serious implications, hazards, and consequences of the double snowstorm that hit the Washington, DC area and the East Cost of the country in these last few days in February. I admit that the massive snowfalls are not very common to this area, and people, as well as local authorities, may feel inadequate [...]
The snow storms battering the Washington, DC area in February are not really even news anymore. It has become sort of boring routine. I don’t even need to put up pictures of the snowfall, as it is just more of the same old. Nothing newsworthy. Anyways, today started the next round of snowfalls in the [...]
On Friday morning I checked out my co-workers on their preparedness for the Super Bowl Sunday. I am not following any sports (not even soccer, chess, ice hockey, or cricket), so my main interest was if they were prepared for a good party time. Turned out both of them for one reason or another were not [...]
Judging by TV news reports the snowstorm of February 5-6, 2010 was officially christened Blizzard 2010. That was an impressive nature showdown. I actually enjoyed the snow days. Spent Friday afternoon and all day on Saturday at home, with the fireplace cozy chirping, sipping on porto, watching movies with the family, and just taking it easy. As [...]
Yesterday after a class I stopped by at the neighborhood supermarket to pick up a few items. The store was quite empty, so were the shelves in produce, dairy, meat, and bread departments. The sight of the empty shelves was quite shocking. Only then I remembered that we were going to have a big snowfall this weekend. The [...]
I did not really know what to expect from this event when I was going there with my wife last Friday. For some reason the word “gala” implied something rather special to me. Therefore, when I saw announcement about Annual MBA Gala in the email from MBA Students’ Association, I put the date on my [...]
Some people would argue that MBA students and MBA degree holders think to much of themselves. It might as well be true, I don’t know for sure But I heard some time ago that one of the distinct human traits is being able to poke fun at yourself. It kinda stuck in my head, alas I don’t [...]
I was going through the pictures we made on our December trip to New York City. I wrote a bit about the trip in these two posts: NY City Musements… New Jersey Full Service Gas Station… Most of the pictures are family stuff of no particular interest to outsiders. But there is one picture that is worth [...]
The first week of classes in my Spring Term at GWSB is over. Now I have to concentrate on the homework assignments which are quite intense. Good that I have Monday off to spend more time on reading and solving cases for classes. A short summary of the week. I am very pleased with both [...]
My first attempt to move from WordPress (WP) hosting was at the beginning of November. That time I did some research on the WP themes. I actually went out and purchased a domain and hosting for my would be virtual home. I was not ready at the time to purchase one of the Premium themes, so [...]
This was the last weekend before the start of the Spring semester in my part-time MBA studies. So I might as well call it the end of the winter break. Classes start on Monday, though for me personally the first day of classes is Wednesday – Global Perspectives. Just a short recap of what I [...]
In the light of my post on whether MBA is losing its relevance for businesses and attractiveness to the students I was thinking what were the events relating to the MBA programs that attracted the most media attention lately. Since my personal interest in MBA evoked only in Spring 2008, this was the time when [...]
MBA degree, inspite of all ups and downs in public perception and acceptance from the time of its inception, have nevertheless managed to keep the status of a highly desirable and prestigious professional designation. The desirability of MBA has been mainly connected to the career and income growth opportunity. Those opportunities were mostly determined by [...]
// Today there was a big opening ceremony of Burj Khalifa “supertall” skyscraper in Dubai – the tallest building in the world. It is 2717 -foot (828 meters) tall. It beats the next tallest building in the world, Taipei 101 at 509 meters, by over 60%. The Burj Khalifa is probably going to keep its [...]
On the New Year Eve I received an email from the Jewish Federation of Greater Washington about passing away of Robert H. Smith. The letter was recollecting many great philantropic deeds of the man and his contribution to the Jewish community locally and worldwide. It did not mention explicitely his relation to the University of Maryland Business School. So [...]
