The Future of Marketing or Marketing of the Future?

I remember when I was a kid and my friends and I were talking about the (then) far and exciting year 2000. It seemed so exotic, so far, and so… extraterrestrial. So my friends and I concluded that by the year 2000 everyone was going to be wearing silver suits and driving flying cars! I would now blame the Jetsons for that vision.

Recently I have been revisited by a similar feeling as I see more and more articles or phone applications focused on augmented reality and geo-targeted marketing. As excited as I am about this new trend, I can’t help thinking whether it is a natural consequence of technological progress or more of the recent economy. Or a combination of both.

Marketing has changed a lot due to technology and to a certain extent this recession has really accelerated this change. For example, the reality that so many magazines – and among those my favorite one, Portfolio! – have been forced to close, has fueled the urgency to reinvent the publishing industry. The December issue of Esquire incorporated augmented reality in an effort to show that print media is not dead, it is just evolving. Is it relevant or is it just competing for the short-span attention of extremely busy readers? Given the magazine’s target audience, I would say it is relevant. And it is definitely an innovative way to make a statement. Esquire and Wired Magazine could pull it off; now, if it was Martha Steward or Redbook, I’m not so sure.

My feelings about geo-targeting are a bit contradictory. On the one hand it makes me think of 1984 and Big Brother. I can imagine it can be a bit spooky to get a message from Best Buy that says I should buy this model of TV versus the other one I was looking at last week or to check out the home entertainment system that goes with my newly-purchased TV. On the other hand, CRM (customer relationship management) has existed for a long time and companies would store the same amount of information, except that they used it to customize their offers on a larger scale. Geo-targeting takes it a step farther and targets individuals. In the end, it helps companies or brands customize their services or products and allows them to better utilize their marketing resources. As a marketing or brand manager, you have to strive to achieve both higher revenues as well as reduce expenses. And geo-targeting could be the answer. It remains to be seen, because it is no longer one-sided. You no longer have the company gathering the information and analyzing it. It is two-sided, because the consumer has to input or enable the access to some of the information that geo-targeting plans to use.

My Thoughts on Social Media and a Success Story

Social media is beneficial for companies as well as consumers because it serves the same need: to interact. In today’s day and age information is crucial and timing is everything. Companies’ competitive advantage relies not only on the superiority of their products, but also on fast access to their consumers’ thoughts and needs. To this extent, social media is invaluable. It has shortened the response time for consumer feedback, giving companies the opportunity to tweak their products sometimes even before they hit the market. This is a win-win situation: a better product results in higher sales for the company, while consumers become more invested in the process and thus more likely to promote the product.

Consumers effortlessly gain a voice through social media. They offer feedback and share their expertise on certain topics and gain loyal followers who in turn make purchasing decisions based on information found on-line. Consumers have always talked and continue to talk about their favorite products. Companies need to become part of this conversation that is taking place anyway. Forming and nurturing this partnership with the consumer is therefore extremely beneficial for companies.

One of the main concerns related to social media is return on investment. Social media is gaining reputation and becoming more sophisticated and with that so are ways to measure its efficiency. The most obvious ways to measure it are leads, sales, number of clicks, cost per conversion, followers, awareness, sentiment analysis, or reach. The main benefit though is the interaction between the consumer and the brand, which builds trust.

I use social media. In fact, I even have a success story: this summer, when my Challenge for Charity Co-President and I were trying to figure out how to raise money to provide T-shirts for 300 students, I logged into our Twitter account, @PepperdineC4C. Social media is about communication, remember? So I felt that our followers should know what we are dealing with so I posted: "Looking for sponsor for 300 T-shirts. Logo will be placed next to the Special Olympics and the Children's Lifesaving Foundation logos." 114 characters and two hours later, I received an e-mail from a classmate and fellow Twitterer (is that the official word?) @neovintage who informed me that he retweeted our request, which then was retweeted by a friend, who then received a tweet back from a company @onecoconut willing to sponsor us. What? Really? I was ecstatic! And what makes the story even better is that the founder of O.N.E. turned out to be a Pepperdine alumna. Who doesn't believe in social media now?

All You Need Is…Inspiration: A Recap of the Net Impact Conference 2009

This year, the Net Impact Conference took place in Ithaca, NY. Not the easiest place to get to, but definitely an appropriate venue to accommodate the 2,400 attendees. There were students from undergraduate schools, as well as graduate programs, professional members, company representatives, and executives.

The schedule was very ambitious, but very well structured. It started with a keynote by Jeff Immelt, CEO of GE and ended with another keynote by Jeff Goldman, CEO and Founder of Honest Tea, Jeff Furman, Founder of Ben & Jerry’s, and Lisa Lorimer, Founder of Vermont Bread Company. In between, there were over 100 sessions on corporate impact, design, energy and clean technology, international and corporate development, investing, professional development, and social innovation. With so many options and interesting topics, it was very hard to make a choice. I decided to attend sessions related to marketing, social responsibility, and non-profit.

Throughout the entire weekend, the energy generated by the speakers and moderators and the enthusiasm of the 2,400 attendees was just amazing and very difficult to explain in words. It was very inspiring to see so many people under one roof caring about more than just financial profit. In the world of extreme consumerism, talk about doing business responsibly, influencing big corporations from within, thinking about stakeholders instead of shareholders, and being willing to forgo huge short-term profits in favor of long-term and sustainable effort, was a breath of fresh air and filled everyone with just enough motivation and inspiration for another year.

And it wasn’t just talk. Jeff Immelt discussed GE’s business model of combining capitalism and sustainability. GE is making money on sustainable products that help the world. Immelt also discussed GE’s investment in wind power. Initially, he said, he did not believe in wind power. But then when Enron went bankrupt and GE had the option of buying their wind power business, he changed his mind. “For 200 million dollars, how wrong can we be?” he said.

