Communication

Having a blog was a unique and a little weird thing for me. I usually make fun of those who have had Xangas, Livejournals, and other types of blogs who spill out their feelings and remind themselves and others how much their lives suck everyday. So in essence, I had become what I had mocked...a blogger. Sure it was for school and had nothing to do with my pathetic and overdramatic introspections but the fact that I was sitting on a computer and sharing my thoughts to basically no one (except the 80 in class) was a little unnerving.

This blog assignment, however, has changed my minds about blogs. I've started to gain a great affinity towards blogs because its has been brought to my attention that many actors, musicians, and even corporate executives use the blog to convey messages about their feelings, music, and their company, respectively. It is a great tool to in a sense humanize one's image, especially in the business world, an image of just suits and ties. It encourages interaction between not only common consumers but also within a company itself. I wonder what George W. Bush would write on his blog if he had one.

THIS BLOG (after so much digression) has been an interesting, unique, and effective way to get value from this class. The fact that it wasn't tedious really contributed to the enjoyment of it. Also, the blog assignments about group activities solidified some of the core material we needed in class and we will probably need in our life. Management wasn't just about cramming before in the exam, it was about actually applying the concepts we have learned.

I also enjoyed reading other blogs and learning more about other people. It was interesting to see how many people agree and disagree with my assessments. I am glad that it was a civil discourse even when at times things got testy in the classroom. It was great that I could check the blogs of people who had become friends and really get to know them. It solidified my understanding about them and I hope my blog solidified their understanding about me.

I'm not doing this for a better grade but I really enjoyed the material that the Professor posted on his blog. The way he intertwined stories and applied Management concepts to real life shows his skill as a writer. I especially enjoyed the "7 rules of Management" entry and how outdated they have become. Again, it was a chance to think beyond the textbook and your grade. It actually forced me to think analytically and put sentences together so I could express my perceptions through my opinions.

I don't know if I will continue this particular blog but I do see myself being a blogger...but probably in obscurity. One thing I learned was to write down what I perceive and believe because it is important to evaluate your life on the changes of your perceptions.

What Would Kurpis Do?

What would Kurpis do if he was part of the mafia?
He would probably focus on teamwork and make committees to carry out the killings everyday.

What would Kurpis do if he was the new leader of Al-Qaeda?
He would probably use the Human Relations Style so he can understand why people are so angry.

What would Kurpis do to bring peace to the Middle East?
He would use his emotional intelligence to bring the sides together and use his lifelong learning to negotiate a treaty.

What would Kurpis do if he was a woman?
He would probably break the glass ceiling that keeps him down.

What would Kurpis do if he was part of an African Tribe?
He would probably get eaten by a hyena because he would have a hard time adapting to a high context culture and learning their cues.

What would Kurpis do if he was bald?
That is yet to be determined...

What would Kurpis do if he was a professor?
Give everyone an A except me.

Edit: After reading it in front of class, I realized that it reads not like a poem but more like a series of insults. Sorry Professor.

I accused of being a contract killer, a terrorist, and I emasculated you...Come to think of it, all that happens to me everyday! :)

Six Minutes Forty Three Seconds

The average service time for a McDonald’s order is 60 seconds. This is of course under the assumption that the order isn’t too big and it is not out of the ordinary. As simple as the order we tried to place sound, it required the employees to scurry around and directly communicate with those who make the order. McDonalds makes food items that they think most people will appreciate. McDonalds isn’t known to customize orders besides the whole “supersized” deal. So when I asked for a hamburger with exactly 4 pickles and fries with no salt, I thought I could bring entire franchise down to its knees (not really). I timed the order at it took exactly 6 minutes and 43 seconds to get my order (and I didn’t even order a drink!). About 5 people ordered after me and those people had larger orders. Huge value meals were flying out in less than 30 seconds but to get a burger with 4 pickles and fries with no salt took a lot longer. The interaction is as follows:

McDonald’s Employee: Welcome to McDonald’s, may I take your order?

