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, but I think of Synetic as of “Apple” in its latest stretch of innovation from IPod in 2001 to IPad- 2010. This outlandish comparison is influenced by the Apple, Inc. case we had to work in marketing course this summer term.
It’s really funny how MBA affects the way of thinking and the view of the world. In a sense you start to look at things from a very specific and somewhat narrow perspective. Yes, it’s true that your perspective actually broadens and becomes more systematic and synthetic in everything referring to business. You gradually become able to look at business in more integrated fashion: see it from different angles, whether it is statistical analysis or ethical implications. But at the same time, you start to apply the same methods of analysis to other things, seemingly unrelated. I would put it this way: MBA broadens your way of thinking about business, but narrows your veiw of the world. I don’t say it is inherently bad. But now it makes much more sense to me that business schools try to attract diverse application pool in many regards, including professional backgrounds, undegraduate majors, phylantropic endeavors, etc. MBA program will instill the systematic approach of business thinking in the students, but it is very crucial to have something besides that. It is a sort of checks and balances in professional business education.
Back to Synetic. Why I compared Synetic with Apple? Because every time I come to their plays, I wonder what else can they come up with to surprize their audience? Have not they already done a great job in their last play? Can you really add something new to it? Are they going to plateau this time and just give another great performance, like the one before?
But every time I come, it’s not ‘just another great performance’ – I am utterly bedazzled every time with their interpretation of the seemingly known texts. And this time with Othello they again were able to astonish me beyond my expectation. Just like Steve Jobs and Apple with its streak of innovation of the last decade .
As one critic wrote about Synetic’s Othello, “I thought they had reached the pinnacle with their last outing, Antony and Cleopatra, but clearly there’s no end to the brilliance of this company when it applies its physical theater style to the Bard. Hyperbole? Head to the Kennedy Center’s Family Theater and judge for yourself.”
I fully undersign under those words. If you are around DC area, the play is going to be on till July 3, so there is time to catch the magic.
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 understand the exact train of thought how I arrived at it. But I was thinking about this blog and I realized that in spite of the fact that it was the end of April, and the last snow storm we had was more than two months before, I was still getting traffic from Google based on the searches related to that remarkable snow storm we had in February 2010. It is really surprizing, but to this day I get at least 3-4, sometimes more visitors a day who come to my site from the search engine because of a few posts that I placed on my blog about those memorable Blizzard 2010 days:
So my idea was to produce some apparel, mainly t-shirts, sweat-shirts, hoodies and caps with snow storm related imprints. Something with insignia along the line: ‘Snow Storm 2010 Survivor‘. I was thinking that in addition to selling them online, I could also contract some street vendors in downtown DC, and souvenir shops around town to sell on consignment basis. Now that the tourist season is approaching, I thought those items could be in demand by tourists visiting Washington, DC. I was really excited about such a brilliant idea
Just to test the waters I went online that same night after class to see what, if anything, was available around this theme. I should not have been, but I still was completely smashed by my findings . Not only those t-shirts were already available, but I was really amazed by a true entrepreneurial zeal of those who did it. Some of the snowmageddon t-shirts were already available and marketed on February 8, 2010!!! Here is another article about Pensyllvania snow storm shirts offerings. This means they were offering it right in the middle or immediately in the wake of the double snow storm charge. That was really amazing how fast people can come up with ideas. D-a-a-a -h! ;-)
Anyways, just wanted to share about my entrepreneurial idea fiasco. I often come up with some ideas, but some of them, like the one I shared here, are very time-sensitive. And I still seem to be ‘a bit’ slow. Need to sharpen my entrepreneurial instincts
Today was the last day of classes in the first module of the Spring Term for me. Next week we have finals. For me it is Global Perspectives and Managerial Accounting. I have a false sense of confidence about Global Perspectives, mainly because it’s an open notes, books, everything exam. As for Managerial Accounting – I just started to comprehend many of the concepts. However, when it comes to slicing and dicing the actual numbers, I feel mostly at loss. So do most of my classmates most of the time, based on observation and conversations.