My favorite speakers were Seth Goldman and Jeff Furman. I was impressed with Goldman’s honesty – no pun intended – and openness to discuss the trade offs of his deal with Coca-Cola. When asked why Coca-Cola and how does he deal with Coca-Cola’s controversial issues regarding water, Goldman said that when he made the decision, he had the consumer in mind. Honest Tea needed a bigger distribution system, to reach its growing consumer base and that is exactly what Coca-Cola was offering. Regarding the water situation, he said he was not a spokesman for Coca-Cola, so he would refrain from making any comments on that. However, he admitted there are some aspects of the business he does not agree with, but that Honest Tea is influencing the parent company from within by maintaining its fair business practices and having conversations with the CEO about healthier alternatives to high-fructose corn syrup. Any small initiative helps, he added.

All in all, the event was a great success, minus the travel part. For the SoCal attendees, getting to Ithaca was a little bit of a challenge. But the good news is that next year, the Conference will be hosted by beautiful Ann Arbor, Michigan, so travel will not be an issue.

Managing Post-Graduation Expectations

The French call it sevrage. It sounds like it could have something in common with to sever. If you think of severing as the act of cutting off, or separating something, then the two terms are definitely distant phonetic and semantic relatives. Sevrage is, among other things, the deep state of confusion, pain and suffering caused by stopping an addicting behavior. You are no longer high. The adrenaline, the excitement, the energy, everything is gone and you crash. That is when sevrage takes over and conquers slowly and painfully every cell in your body until you become numb. And then there is silence… Your body slowly regains control, but you feel lost. The new you is afraid to look back, but is more afraid to look ahead. The world surrounding the new you is unknown and you forgot what it meant to perform even simple tasks. Every day is a new challenge that you tackle with the outward belief that tomorrow will be easier. Inside you might doubt everything you are, stand for, and know, but your only chance is to adapt.

This sounds extreme, doesn’t it? What am I talking about? Is it about me, about you, about…what? As extreme as it sounds, I strongly believe that as we get closer to graduation, we – soon-to-be MBA graduates – will experience some form of sevrage. Being in a challenging and stimulating environment is addictive and causes a high. For two years, we are surrounded by like-minded people who want to make a difference, implement change, and reinvent the world. Just as JD candidates see torts everywhere around them, MBA candidates see new and better ideas everywhere. Without trying to sound elitist, the second one decides to get an MBA he/she separates him/herself from the rest of the working world. He/she joins the very small percentage of people that have a graduate degree. Then for two years while in school, all – or most – ideas he/she has are encouraged, accepted, and implemented. Whether that is in a group presentation, business plan competition, or an actual business venture, the point is that nobody uses the word “impossible.” That is until we graduate.

We, soon-to-be graduates, do not really talk about reintegration into the work force. We are too busy chasing that perfect, post-MBA job to think about anything else. But how do you get off the high of creativity, efficiency, and quick idea turnaround? It’s like being on Wall Street. The constant flow of energy and sense of accomplishment is followed by market close. And what do you do when the lights turn off?

This is what we will all face in our first job after graduation. And we will go into withdrawal because in reality change is not easy to accomplish, not all ideas will be welcomed or implemented, and occasionally people will not even care that we have an MBA.

Does this sound too pessimistic? I’m sure it does to some. What about realistic? More likely. All I am saying is that we will all experience this in one form or another, unless we find a company that fits our expectations and new-found business attitudes. Or we stay mindful of this reality and prepare as best we can to readjust to the working world.

Post-mortem of a Group Project

One of the classes that I was looking forward to this session was Marketing Strategies. Second-year students, now alumni, were raving about this class when I started my program last year. The professor has spent most of his career working with P&G and Nestle, so I was excited to see how the corporate world does marketing. The class itself was very good, although taught in a different manner than what I am used to. But I knew that going into it and I was ready for a challenge.

The real challenge though, and one that I did not expect, came from my group. Because the class had a larger number of students than the usual, we had to form groups of seven. I did not think much of it at first, I mean what’s an extra person or two, right?

My teammates and I are all very strong individuals: some analytical, some creative, some very good presenters. Those were all reasons why we all got together in the first place. As a team though, we were dysfunctional. We discussed rules and expectations in our first meeting, but the reality of our schedules and the different priorities and interests led to an average performance in the class. That combined with some unexpected roadblocks made for a very frustrating experience in a class where perfection is the standard.

Some of my team members and I discussed our performance in our last class. It was very frustrating that we put in a lot of work and yet the result was not what we expected. My take on it is that although I like the concept of team work in business school, I do not think it is as effective as it is intended to be. Why? For one, the constraints of school make team work different from real life. Because in real life you would have a team leader, each person has certain responsibilities, and the team’s focus is just on that particular project. And most times, the stakes are higher than just an evaluation or a grade. Sometimes, their financial rewards or future with the company is at stake. In business school, each person has different priorities. Some care about grades, some just take that class because they have to, some take too many classes and are spent, some work and take classes, and some just do not care. And no one can make anyone care more than they are willing to. And how do you motivate someone who does not care? Maybe by dangling the prospect of a lower grade in class, resulting from an unfavorable evaluation at the end of class? It is not going to work, because the grade does not rely solely on peer evaluation. What about choosing a team leader, just like in real life? Most teams are against that because they are not invested in the projects. Projects are annoying, one more thing on the to-do list, and they do not have the time for that. More often than not, team work means you meet once at the beginning of the project, divide the work, one person compiles the information for the paper, another person puts together the slides for the presentation, and then everybody comes together for a run through of the presentation.

So in our case, we did just that. And when that failed, we all took the hit and vowed to learn from it. The point is to not repeat the same mistake twice. And to learn to be comfortable with ambiguity, trust your team members, think on your feet and come up with a solution when all else fails, and continue to find ways to motivate our team members.

M...BAM!

Until recently, we used to see the word "MBAM" whenever we registered for classes. That meant MBA Malibu, or the full-time program at the Malibu campus. Now, MBAM stands for something else: it is MBA Media, the newest project taken on by a very talented group of full-time students. They are the Graziadio student voice, which, as they say, just got louder! I liked what I saw so far, so I asked them to allow me to make public their plan, as stated in the press release from a week ago. Welcome, MBAM!