Me: Hi, I would like a hamburger with 4 pickles and…

McDE: Extra pickles?

Me: No, 4 pickles…exactly 4 pickles

McDE: Yea, extra pickles

Me: No, no, no, I need there to exactly 4 pickles…

McDE: Why?

Me: Because four is my lucky number…

McDE: Why can’t you take a pickle out if there is too many?

Me: Because then it wouldn’t be lucky...and I would like a small fries with no salt

McDe: Ok…that would be $2.49…

Then the cashier went to the woman who was making the burgers and said put 4 pickles in the burger. Then she proceeded to the fryer and put a new batch of fries even though there were already some made (but with salt), and put the fries into the fryer. I felt bad because the line kept getting bigger but I really wanted those 7 points. I noticed the cashier taking charge and finishing the order herself. She just had to indicate to one other person that I wanted 4 picked in the burger.

People came and went but I continued to wait and I tried to smile and make eye contact but I am sure they weren’t too fond of me. Then finally after the fries were done, she put that and the burger in the bag without offering ketchup!! I checked to see if the order was correct and then I proceeded to give it to the homeless guy eating in the restaurant and told him I hope you like pickles…

It was a very interesting experience even thought it was such a simple exercise. This exercise really spoke volumes about the type of restaurant McDonald’s is. It is not equipped to handle customize orders. Asking for 4 pickles, I was retorted by “extra pickles?”, a generic answer built into their robotic minds. It was almost like a “do not compute” sign started flashing in their brains when I said EXACTLY four pickles. This is through no fault of their own. It is how the management process has been constructed and has worked quite successfully and therefore it is the biggest selling restaurant in the world.

The management process is good but not perfect. We can try to perfect the McDonald’s management process so it can handle an order like the one I placed. In order to fix the order preparation, we might need the help of an IT guy. In addition to the regular things on cash register and their screen, we need to save a space for a “special consideration” part on the register and on the screen, which the food preparers follow. This would allow special orders to be processed without the need of a person going directly to the place where the food is prepared. But since this was a unique order, I thought the communication was satisfactory.

McDonald’s isn’t known for the best customer service because the employees are paid minimum wage and most of the time it seems like they don’t want to be there. I got the cold shoulder, but I didn’t expect any preferential treatment. I was at McDonalds’s buying fast food and spending a huge sum of $2.49. But to improve customer service, you need to increase pay. We see this with the airline industries where the passengers are unhappy because the flight crew is unhappy. The more you take care of an employee (as long as he/she is not a freeloader), the more positive output you will get in their work and in your business.

McDonald’s, probably not from top management’s choosing, has become a place where you expect fast food and fast service but not great service. It is a reflection of the American culture where the value of time is far greater in let’s say Saudi Arabia or Pakistan. In fact, in Pakistan there are waiters who take the customer’s order at a table! They come to you rather than you go up to them. This is a reflection of how their culture perceives McDonalds. To Pakistanis, I assume that going to McDonald’s is a big deal and therefore it works more like a restaurant. In the United States, we perceive McDonald’s as a quick “fill me up” and go.

I feel other than the small technological improvement in their system, they are quite successful in dealing with the American consumer. It is going to McDonald’s decision whether they want to change the way Americans think about McDonalds and the take appropriate action. Whether it is to increase pay so service is better or start taking orders on a table. Technology exists where you can interactively place an order on your table using touch screen and that is a path I would tell McDonald’s to consider.

By the way, they charged me $.11 cents for extra pickles. I mean come on; I know we are in a recession slowdown, but charging for extra pickles?

Am I Management Material?

The Personality Profile system is a unique assessment of our characteristics and at least for me, pretty accurate. I am a C and i. I agree I am quite analytical when making a decision. I will not make rush judgments in any situations or about any person. I feel I am also quite diplomatic with my answers especially when resolving conflicts among my friends and family members. If those are the characteristics of a Conscientious person then the test gauged my management orientation very well.