Today, for example, we submitted two cases prepared in groups. One of the cases we prepared was so far from the solution which we discussed in class, that I don’t even know where to start. The other one was much closer in final recommendation to the solution presented by professor, but we had chosen different motivation as driving force. I still believe our explanation is a valid alternative. What amazed me was that the write up I prepared for this case was explaining everything in just narrative manner. For me it seemed quite reasonable to do it that way based on the question and the input information. But professor showed us how all this narrative could be quantified. Really amazing how the left and the right sides of the brain can see the same thing from so different angles. As I told the guys jokingly on the break after we had solution for the first case ‘one just has to have a very ‘perverted’ mind to be able to see things that way’
We had evalutations of the courses in both classes this week. From what I could tell both professors got very highly appraised by my classmates. One of the guys said that Managerial Accounting professor has been his best instructor in the part-time MBA program so far. I would probably concur with that. He is not the only good one I had, and I am not sure you could use superlatives to say “the best”, but he is definetely a very good instructor. So is the Global Perspectives professor by the way. So far this semester my experience with professors is quite good. I hope I won’t get disappointed in the second module of my Spring term MBA program.
Regardless of how good the instructor is, on the Managerial Accounting exam we are still expected to manipulate numbers and this will require some quite “perverted mind”. My group mates suggested to meet this Saturday to prepare for exam. We are going to discuss the example exam from the course pack. It was indicated that the actual exam will be close in format and content to this one. I am going to be at the meeting to tone my brain.
A final joke for the day that I heard today in class. It was actually related to the case, as we compared two subsidiries of the company, one in Italy and the other in Germany:
In Germany everything is prohibited unless explicitely allowed. In Italy everything is allowed, especially if it is prohibited. Bookmark this on Delicious
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 [...]
It has been great to get back on campus after a week of cancelled classes. The last week with its snow days and a whole week of missed work and MBA classes has affected most of my classmates in the same way: we slacked down. It was obvious when professor in Global Perspectives asked a [...]
With all this snow days and hype I almost forgot about one year anniversary of my second attempt on GMAT in preparation for the part-time MBA program. It actually was on February 7-th. In my post about the first taking of the GMAT I already mentioned that the score of 550 that I got that time would [...]
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 [...]
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 feel like a squeezed lemon: exhausted and despondent. The whole weekend I have been working on my part 0f the group research paper on FDI in Russia. I had to cover Political Climate section of our Risk Analysis study. Last weekend I digged out tons of material on the internet on the topic. This week [...]
Today in Global Perspectives class professor was seemingly glowing when he broke a news. Turned out that Financial Times published their Global MBA Rankings 2010 just two days ago on January 25. MBA program at GWSB climbed from position 71 to 57 among top 100 MBA programs worldwide. What he was even more proud of was that in [...]
Finished the second week of classes in my first module of Spring Term. The intensity is picking up just a little bit, but so far very manageable. It’s probably going to change this weekend when I will have work on two major projects: I am planning to work on my section for Risk Analysis Group Paper [...]
On Tuesday we had a group meeting to discuss the general approach and outline for our course group paper in Global Perspectives class. It was suggested to meet at one of the bar lounges on the campus, so our almost 2-hour meeting was over pizza and beer. Very inducive environment for discussing any business issues, including [...]
One of the books required in Managerial Accounting is the Course Pack that has been compiled by the professor himself. This is the first time I have the course pack required in my MBA program classes. That’s why I had a little surprise with it. The course packs are apparently compiled/authored by a professor(s) in the university [...]
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 [...]
On Thursday was my first class in Managerial Accounting. To say that it was OK would be underestimating it. I actually liked it a lot. There were a few factors that contributed to my favorable impression of the class: Professor was very sharp and knowledgable. He looks probably younger than he really is, but he [...]
On Wednesday I had my first class in the Spring Term – Global Perspectives. I enjoyed the class and got very favorable impression of the professor. He has been teaching in the International Business Department for a long time and still has not lost interest in teaching the subject. The subject itself is very interesting [...]
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 [...]
As I mentioned yesterday, last weekend I finalized my MBA classes registration for the Spring term. In reality I originally registered for all of my classes within 7-10 days after the registration was open sometime in November. My classes were selected based on the learned lessons described in my previous post. One more thing I learned during registration [...]