MBA MEDIA (MBAM) ONLINE NEWS SITE LAUNCH: SEPTEMBER 21, 2009

“The Graziadio Student Voice Is About To Get A Little Louder”

Malibu, California—September 21, 2009— this morning saw the official launch of MBA Media (MBAM), the newly created student news site for the full-time graduate business program at Pepperdine. MBAM offers GSBM students a 360-degree view of campus activities, news, and business. With MBAM, Pepperdine students now have an interactive source they can use to fully leverage their graduate business school experience both in and out of the classroom.

During the summer of 2009, a group of full-time GSBM students came together to bring the Graziadio student community the first official online news publication created by business students for business students. After drafting and pitching a proposal to the Graziadio administration, MBAM was given the go-ahead to begin preparations for their launch in the fall.

The mission of MBAM is to “effectively and transparently communicate relevant news and information to a community of MBAs and informed business leaders by leveraging a wide variety of multimedia tools.”

MBAM offers content through a wide variety of multimedia tools including videos, articles, and community discussion boards. Students can also post and discuss their own relevant business related articles. The site also offers exclusive interviews with Graziadio’s prestigious faculty, as well as interviews with business leaders from all concentrations including finance, marketing, entrepreneurship, and organizational management. MBAM also offers internship and job-related information such as 2^nd year commentaries on their internship experiences and a growing list of internship opportunities throughout the year.

MBAM is 100% student-driven, and is looking for current GSBM students who would be interested in filling available positions in the areas of advertising, marketing, post-production, and staff writing. If you are interested in learning more about opportunities to get involved with MBAM, please email Frankie Warren (Frankie.warren@pepperdine.edu)

So, the only thing left for Graziadio students to do now is to login, logon and start enjoying the site! To start your MBAM experience, please visit www.mbam.tv.

For more information regarding this press release, please contact JC Garrett (jc.garrett@pepperdine.edu)

Pepperdine's Accelerated MBA Program - "A Hidden Gem"

Everyone knows that when choosing an MBA program, we look at rankings. Why not, right? It is a very important financial investment after all. True, but with Pepperdine the story is a little bit different.

Our program does not usually show up on the traditional rankings lists. That is also because we are a smaller program and we do not focus primarily on research. Research is important and a big class brings more profit, that is true. But at Graziadio a smaller class is more important because it gives the student the opportunity to get to know absolutely every single classmate. Our professors know our names by class two and make an effort to get to know us. Their doors are always open and we can stop by anytime to ask about the class or talk about our career goals. And depending on your personal drivers and point in your career, access to professors and classmates can be more appealing than a cut-throat environment where the emphasis is on individual performance.

Apparently this is also what the Wall Street Journal looked at on when they selected some MBA programs that did not make the cut for their ranking, but were highly regarded by students and alumni. Read the article here.

Back on the Roller Coaster

It is week 4 already! I will try to give you the one-sentence synopsis of what has been happening for the past four weeks, so let’s see how I do. Here we go: I have been busy with structuring Challenge for Charity, interviewing first-year students for leadership positions, working, planning future events, networking, setting up my personal portfolio and yes, going to classes.

As you can easily notice, as soon as you start your second year, the focus changes. Or at least, it should. Classes are very important, do not get me wrong. But, they should be 50% of your focus. My professors might not agree with this statement - or if they do, they might never openly admit it - but the other half of the time should be spent on whatever will ensure that you have a job come graduation: networking, work/another internship or projects that will hone your skills and enhance your portfolio and resume.

Technically, full-time students are not supposed to work, but so many of us do. Or did. I tried it also, because I believe it is really important to maintain the contact with the company while in school – especially if you are lucky to have a good internship - which will make it easier to find a job upon graduation. Easier said than done! I continued working with Coca-Cola until this week. Although a great learning experience, working 16 hours a week while taking four classes and running Challenge for Charity rapidly took its toll on me. So unfortunately, I had to make the decision to stop working.

The other difference between the first and the second year is that for the most part, we do not have midterms or finals. We do have instead TONS of reading to do, as well as case studies, papers, and group projects. And they take a lot of time. Which is partly why I am writing this blog entry at midnight. School is unbelievably busy, but it is also very rewarding and I am still loving every minute of it! Even when I have to read 127 pages for business law.

Who Do YOU Want to Work for When You Grow Up?

It’s time to go back to school! Tomorrow marks the beginning of the second year of my MBA program. While I am excited to go back, I am also a little bit apprehensive because I know how quickly this year will go by and I have to decide what I want to do “when I grow up”. I know I want to do brand management because I like the strategy, creativity and psychology behind it, but I am not yet very sure what company I want to work for.

Interestingly enough, today I cam across my application for the TEC Mentorship program and re-read it. One of the questions on the application was: What organization do you most admire and why? Today, I am going to share with you what I said in response. That was a year ago, and I am glad to see that I still feel the same. It was a nice reminder especially in view of the upcoming job search process. Enjoy and take a second to think what kind of company you want to be working for when you grow up and also what it stands for.

When I applied to business school, my friend’s advice was to “get in and get out.” Yes, I did come to business school to acquire the knowledge to complement my experience, but once again I realized knowledge is not enough by itself. I need to know that I can apply my knowledge within a supportive and stimulating environment. I also have to know that I can do business without harming other people.

I do not know a great deal about any specific organization, but Google’s business motto “Don’t be evil” is what drew me to find out more about the company. Today, Google stands for innovative, fun, responsible business. It is a brand that made its way into the dictionary. It is a business idea that replaced the word “search” in everyday language. Googlers are visionaries, innovators that constantly brake patterns. They thrive in the challenging, unorthodox, fun- and amenities-filled corporate culture that was created for them.

But it is not all about the business. One lesson that I learned from my father was to never forget where you came from. That is why I respect how Google funds many projects that give back to the community, students, and the environment where it came from. I am hoping that Google’s clean and renewable energy project will become a reality that could be implemented on a large scale in the corporate world. As I mentioned before, I would not even attempt to say that I know everything about this company. However, what I know and have read so far, makes me admire the founders’ commitment to business and ethics.