My secondary trait was Influence. People have told me that I am but I feel still feel that I don’t have that ability yet. Mainly because I don’t strive to persuade others but merely present people with possibilities in any given situation. But from what other people have said, that secondary trait is true as well.

I don’t think that one should strive to be another type and I have no desire to. Even though I and d’s make the best leaders…even those will admit that they cannot survive without some C’s and S’s. And from what I understand, all the types have strengths and weaknesses so to striving to be a different type doesn’t mean that you will be a better person for it.

The most important thing to do is to embrace the type you are and understand your tendencies and also predict others’ as well. Companies determine what type of personality is lacking from an organization and then fulfills their weaknesses since D,I,S and C's are all equally important.

This test would work well in personal interactions given that you know the other’s type. If you need an icebreaker this is a wonderful idea! I don’t know how compatible 2 D’s would be though.

Try to Take Over the World

Pinky always turned to Brain and asked "What are we going to do tomorrow night?" Brain would always respond "Same thing we do every night Pinky...Try to take over the world!!" Brain's vision was clear...world domination. The comedy of this cartoon hindered our ability to appreciate the resilience of the two mice who aimed high and never settled for low. As absurd as it may seem, they probably felt fulfilled trying to attain their dream.

It is hard for me to express my vision for the future for a couple of reasons. First, I always change my vision and who is to say that the list below will not change. Second, I feel my vision is personal and I cringe at the thought of sharing it.

Like Pinky and the Brain, I feel satisfaction isn't only in accomplishing your vision but more satisfaction lies in trying to attain it. So even though I might not accomplish these goals at least I will have the satisfaction of trying my best to try to achieve them.

1. Write a sitcom. Aside from being enormously intelligent, gifted, good-looking, caring, generous AND humble, I'm funny too (That was an attempt at humor). It has alway been a dream of mine to write a sitcom because I feel my life is one. I'm always concerned that it would be to Seinfeld-like so coming up with dialogue isn't hard but coming up with a situation is extremely difficult. The action I would take to accomplish this would be to watch more sitcoms and live more of my life so I can stumble upon a muse. I should also probably take a creative writing class to help me become a better writer.

2. Host SNL. I think the previous idea kind of plays into this. If I do become a successful sitcom writer, maybe I can one day host SNL and parody the Guantanamo situation. The action I would take here would be to become famous quickly before they shut Guantanamo down.

3. Build a Car (that works). I don't plan to make a Rolls-Royce or even come close to it for that matter. I just want to build a car from start to finish just for the heck of it. To me it would be like solving a puzzle or an elaborate math problem but instead of only mental satisfaction, you would get to go 0-60mph in hopefully at least 2o seconds. I don't hope to mass produce these cars but hey if I stumble upon gold...maybe I will. The action that I am taking to one day possibly fulfill this vision is learning more about cars and its parts. Also I need to keep checking the latest developments in alternative fuels so the car is relevant in the future.

These goals make me wonder why am I here at Baruch? Maybe the first thing to do is get out of Baruch. But these aren't my only visions. There are too many that coincide. Some of my goals have a lot to do with me being here at Baruch. But no matter what happens I know one thing for certain that hard work doesn't guarantee you will reach you goals but without hard work you don't have a chance.

Making Group Decisions

When we started this particular class activity, I knew exactly what the professor was trying to accomplish. He was putting us in a chaotic situation which would show us the difficulties of management. So when the floor opened for discussion, I sat back and let it be resolved on its own. I knew that the input I would provide would be thought by other members and would be rejected.

The proposal I thought of was that of the two tests we would take, one would count less in terms of percentage. For example, the lower score would count for 5% and the higher score would count for 35%. I felt, as some other classmates did, that there should be some degree of responsibility that the individual should take when they aren't successful. So if you did get a bad score, you should take responsibility, either of taking the test too lightly or not studying properly. Evidence that other people did well shows that it wasn't an unfair exam even though it was unorthodox.

