A year ago in summer term 2010 at George Washington University School of Business I took a class on Business and Public Policy. It was an interesting exercise and I learned a lot about the tensions between the public interests and private corporate agendas, lobbying, and public relations. I have published earlier two of the individual cases I prepared for that class in the Business School Cases section of the blog.
For the group project we had to select and present a specific case on the conflict of interests between the government and a corporation and give in-depth analysis of that situation. Out of four or five groups we had in that class all but ours chose to present their cases from the point of public interest. In our group we decided to take the position of defending the corporate interests. It seemed to be more suitable for MBA students in the MBA program, not Public Policy. As a matter of fact, one of the members of our group was in Public Policy program at Georgetown University and she took this summer class at GWU through the consortium. She was the one who felt more out of place than others in the group. But I believe it was ultimately quite helpful for her too to see the issues through the eyes of business for a change.
The issue we chose was to give recommendations to Coca Cola company on fighting the so-called “Soda Tax”. The issue was on the rise about a year ago when more states were debating levying this tax, more broadly known as ”Sugar Tax”. In our family we are not big consumers of soda, as we are quite concerned with all that extra sugar pumped into the beverages. Soda is semi-banned from our house, except for special occasions, and you will not find it casually in our fridge. That’s why, like the Public Policy visiting student from Georgetown University, I felt at times like playing “the devil’s advocate”. But again, it was a great exercise. As a matter of fact, after the final in-class presentation many people from other groups commended us for taking the corporate side, as it made it more appropriate and interesting for everyone. Specifically because it is quite a controversial issue, and many people privately would probably support the public interest in the case.
A great asset to our group was one guy who worked in public relations company about a decade ago, and they were involved in presenting tobacco companies against the multi-million litigation suites. He knew all the techniques actually used by the big corporations in protecting their interests through multiple channels, including public relations. I probably learned from him as much, if not more than from the rest of the class material.
In our approach we decided to play the role of the internal consulting group within Coca Cola and present our recommendations to the upper management. Unfortunately, I won’t be able to share those final recommendations as they were prepared mostly by another group member and then elaborated by the group. However, I posted my preliminary write up for the group paper on Summary of the Soda Tax Issue.
Have not been able to post lately due to the overwhelming amount of work in business school. As much as I prefer qualititative over the quantitative classes, in terms of time it is not really easier. In quants it takes me a lot of time to comprehend the concepts and their application. In qualititative classes it takes no less time to do research and write papers. I have a tendency to get caught up in research to make sure I cover all the bases in a comprehensive way. Sometimes I spend hours in research to write just one paragraph. So staying up till wee hours of the morning has been way too common occasion for me in the last three weeks.
I mentioned before that this summer term both classes I have are non-quants: Business and Public Policy and Nature of Markets, aka Introduction to Marketing. In both classes we have to do case studies. All marketing cases are group assignments, and we have to crank out a case a week. There is some levereging in that, because we have divvied up the cases within the group, but still we have one final case to not just write a paper, but also do a class presentation.
In Business and Public Policy I wrote two cases so far and there is one final group project. I got maximum possible points on the first one about PR crisis in Toyota recalls. The second one was done in a more hop scotch manner, so I am waiting to see by how much I missed the mark. Our group project and presentation is shaping up quite nicely so far, so I hope it will give us above average grade overall.
This Saturday I have a “chain-group-meating” in the afternoon. First for marketing, then piggy backed on it – for Public Policy. It’s going to be at least five hours total. I am not sure if I am more concerned about “brain freeze” or “brain meltdown” as a result of that.
The only consolation is that it is going to be over next week. After final presentations we will still have a take-home exam in marketing. But next weekend it is going to be done at any rate. Can’t wait for a summer break and vacation. GWU School of Business is offering two summer modules, but I opted to have a little break and take vacation instead of the second module. I will have total 18 credits by the end of this module, so I am pretty much on schedule with the program. To make up fot this little summer lull I have already registered for 9, instead of my usual 7.5 credits in Fall term. But it’s is to early to fret about that yet.
I will update my status with the Summer term once I am done with it. For now, back to studies.
Updated July 31, 2011. Overtime I posted my wrtie-ups for case analyses in this class in Business School Cases section of the blog. Today I placed a final case analysis from the class on Soda Tax Issues.
I had the first class in my summer term tonight: Business and Public Policy. I can tell from the class that it is going to be quite interesting. Some of the concepts that we were exposed to in the class went against the grain of the widely held beliefs by free market proponents. So in a way they challenge the very core of the MBA education which was originally designed to mint corporate management/leadership material. I actually find this very refreshing. During the class we were shown a short preview of “The Corporation” documentary. Instead of just unequivocally supporting “everything capitalist” this movie makes you think about the issues of corporate America from a different perspective.
I have to admit that for many “anti-corporate”, “anti-globalization”, “anti-everything” folks these concepts of criticizing, not just critically analyzing, capitalism in general and its American flavor in particular is nothing new. This is the “bread and butter” of their very existence. But for me, it is sort of fresh, and I am looking forward to learning more about the “dark side” of the modern corporations. I have seen first-hand a much darker side of the “anti-capitalist” society, so I would not subscribe to many of the views and policies that promote and instill overwhelming government control over business and public life in general. However there is undoubtedly a need for a rational checks and balances system in governing businesses and not letting them to run amuck on their insatiable quest for profits. Examples of that are abundant in recent history starting from Enrons, WorldComs and continuing with Countrywides and AIGs of more recent developments.
The present course is somewhat interconnected with the Business Ethics that I had in the Fall term of my MBA program. Albeit in Business Ethics we focused on individuals in the corporate environments and ethical challenges that they faced within their corporate functions. In Business and Public Policy the focus is on corporations and businesses themselves acting as a “person” and their interaction with the public and the government. I guess the focus of this present course has been tailored recently to meet the need for promoting corporate sustainability and responsibility ideas that are taking root in many revised MBA programs across the country and at George Washington School of Business in particular.
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