Think Big...in Small Steps

I was thinking the other day that we are so used to big things: big cars, big buildings, big promotions, working for big companies, wanting big houses, waiting for the big break… Companies want big market shares, big profit – more often than not the shorter the term the better – and big ideas. And we forget that it’s the small things that matter. Or, that by taking small steps we get to the big…everything. I am a true believer that by investing a little more time in relationships with employees, vendors, friends, or family the pay off will be a lot bigger.

This idea is based on my experience as a customer, employee, and student/leader. I will only give you two examples. I used to be a WaMu customer and enjoyed a very good and personal service. Now with Chase, I can see a difference. They are such a big company, so highly regulated and probably so preoccupied with branding Chase in SoCal that they neglect the small things that matter: thinking about what the customer needs and training (or allowing) their employees to offer a fast, reliable, and quality service. A friend of mine told me the other day that his company - otherwise very big, international and in-tune with the consumer’s needs – considers its employees very expendable and therefore only pretends to care. And I could go on and on with examples.

With this in mind, when it was time for my fellow Challenge for Charity Co-President, Ashley and I to discuss our strategy for this year, we decided we wanted to achieve big things, but by taking small steps. We did set a big goal for this year, namely to create awareness and increase the number of members, which in turn will lead us to the second goal of raising more money for our two charities: The Special Olympics Southern California and the Children’s Lifesaving Foundation. We, however, started with cultivating relationships with the incoming class as well as the charities we are representing. We went to both charities to discuss expectations, understand what they need the most, and also see what they are doing. Seeing is believing, right? So instead of assuming that our members are always ready to give us money and time just because we know it is important, we wanted them to get to know the organizations and understand why their money and time are so important. And we set up to create a two-day mini-consulting project during orientation, where our incoming class could meet the two organizations, listen to how they change lives every day and also propose solutions for challenges our charities are facing. The project was a success! Ashley and I were very impressed with how involved the students became once they understood how important their contribution is. After three hours of brainstorming and discussions, we left the room with 3 pages of very creative and valuable fundraising ideas and the commitment of all present.

Ashley and I realize this is an investment year but we know that we are pretty confident that we can create a legacy and a tradition that every Pepperdine MBA student is a Challenge for Charity member.

What Every Graziadio Student Needs to Know!

For those of you who got accepted and are now very excited to start Orientation, I put together a list of terms and abbreviations you will hear a lot during your two years of study at Graziadio. This list is by no means an exhaustive list, it is just an appetizer! I am sure that in the next two years, you will come up with your own abbreviations and this list will grow exponentially. In the meantime, take a look at this one and enjoy your first year!

Biz Law – Business Law, a required class you’ll have to take in your second year.

C4C - Challenge for Charity, the school's designated charity. Check out our new website at www.pepperdinec4c.org.

DELS – The Dean’s Executive Leadership Series, a networking event that brings executives on campus to talk about real-world challenges and opportunities.

Drescher - the graduate campus, home to the Business, Education and Psychology, and Public Policy schools.

E2B - Education to Business; a big part of the 14-class Marketing 101 class, where you and your teammates act as consultants to a company. It's also the project that will test your patience, nerves, and your people skills.

FEMBA - The Fully Employed MBA program.

GSBM - The Graziadio School of Business and Management, um, the school that you're either considering or just got accepted at. This is probably one of the first acronym you should remember.

QBA – Quantitative Business Analysis class.

MarComm – Marketing Communications class.

MGBS - The Malibu Graduate Business Society, the student government association that guides us throughout the year. They have elections every year, so if you’re eyeing the White House, you should consider starting your ascent with the MGBS President position.

MBAM - MBA Malibu, the full-time program in Malibu.

MSAF - Master of Science in Applied Finance.

SEW – Social Enterprise Week, a student-driven annual event promoting and celebrating social responsible practices. It is usually scheduled in March-April and it culminates with the infamous Talent Show.

The Talent Show aka PepperJam – This is something you wouldn’t want to miss! Every year, GSBM students shed their business suits and replace their laptops with guitars, pianos, or other instruments. And there is always a surprise! The quiet classmate is an amazing break dancer, the best presenter in your group is secretly a great drummer, and the QBA professor loves to rock. Yeap, that’s PepperJam!

VCLL - The Value-Centered Leadership Lab, a student organization emphasizing the presence and importance of ethics in business.

Waves - the Drescher cafeteria. It’s not amazing by any means, especially if you are a vegetarian, but at least it is convenient and the people there are very nice.

What I Learned from My Internships

First day of school is fast approaching and as I was looking at the schedule for the first year’s orientation, I realized that there is one thing that the incoming class will hear about besides “network, network, network” and that is “it is never too early to start looking for your internship”. As early as it seems to start thinking about internships in August, trust me, it is not! Now, that does not mean that you have to start interviewing right away. It just means that you should start thinking about what kind of internship you would like to land and start zeroing in on the company and a way to get your resume in front of the right people.

My goal this summer was to get as much meaningful marketing experience as possible, so I interned with three different companies – Pepperdine University, The Step Up Women’s Network, and Coca-Cola - learning about market research, online marketing, and business analysis. Based on my experience and search for the right internship, I came up with a list of ten things I learned in the process.

10) It is important to know what you want to get out of an internship before you start looking for one. I wanted a very structured internship that would allow me to get a lot of hands-on experience in different aspects of marketing and to have exposure to experienced marketers from whom to learn.

9) Talk to you friends, family, and your professional network about what you are looking for. I got two of my internships through friends and my professional network. The other one, I just contacted the company directly.

8) Tailor your resume to the position you are applying for and include relevant examples or work samples.

7) Set up informational interviews with people that are in the industry or the position you are looking for. These people will help you understand what skills you need and what exactly the position entails. And if they like you, they will become good contacts. A referral can go a long way!