But that is just my view which would've been shot down because I understand that people would like to leave class with nice letter grade and a bad score counting against you would hinder it. So when the opportunity of dropping and curving came up, I knew people would jump at it. Since it was the most lenient and it benefited those who didn't do so well and didn't take way from those who did do well, it was the best option in the utilitarian sense.

I feel I used the "avoidance" method but not to its strict definition. I expected there would be a resolution but that my input wouldn't really affect the decision and would just take up time. If I had time to make a proposal and had time to think about how to present the importance of individual responsibility in this case, maybe I would've spoken up. But I understand that in the future we will need to make decisions with time constraints similar to the one we encountered so maybe I need to be more vocal and assertive in the future. Even though my ideas won't be accepted, it is another proposal to consider and maybe it will get people thinking about future decisions that they might make.

It is important that we all get heard but with the time constraint and 80 people in the classroom, its hard to get input from every single individual. The reality is most people were looking for a way that they could individually benefit first, and then thought about it in the group context. It is not a bad thing...it is just human nature. But I feel after some convincing to those who opposed the final proposal, we came up with a solution that benefited everyone and that is the most important thing in my opinion. I similarly, even though had my own views, went along with the solution so everyone could benefit.

One more thing, multiple multiple choice is great. I don't know why people didn't like it. You lose less points missing a circle than getting the entire question wrong if there was only once choice. I am glad we decided to keep it!!

Do we have a Moral Instinct?

In class, we have talked about ethics and how crucial it is in a business setting. But how do we determine what we are doing is right. We must have an innate notion that we use to determine how we deal with dilemmas with a so called moral instinct. As we are thrown in the business world, we will use this moral instinct to guide our decisions.

There is a great article in January 13th edition of New York Times Magazine about this so called "moral instinct" which makes you question your own morals and how even though we are firm in our beliefs and believe that our morals come from reason; this article argues that it may not be "moral reason" but "moral rationalization" guiding your decisions.

Here is a scenario from the article you might want to consider and judge how sound your morals are:

"On your morning walk, you see a trolley car hurtling down the track, the conductor slumped over the controls. In the path of the trolley are five men working on the track, oblivious to the danger. You are standing at a fork in the track and can pull a lever that will divert the trolley onto a spur, saving the five men. Unfortunately, the trolley would then run over a single worker who is laboring on the spur. Is it permissible to throw the switch, killing one man to save five? Almost everyone says 'yes.'

Consider now a different scene. You are on a bridge overlooking the tracks and have spotted the runaway trolley bearing down on the five workers. Now the only way to stop the trolley is to throw a heavy object in its path. And the only heavy object within reach is a fat man standing next to you. Should you throw the man off the bridge? Both dilemmas present you with the option of sacrificing one life to save five, and so, by the utilitarian standard of what would result in the greatest good for the greatest number, the two dilemmas are morally equivalent. But most people don't see it that way: though they would pull the switch in the first dilemma, they would not heave the fat man in the second."

I found it to be a great read and thought it was relevant to the issues we have talked about in class in terms of our guiding ethics and morals. This article goes beyond the idea of the "Potter's boxes" and makes you question the very idea of your morality. But I have been wrong before!

You can find the rest of the huge article here if interested:

The Moral Instinct

Egging it On

This task was unique in the sense that it required out-of-the-box thinking. This is the first time I was involved in a task like this which seemed at first to have relevance only in a high school physics class. But now that I've had time to reflect on this activity, I have realized that this activity epitomizes the management experience. The planning and execution of this activity as elementary as it may seem requires the team to have a clear objective, promote teamwork, come up with strategies and evaluate them, and finally implement the best strategy.

