Final Refelection

Final Reflection Paper: GSB551 December 2016 (Final Blog post)

Please complete a short blog. Please complete it by Friday 12/16 5pm

You do not need to refer to any cases or provide citations or sources. You simply need to reflect on your own experience in Managerial Marketing GSB551.  I am providing these 3 questions as starting points. You can add any other thoughts or reflections regarding your learning.

Question 1 on Business/Marketing: The Peter Drucker quotes shown below were the exact same ones we talked about in our first class in October.  Which ones resonate with you regarding business, marketing, the cases, the team process, and what we covered in this course? (You do not need to comment on all!) If possible, relate the quote to a company or brand we studied.

Quotes by Peter Drucker (1909-2005)

•       “Efficiency is doing things right; effectiveness is doing the right things.”

•       “The aim of marketing is to know and understand the customer so well the product or service fits him and sells itself.”

•       “The purpose of business is to create and keep a customer.”

•        “Because its purpose is to create a customer, your business has two purposes and two purposes only: Marketing and innovation. Marketing and innovation make you money, generate sales, produce profit. Everything else is an expense...”

•       “The leaders who work most effectively, it seems to me, never say "I." And that's not because they have trained themselves not to say "I." They don't think "I." They think "we"; they think "team." They understand their job to be to make the team function. They accept responsibility and don't sidestep it, but "we" gets the credit…. This is what creates trust, what enables you to get the task done.”

•       “The best way to predict the future is to create it.”

•       “You can either take action, or you can hang back and hope for a miracle.  Miracles are great, but they are so unpredictable.”

From my perspective all of these quotes reflect all of the areas: business, marketing, the cases, the team process, and what we covered in this course.  It seems that all of these areas are successful when these are attributed to their mission. When we utilize these in quotes or thoughts in reviewing cases and in a group situation we can collaborate and discover a lot about the company that we are looking at. Take Nordstrom's, Apple, and Starbuck's they are always looking to see what the customers will want, how they want to be treated and what can they do to make them want what they offer. 

Question 2 on Teams: Reflect on the dynamics of collaboration as you experienced it within your own team and as you observed it on the other teams. Did you do some things by design to manage relationships?  How did you make progress regarding analyzing data and using it effectively, developing and evaluating creative alternatives, and collaboratively making decisions? What strategies did you use that helped?

The group that I had was amazing, Willy and Will made it easy to banter back and forth until we determined the right course of action to take when detailing these cases. We all found ways to incorporate what we thought needed to be reviewed and what our desired outcome would look like. None of us were totally sure about what we were doing but we sacrificed our spare time and worked together to make it all happen. This was a great group!

Question 3 on Overall Outcomes: What are your most important new takeaways from this course? What will help you as you continue your studies and in your world of work? Add anything else of importance when you reflect back on key learning.  What should we STOP/START/CONTINUE doing when offering GSB551?

I biggest take away for me is the fact that no matter what or doing in life or business, marketing is important and needs to happen in order to be successful. We need to market ourselves when presenting to upper management, interviewing for a job, or just being a student. Marketing is an important part of life, we are all some form of a customer, internal or external. Individuals and companies that understand this fact thrive and grow, the key to all aspects of life in general. 

The class was extremely stressful in the beginning due to the addition of the review material. I understand the point behind this tactic but given my business background it was a little over the top from my perspective. However, knowing that most of the kids did not have any exposure to marketing in undergrad, this was probably a good decision. My recommendation going forward is to maybe incorporate these basics into assignments that enforce the basics. Take it to real life situations that show them that marketing is not just about retail but in fact encompasses almost everything they touch in life. I know easy said, tough done but in business this is an important aspect, these kids will be going into upper management positions and yet if they cannot see things for what they are, the companies and associates that they work for will suffer. I believe that you will find a way to make this class everything it needs to be, I have learned a lot from your classes. If I can help in anyway please let me know, what you teach is important.

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