6) Have the occasional introspective and honest conversation with yourself. Revisit your goals and assess where you are right now, then look at what you need to do to get to where you want to be and make it happen. Goals and views change over time and especially in business school when you become exposed to so many things. It is perfectly acceptable to change your mind and direction. That is what your time in school is for. Explore and find out what you like and want! It is better to do this while in school, rather than once you are finished or even worse, once you got a job.

5) Be open to learning new skills. The more you can do, the more valuable you become. A year ago, I knew very little about websites. Working with NAWMBA National as their VP of Website Development taught me a lot about html and content management systems, and that experience got me the internship with Step Up.

4) Think about what is more important for you: a big name on the resume, a good work environment, a meaningful experience? And make sure you pay attention to all that when you go in for an interview. Talk to people at that company and see if it is a good fit for you. More often than not, interns get full-time offers at the end of their internship, so make sure you understand how you fit in with the company and the position.

3) You never know what you do not know. Keep your eyes and ears open and you will learn a lot. People love to talk about themselves and about their experiences. Some do it because they just love to talk, but most people genuinely care and want to teach you. And that is great! Because that is when you learn the most. Why make the original mistake when you can learn from somebody else’s? And this takes me to number 2…

2) Find mentors that can guide you through the process of finding an internship, a job, or through life in general. I do not know how to tell you to find mentors, because so far for me, it just worked out. I have met people that I just clicked with and then they gradually became my mentors. The mentor-mentee relationship is a two-way street. Yes, usually mentors like to be able to offer guidance, but remember to be thoughtful and appreciative of their time and effort. It is a give and take.

1) Become a master of time management. You can pretty much do whatever you set your mind to do if you manage your time right. You will not be able to be the perfect best friend, partner, son or daughter while in school. But you will be able to balance all of that - even though it may be in a smaller proportion - if you set time aside for everything.

This is what I have got for you. In no way does this mean that I have everything figured out. But I am getting there! And if at least one of the points above will help you start figuring out what you want, then I am very happy. It will be a labor intensive process, but in the end very rewarding. Good luck!

Let's Talk Registration!

Let’s play a Facebook game and talk about what's on our minds. I am pretty sure I speak for all the first and second years when I say that registration is on our minds. Second years registered for classes last week and first years registered this week. Registration is not at all pleasant, but at least it can be painless. Let me explain.

If you want to get into certain classes, with certain professors and at a certain time, registration can get pretty unpleasant. Correction: the process before registration is unpleasant. I spent, to my husband’s dismay, three hours figuring out plan A and plan B for my fall classes. Plan A had all the classes that I really really wanted as electives towards my marketing concentration and with the professors I wanted. I had to compromise on time but I think I still have a pretty nice schedule with Wednesday completely off. Plan B took a little bit longer to come up with. As it was meant to include my alternative classes in case I got waitlisted for my Plan A, it was pretty tough opting for classes that I had little interest in. Luckily, I am a 15-month student so I got to register a day before most of my colleagues and got into all of the classes I wanted. The good thing about second-year registration is that everybody is working towards a concentration and taking mostly electives, so the chances of more than 25 students wanting the same class are pretty slim.

This year, the incoming class had the privilege of registering for classes themselves. I am very curious to see what think about the process and how they are handling it. Most of all I am very curious to see if they learn the most important lesson about registration: be awake and ready to click on the "add classes" button at 7:30 a.m. Sharp!

Celebrating One Year of Blogging

Happy 4th of July everyone! Every year on an annual celebration, I remind myself to look back at the year passed and see what I’ve accomplished. It is very easy to always want to do more and forget to be grateful for what you have, so looking back makes me put things in perspective and stay grounded.

Yesterday, I thought about where I was last year on the 4th of July. Besides the proverbial barbecue, I also remembered that I was getting ready for the big transition to school. I was leaving behind six years in the workforce to start my b-school journey. I was nervous and excited at the same time. And it was also in July when Paul Pinckley, the Executive Director of Student Recruitment for the Full-time MBA Program announced that I was selected as one of the five students to blog about my b-school experience. I was excited to blog about the MBA program because I thought it was a good marketing initiative. Little did I realize that it was an initiative from which I was also going to benefit. How? Simply by allowing me to record my thoughts and experiences on a regular basis. Last week, I went back and re-read some of the earlier entries and just smiled. It was interesting to see what I was thinking a year ago or even a few months ago. Looking back now, I feel like this first year of b-school has been a truly growing experience. Let’s put it this way: a year ago, I did not know what I did not know. Now, I think I have a pretty good idea of what I know and what I still need to learn. For me it is clear that every entry marks my being one step closer to a wiser self.

And what exactly am I trying to say here and how does this apply to you? My suggestion is to keep a blog or journal of your experience. Write weekly entries. They don’t always have to be great accomplishments – you’ve read mine, I think we can all agree that they couldn’t be farther from accomplishments – but it will give you the opportunity to process your experiences and record them. It is part of the self-discovery process. Even if you think you know yourself very well, any experience will teach you more about yourself. Some lessons are not as apparent as others and sometimes it takes some time to see how a certain experience shapes you or how it influences the course of your life. I’ll give you an example:

You might remember that in the fall I had an interview with AT&T for a leadership internship position over the summer. The program is very well designed and offers great training. Just like other MBA’s across the country I wanted to be one of the AT&T interns. I was asked for a second interview – a very structured and tough interview – and then I waited for the verdict. Before I found out, I stopped to think about what I would have changed, if anything, if I were to have the interview again. I analyzed every question and every answer and decided that whatever happened, I knew I gave it my best and I wouldn’t have changed anything. I always say that everything happens for a reason. And it does, at least in my life. I didn’t get the position. I was a bit upset, but not disappointed. I knew that this closed door meant another door would open somewhere else. Also, as it turned out AT&T had to accept a lot less interns this year and none of the offers made to people I knew were in marketing. This experience allowed me to understand what I was really looking in an internship position: First of all, it had to be in marketing; second, it had to be a very structured program; third, it had to have supervisors with lots of experience in marketing from whom I could learn a lot and who were willing to teach me; and fourth, it had to offer a project that I could take from beginning to end. I found all that in a marketing analyst position with the Office of the Dean of the Fully-Employed MBA Program at Pepperdine and also in an online marketing and communications intern position with the Step Up Women’s Network, a national non-profit headquartered in Los Angeles. Again, a closed door opens another door somewhere else.