Our team understood the task really well. The objective was to try not to break the egg from a height of 10 feet using 8 straws and 2 feet of tape. We conceptualized an idea really fast but we didn't take into consideration other possible strategies mainly because of time constraints. So skipped step 2. There seemed to be skepticism from some group members whether the proposed idea would work. But from the confidence of other members who came up with the idea, we seemed to ignore our doubts. In fact, once the model was drawn it seemed like the egg would withstand a drop from 10 feet. But we never discussed Step 2 of the planning process where we needed to evaluate group strengths that work in our favor and group weaknesses that could've held us back. We were vary of the small amount of time to conceptualize a design and hence we skipped those steps.

Once we were given the material to build a design, chaos ensued. The race was on and we had to bring the 2D model to life. As the building process went along, we all realized that it looked much prettier on paper than it did in the implementation. We seemed to stray away from the model that we drew because of difficulty trying to build it and the constraint that 50% of the egg shouldn't be covered. What resulted was a pretty bad model that was a mush of straws and tape attached to the egg. The problem was that we didn't evaluate possible setbacks associated with the design. We also didn't clearly evaluate the resources and how they would work together.

Once the model was built we also saw that the model wouldn't stay on its base and rollover to the side exposing the egg. We tried to fix it last minute...our last desperate attempt. Once the time allotted was ending, it seemed we were relying more on divine intervention than our confidence.

The result from the experiment is shown above : (
Humpty Dumpty (our egg's name) had a great fall.

We seemed to skip a couple of steps and didn't properly execute others. But our biggest problem was that we didn't consider or develop alternative strategies. A better way of saying it would be that when the bus was going down the ditch we didn't make an effort to try to stop it, we let it go down the ditch hoping that it wouldn't be damaged.

The biggest problem we faced was time constraints. We didn't have time to evaluate setbacks and in retrospect we should have done that. We also should have made plans to make an alternative model just in case the first model didn't look like it was going to work. We also should have taken into consideration other ideas and input from everyone.

Overall, I think in our haste to complete the task, we did a less than commendable job but I am sure with more time to conceptualize and implement, we would have come up with a better model.

Our egg had the loudest crack noise which fits my theory that if you do something bad...you should do it REALLY bad so people remember!

Song I'm Listening to: Good Morning by Kanye West

Taking a Bite Out of My Problems

Time is usually the biggest management problem for everyone. It seems inevitable that at some point in your life you feel like there is not enough time to do what you like or need to do. It's part of the human condition (I don't know what that means but it seems an intelligent thing to say).

So instead of taking the familiar route, I will go with something really different and radical (not really). The biggest management problem I have is not having a consistent eating schedule. I usually go a whole days without eating. My classes are usually in the morning and I haven't eaten breakfast in the morning since 6th grade. My classes end in the evening and I only eat when I get home. So if you include sleep, I go 18 to 20 hours without eating. Even I think it's crazy but it never enters my mind because there is so much work to do. By the time I finish doing homework or studying it's time for my next class.

I just forget to eat. It is my intention to eat in order to keep up my energy in class and since I don't eat, I tend to tune out at times and don't grasp the material that is being taught. It seems like I should just take some time to eat but I don't feel hungry when I'm studying.

It's a "vicious cycle" as Fat Bastard from Austin Powers put it ("I eat cuz I'm unhappy, and I'm unhappy because I eat"). It's not quite as drastic as Fat Bastard's problem, but it is similar. I cannot feel hungry at the right time and when I do feel hungry it's too late.

The problem is difficult to manage so I just tend to neglect it.

Song I'm Listening To: A Million Ways by OK Go and Bonerama

Who am I

Hi name is Llama and don't worry it took me 7 years to say my name properly. Right now, I am a Finance and Investments major, last week I was a Marketing major and by next week I am fully expecting to be an English major. I am an insomniac who loves to sleep.

I enjoy riding on the subway besides all the pushing and shoving, the smell of urine and BO, the inevitable signal malfunctions, and the interruptions by rejected musicians when I'm trying to study. I schedule my classes around my TV schedule so that I have my priorities in order.

Here is a tip for a happier life: Find a song that matches every situation you encounter in life; in the end you can compile a soundtrack of your life.

Song I'm listening to: Rockstar by N.E.R.D