The Crazy 10 Units!

This trimester, I'm taking 10 units towards my MBA at Pepperdine University:

• Organizational Dynamics and Managing Change
• Managerial Creativity and Innovation for Leadership
• Integration in Business Operations (aka Simulation)

Today was the start of the third class, simulation.  (Yes, I had class on a Saturday from 9am ~ 4pm).  Needless to say, I knew that this trimester was going to kick my butt.  This class is going require a lot of my time and energy.  The point of this class is to simulate the running of a business.  First, we have to put together a paper that pretty much describes how we're going to run the organization:

• How will we create value
• How will we manage the various operations such as inventory, etc
• How much money will we put towards R&D
• What kind of capital structure will our company operate with
• Will we offer dividends and how much

Stuff like that...  My initial feelings: overwhelmed, encumbered, frustrated, and kind of excited.  All of my classmates that have gone through the simulation tell me the same thing: it's a lot of work, it's not so bad, and the two day simulation is actually really fun.  Bad part.  I was nominated to be the CFO.  And I'm not a Finance guy (granted, I did  pretty good in Finance but still!! huff)

After we submit our operations plan, there is a two day simulation where we have to make a series of decisions:

• Increase dividends?  Build another plant?  Add additional lines?  Fire or hire workers?  What kind of quality and functionality do we want in our products?  For what market segments? etc. etc.

Based on these decisions, we receive feedback on how our company performed in the economic conditions the software imposes on our company.  We have to analyze the financial statements that get spit out, along with information on how the other teams (our competition) are doing as well.  It sounds like fun, but it's going to be a painful 6-8 weeks...

My other leadership classes are, luckily, pretty manageable.  No education-to-business projects or other huge projects.  Just a lot of reading...  Speaking of which... I think I have a couple of friends that would appreciate a review of some of the books we've been reading.  I think I'll put up a short review on CATS: The Nine Lives of Innovation, The Six Thinking Hats, Blink, and more...

Of course, I'll be taking my mental breaks... One good escape I've found is to write reviews on some comic books I'm following.  Yeah I know reading comics is a little "child-ish" but it's always been something that interests me and gives me a mental escape from my busy lifestyle.  Plus, writing reviews is a good writing exercise!  Reading and writing more will undoubtedly be a benefit...

Wish me luck!!