It's Time for Updates: 3. Home Sweet Home

Before starting my internship(s), I decided to allow myself 3-4 weeks to relax. I think I deserve it – heck, we all deserve it – after this challenging spring session. As second year students now, while we aren’t receiving any bail out money, we are at least getting a reward. For some, it’s a trip abroad or a fancy new computer. For me, it is allowing my mom to spoil me with her amazing cooking.

So I set out on a long, 18-hour trip to Romania via Germany. Before I even got home, I got a huge wake-up call in Germany. Yes, I knew from my accounting and finance classes that the Euro is dominating the Dollar, but my transactions were on paper, so who cares if the direct quote is 1.3 or 1.6. Minor details. Well it matters when I’m stuck at the airport in Frankfurt and I have two hours to kill. The very “nice” lady at the check-in is telling me that I’m too early for my departure. I try to explain that I just got off the plane after a 11-hour flight from L.A. and I would
really appreciate it if I could go to my gate and just relax there. She looks at me with a blank stare and then she moves on to the next person. Shoot! I guess I shouldn’t even try to ask to speak with a supervisor. So I decide to check whether I get wireless and take care of some e-mails. Yes! I do get wireless, however, the fee for one (yes, one) hour is 8 Euros.
What?! T-mobile in L.A. is $5.99, here it comes at a premium and it’s almost $11. I go to business school, so a little cost–benefit analysis is telling me that checking my e-mail at that price is a big no! So I decide to go back to my friendly airport worker.

My second treat was going home to Sibiu (Romania) to visit my family and friends. It was three weeks of bliss and I was glad I got to see everybody and travel a little bit. It’s always good to go home because my mom still treats me like a child and does everything for me. So I was pampered with lots of love, attention and especially homemade cooking that I missed. It doesn’t matter how many times I make my mom’s recipes, they just don’t taste as good as when she makes them! And I’d say I’m a pretty good cook. But it always tastes better when mama makes it.

I also missed my town and its old buildings so I took many walks and tried to experience it through tourist eyes. You can see some of the pictures I took in my “tourist walk”. It was a very interesting experience and I recommend it to anybody because you get to see everything from a completely new perspective. You might also discover something new about your hometown.

It's Time for Updates: 2. Sports Weekend

This was the first treat after finals. Every year, Challenge for Charity chapters from nine business schools (Stanford, University of Washington, USF, UC Berkeley, UC Davis, UCLA, USC, UC Irvine, and Pepperdine) reunite at Stanford for Sports Weekend. It is a weekend of fun, competition, and business. The Board Meeting is the place and time for each chapter to show their accomplishments over the year as well as discuss strategies for the year to come. Then the competition begins: teams from each school compete in every sport known to mankind to win the Golden Briefcase. The weekend ends with a big party where the winning team gets to take home the briefcase. Until next year!

To see highlights from this year's competition, watch this video. Incoming students, get ready for Sports Weekend 2010!

It's Time for Updates: 1. Finals

I’ve been MIA for weeks so it’s time to update you on what’s been going on: finals, Sports Weekend, trip back home, and finally internships. I’ll post the entries separately though to be easier to find.

Finals

Yes, those tests, papers, and presentations that take over your life. Literally and completely! During finals week I’ve averaged 4 hours of sleep a night. By the end of the week, I was looking like I was auditioning for a scary movie role. Good thing girls have make up!

But let’s go back to finals. Monday I had my 4-hour final in finance followed by a treat: a final in QBA (quantitative business analysis)! I did it, but I really do not recommend taking two finals – especially these two – on the same day. Unless you’re a genius, which does not apply to me. The finance final was alright I thought, not too difficult, not too easy, but definitely long. Professor Harjoto is the best finance professor and one of my favorites. He goes above and beyond and wants to make sure you understand everything. He holds full-day (i.e. 8-hour) reviews before tests, something that’s really unheard of in b-school. He makes himself available in person and via e-mail for questions… he really is amazing! He and I disagree on one issue though and that is me changing my concentration from marketing to finance. He thinks I have it in my blood, I think I just have finance in my brain and marketing in my blood. Time will tell, I guess.

Professor Hahn, my QBA professor, is great too. He starts each lecture with a review of the previous lecture to make sure you understand the material. The review really helps and you almost don’t have to read anything for his class (if you repeat this to anybody, I’ll deny it.) :) Plus – and this is my personal favorite thing about his class - everything is applied and he uses examples you can relate to and will definitely use in the future. And in his final he just wants to see that you understand the output and can interpret the information. He is also C4C’s liaison with the school and supports our efforts to promote our activities.

The other and the most important class for me this session was Marketing. I think I got lucky and had truly amazing professors this session. Professor Rapier has over 20 years of experience both on the client and agency side and brings to class tons of examples from his work. Kotler’s book was a valuable resource and Professor Rapier encouraged us to question parts of it with real life exercises. One thing that everybody loved about Professor Rapier is that he was very hands off, which gave us the freedom to explore in our reports and projects, as long as we could back it up with evidence. If you take his class you’ll very quickly become familiar with three (well, four) words: relevance, authenticity and market research. ;-) And then there was our famous E2B (Education to Business) project, which provided plenty of real-life experience. I will write a separate entry about it because there is plenty to talk about, but I will just say that our marketing plan presentation in front of the company and our professors concluded the finals week for me.

I am officially done with my first year! I’m excited, nervous, and anxious that the second year is going to fly by as quickly as the first one.

Information Technology and Operations Online Game

We are five students - first and second years - who blog about our experience at Pepperdine. Just as the rest of the students at school, we have very diverse backgrounds and offer our readers different perspectives on what to expect during the first year of school.