// This past weekend I finalized my classes for the Spring term. In this seemingly simple decision there are a few caveats I was not aware of when I was choosing my classes for the Fall term, and was still learning during this registration period. In summer I just picked whatever classes did not have other [...]
Now that the fall term is formally over, I can draw the line for my first term in part-time MBA program at George Washington University School of Business (GWSB). It has been rather interesting learning experience. I had some classes that really grabbed my interest, such as Microeconomics, Decision Making. There was a subject that made me shiver [...]
Today I received my last grades for the second half term in fall semester. This makes it closed both officially and emotionally I am happy that I made it through. My GPA is actually still over 3, inspite of my little snafu with Financial Accounting-II. Hurray and on into the winter break and celebration time! I mentioned [...]
My professor in one of the classes I signed up for a spring term has already placed the syllabus and the home assignment for the first class. It actually happened a week ago, I just did not have time to get to it before. That’s almost a month before the first class! I appreciate this [...]
As I wrote a few weeks ago, this winter could be a snowy one. This weekend it was officially confirmed. I did not check the news lately if this ended up to be an officially record-breaking snowfall for DC area, but they did forecast this could be the case. At any rate we do have a lot of snow. It started late Friday [...]
On Thursday I had my last class in Fall term. My part-time MBA first term is officially over. In Business Ethics class we turned in our final research papers. Professor said he will get to grading them next day, so he hoped we will have our grades within a week. I also got my grade [...]
I admit, I tend to take my MBA classes quite seriously. It is especially true, because, being a “poet” I have to struggle quite a bit with my quantitative subjects. So I have to spend considerably more time to get those done, while some of my classmates breeze right through it with minimum effort. That said, one [...]
Yesterday was the last official class of scheduled sessions in my first semester of part-time MBA program. However, since our class in Business Ethics fell on Thanksgiving we are going to have a makeup next Thursday. But it is mostly irrelevant. Our final research paper is due at next class. This is probably the only reason I [...]
Yesterday we had our final class in Financial Accounting-II before the exam. This was probably the first time I was not depressed after the class, because I was actually able to rather adequately follow the lecture. Professor gave us handouts for exam preparation and announced the materials available on the Blackboard in order to do [...]
There are many things that the applicants to MBA programs have to do during the application phase. Of course, on top of the list for most aplicants is getting GMAT nailed. Whether one needs 750 or just 550 score, it still requires preparation. The reason is that the test itself is rather challenging, there is a [...]
Here is a short followup on my yesterday’s GMAT post. In my preparation for GMAT I did not use any in-class or online prep courses. The reason is quite obvious – I was not applying to top 10-20 full-time MBA programs, which have a very high break-in GMAT score. Part-time MBA programs available in Washington, [...]
Today is a one year anniversary of my first attempt on GMAT. To be more precise, it was not on the same date, but the same day- Saturday after Thanksgiving a year ago. On Friday before the test I knew it was not one of my brightest decisions to schedule the test for that Saturday. [...]
I was thinking about what different names part-time MBA programs go by. The most obvious generic name describing the essense of these programs is obviously plain and simple, no thrills – part-time MBA. But, of course, the Business Schools would want to differentiate themselves from each other and to emphasize distinctive features of part-time programs [...]
Shortly after I set my sight on getting an MBA degree, and started doing prelimenary research, I realized that part -time MBA programs come in more than one flavor. They are all similar in that you do not have to interrupt your career (if it is indeed a career, not just a job) or even leave [...]
This past Wednesday when I left my class in Financial Accounting I had a sheer anxiety attack. It was not a panic attack yet, as there are no half-term finals for at least another 4 weeks. But it was really very scary. This was not based only on my feelings of inadequacy from the class in [...]
This weekend I finally bought my personal laptop. I was originally thinking to hold off a purchase till I get a passing grade for my second class – Financial Accounting. But with the homework requirement in my Judgment, Uncertainty and Decisions (JUD) class to use not just Excel, but also a special proprietary add-in for [...]
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