One of my fellow bloggers is Brian. We were on the same team in our Tech Ops class this past session and he wrote in his blog about our online class and Root Beer Game. I really like his writing style and his passion about our program, so I decided to post the link to his blog and the Tech Ops entry here. Enjoy!

Are We Witnessing the Making of a New Case Study?

I have a feeling this is going to become a case study asking the question: Should have Pepsi rebranded their core products? And if so, was it the right time to do it?

As business students, we have to read and write reports on case studies all the time and to me, Pepsi's rebranding seems the perfect candidate for one. I obviously do not have access to their financials, however, after reading this Business Week article, I can't help wondering whether it was smart investment with perfect timing, or just a huge and costly mistake. Time will tell! And it could turn out to be the best thing Pepsi could have done in this economy. At the same time, it seems to me that to embark on such ambitious endeavor (redesigning 1,121 different bottles according to the article) without enough time to research your market's potential reaction might be pretty costly.

Read the article and also check out the link to the unofficial copy of Arnell Group's presentation of the new logo.

My “Aha” Moment

I’m sitting in my hotel room at the beautiful Zermatt resort in Utah and reflecting on this past week, I realized I might have had my ‘aha’ moment: be open! Be open to opportunities, be open to meeting new people, be open to learn.

Be open to opportunities. This week has marked the end of my year with TEC (The Executive Committee) on Campus. I mentioned TEC a few times and promised I would write about it at some point. The reason I kept putting it off is not because it is not important for me, but because the experience is very difficult to quantify or describe in words. TEC has been the most rewarding experience here at Pepperdine and I know I’m going to miss it terribly. And I’m glad I was open to it!

I know that the name of the program makes you think of a professional mentorship that will help you hone your skills and realize your goals. Or get you a job. Nope! It’s nothing like that. Not even close. It is a journey of self-reflection and trust. You go through this journey with eleven other colleagues and they become your personal board of advisors. Why do you need that? Because as Gary Brinderson, the TEC Chair, says it is lonely at the top and you need to get rid of the noise in your head in order to be a successful leader. My reflection on my strengths and myself led me to the discovery that in pursuing brand management, I need to learn the process first. If I know the process then I can turn any marketing strategy into a success and apply it to any product.

Be open to learn (from opportunities and people). A few months ago I received an e-mail about a leadership opportunity with NAWMBA (The National Association of Women MBA’s), on their brand management team. I applied and two phone interviews later, I found out I was selected as their Regional VP of Website Development. I don’t care that much about the “important” title. I do care about the work that I’m going to do to build the NAWMBA brand and also about all the women that are going to benefit from that. And I also care about the wonderful women that I met this weekend at the leadership retreat in Utah. Each one of them has an interesting story, background, and various drivers pushing them to succeed. And I’m learning from them about their experiences and careers, what to do and what not to do.

Be open to meeting people. I left LA late last night to come to the retreat. My plane got delayed, I was already exhausted, and couldn’t wait to get on the plane and continue with my work. I chose to sit down next to a lady with a very active 4-year old daughter. The reason behind it was that the kid was going to be up playing and I could have the light on to work on my computer. I had the ambitious plan to get two full hours of work while en route. The lady and I exchanged pleasantries and then I started working. The flight attendant – though a funny Southwest Airliner – was not going to have me work on the computer while take off, so I had to obey and turned all electronics off. To kill time, the lady and I started chatting. Immediately, we bonded over my frustration about not being able to use my computer and hers about not being able to use her Kindle. One conversation led to another and heavy turbulence warned us that we were descending into Salt Lake City. I never got any work done, but spent two wonderful hours in the company of a woman with a very interesting life story and her daughter, who coincidentally shares my first name.

I could go on and on with the examples, but you get the idea. Keep your eyes, ears, and heart open and your journey will be so much better!

It's Tough, But Somebody's Gotta Do It

There are only 3 weeks left of this first year and I definitely feel the stress now. There are so many projects and papers due and so much group work that I feel like four weeks is not enough to finish everything. That, coupled with my other responsibilities of co-running Pepperdine’s chapter of Challenge for Charity, working with the National Association of Women MBA’s (NAWMBA) on developing their brand, and following up on different internship leads, leaves me no other time to breath.

With only a few days left to finish our E2B marketing plan and finance project, tempers are getting shorter and shorter. The good thing about these extensive projects is that you are forced to learn how to deal with different characters with sometimes different priorities and under a
tight schedule. And you’re supposed to make it work so you can carry out the task you were given! This is probably one of the most important take-aways from business school.

Sometimes though we take breaks. Very short, but we still do. Or we mix business with pleasure. Last week we had an online game to do for our Technology class. Because the game was called Root Beer, my team and I got together to play the game and have Root Beer floats. Work hard and play hard, right? Yesterday for example, a bunch of first and second-year students went to Santa Monica for a Beach Battle. The event was organized by C4C and about 10-15 children from CLF joined us to play volleyball and build sand castles. Breaks don’t happen very often these days, but we need to keep our sanity. Three more weeks to go!

Catching Up

I’ve been running behind on updates on this blog because it’s been a crazy busy couple of weeks. It’s not an excuse, it’s the simple reality of having no time for anything else other than school. Well, to be fair, I managed to sneak a weekend trip to Vegas for my sister-in-law’s birthday.

But let’s bring you up to date with what’s been going on lately. A couple of weeks ago, Net Impact and The Value-Centered Leadership Lab (VCLL) organized Social Enterprise Week (SEW). It’s been one of the most rewarding experiences at Peppedine. I had the opportunity to help bring together very smart business people whose organizations are driven by ethics and social consciousness. Some of our fellow MBA’s discussed their business ventures and how they got the ideas and funding. We had food provided by the Green Truck. And the week ended with Running the Malibu Waves Race, organized by Challenge for Charity (C4C) and benefiting Southern California Special Olympics and The Childrens Lifesaving Foundation (CLF). The race was a great success and the winners received certificates decorated by children that CLF is helping.

What else is going on? I’m still working on getting an internship. Many MBA’s - yours truly included - are feeling grateful that being in schools protects us from potential layoffs. At the same time, the state of the economy is making it more difficult to get internships. Many companies are faced with having to reduce the number of interns, or are taking the same number of interns but can’t afford to pay. Now more than ever your network is your best asset. And if that doesn’t work, then select a few companies that you are really interested in working with and call them to see if they’re taking interns this year. Because I want to work in marketing, I chose three marketing agencies that fit my professional and personal interests and called them. The responses have been positive so far and I’m hoping to work with one of them. I’ll keep you posted.

I Fuel Good!

Last night, my husband and I went to see Fuel. I heard about this documentary by accident. I saw an internship posted on Pepperdine’s career services website and I got in touch with the company that produced the film. As it always happens in life, one conversation led to another and last night, I’m at the AMC theatre in Santa Monica expecting to see just another documentary. I was pleasantly surprised to see that it was more than that.

Josh Tickell, the man behind the project, has spent more than ten years of his life finding a way to replace the oil we are so dependant on with something else that is renewable and nontoxic. And as it happens so many times, the answer was right there. It had been invented many years before. We all heard about it. And not only that, but some European countries were already using it. It was diesel fuel. Yes! The original one, that is. The one that Diesel himself invented, the one that was made out of vegetable oil: biodiesel fuel.

Then what stood between Diesel’s invention and its use on a large scale? Well, it was Rockefeller, Standard Oil, Exxon Mobil, interested governments and partnerships. I won’t spoil all the fun for you, I would just suggest you go see Fuel and form your own opinion about it. It recently won the Sundance Film Festival Audience Award for Best Documentary and through the energy of supporters has made it to a cinema near us. It is definitely a documentary worth seeing. It will first make you angry and then hopeful because it doesn’t just show the problem, it also offers solutions!

Who Can Control Time?

I've heard somewhere - and I wish I could remember where - that time is the only aspect of our life that we can control. It sounded like the coolest thing I've ever heard. Wow, I can control time. Nice! Only that I don't think I believe it that much. If I controlled time, then today for example I could have finished studying for my finance mid-term tomorrow, then I would have done some econ studying for the final on Tuesday, and then some more for my Thursday final in Accounting. Is that such an ambitious plan? I don't think so! Did my time allow for all that? Not really.

Yes, I get that this whole controlling the time thing means that we get to pick the most important task that absolutely has to get done and then we rank the rest in terms of what is and isn't important and has or doesn't have to get done. That is called prioritizing, if I remember correctly. While in business school, however, I feel that even after prioritizing my to-do list is still very long. And all those items left on the list are in my "very important and absolutely need to get done" quadrant!

Speaking of this lovely quadrant, finals are here! Yes, that means that 6 weeks have gone by already and session A is almost over. It also means that before I know it, my first year of business school will also be over. This idea will definitely take some getting used to. I still have to lock in an internship before I get to enjoy my summer vacation. Keep your fingers crossed for me to get the internship I want and then I will tell you all about this whole process! First things first though: finals week! Wish me luck!

Think Outside of the Classroom Box

It's already week five in the quarter and I have no idea where the time has gone. It seems like just the other day I was celebrating the new year. That's grad school for you!

Second-year students say that Spring quarter is the most difficult one and I can definitely see an increase in the number of projects on my list. For example, I have the E2B project in marketing that I already talked about in a previous entry. There is an individual project and group presentation in Finance. There's a group project and individual project in Accounting. And a project for Macro Economics. The individual project in Finance and the one in Econ build off of the project I completed in Accounting last quarter that looked at the profitability, solvability, and liquidity of an S&P 500 company of our choosing. I selected Nordstrom, for the obvious reasons. What?! A girl really likes to shop.

Despite the heavy workload, one major difference between this quarter and last is knowing what to expect. While I'm still sleep-deprived, my overall level of stress is a bit lower. Maybe that's because I haven't started my individual projects yet! A big part of the lower stress level is due to my effort to keep a broader perspective on the business school experience, with all of its opportunities beyond the classroom. It may not be good advice to not focus on studying 100% of the time, but business school is what you make of it. Studying is important, but don't forget to look outside of the classroom into the different clubs and activities that are constantly going on around here. For example, Net Impact is planning a volunteer trip to Guatemala over Spring break. C4C (Challenge for Charity) is organizing the Running the Waves marathon and is also getting ready for Sports Weekend at Stanford in April. Student clubs are also changing their leadership teams and many of my friends are becoming board members on many of these teams. I'm excited about this, as having already established friendships in place will make collaboration among the clubs effective.

So while my stress levels may go up over the remaining weeks in the quarter, it will definitely be balanced by the excitement of being involved in so many activities.

History in the Making

Today is indeed a special day. I’m not going to talk about the political implications as I believe that each is entitled to their own beliefs and I personally don’t care who’s Democrat and who’s Republican, I care about the individual, the results, and the values. I’m just going to say that I was very impressed to see people all over the world watching the inauguration, to see the energy present in D.C. and how hopeful and united they all seemed.

Unfortunately I was in my macroeconomics class, so I couldn’t watch the whole inauguration. I snuck out to listen to the inaugural address. Obama has definitely come a long way since two years ago. He seems more confident, more assertive, he looks and acts like a true leader. I wish I could ask him what he was thinking as he walked out in front of the crowd. His speech was as I expected: strong, loud and clear, and very real. My favorite lines: “For we know that our patchwork heritage is a strength, not a weakness. We are a nation of Christians and Muslims, Jews and Hindus – and non-believers. We are shaped by every language and culture, drawn from every end of this Earth; … know that your people will judge you on what you can build, not what you destroy.” Somebody said to me today that Obama’s speech was written by 24-year-old. If so, congratulations to him. I wish I was that wise when I was 24.

I also wish I were in D.C. today. It must have been an amazing and humbling experience.