To be completely honest, the majority of my hobbies took a backseat when I became a dad. I did try to keep up with them, but the time constraints didn’t allow it. After a time though, most dads probably find that their hobbies become their kids and their kid’s interests and that was certainly my …
I often hear about how processes should be more in line with how factories operate, but I am not sure what that means. Perhaps, it relates to the reduction and control of defects, which we know a factory is constantly looking to reduce. However, as someone who has worked in a factory before, I know …
This may not be a purely technical question, but it seems that many people in tech are inspired by science fiction. I am by all means a science fiction fan. I started thinking of all the movies that techies enjoy and many come to mind, at least for those my age. The two most important …
I am working through my course’s assigned readings and came across the mention of EDI, also known as Electronic Data Interchange. The section was on supply chain integration methods and EDI was spotlighted. EDI is passing parsed/formatted data from one entity to another. It can be anything from shipping notices, invoices or purchase orders. They …
Week 1 – Intro to Supply Chain and Clusters The focus on this class will be in supply chains. The professor has extensive experience in supply chains so there will be real world examples in the lectures. The majority of the class looks to be case studies and papers, with exams, and discussion posts. There …
The return of Artemis II was shown on YouTube from entry through splashdown and retrieval. This concludes this space mission now that all astronauts are safe and at home. I enjoyed following along this endeavor because it is the first one of my lifetime of this scale. I remember the space shuttle missions when I …
Week 5 – Industry Dynamics and Firm Innovation We finish up the final week with a bit of a busy schedule. We are expected to both finish up a traditional fifth week of work and a final week that includes a consultant type slide deck for Wendy’s, which is currently undergoing financial difficulty. Our readings …
Week 4 – International Strategy This week is the same as those before, with a reflection and discussion post on specific topics, which are essentially papers to be written. The readings included Ghemawats “Distance Still Matters” where we explored barriers due to geography. We explored Hofstede’s cultural dimensions and how those six items can help …
Week 3 – Corporate Level Strategies We continued our readings and diving into corporate strategy. Again we started off with a Porter reading, this one his “From Competitive Advantage to Corporate Strategy” article. Then we went into Prahalad’s “The Core Competence of the Corporation” and reviewed vertical integration and portfolio management as well as diversification …
Week 2 – Business Level Strategy We continued reading influential classic business papers this week, with Porter’s famous “Generic Competitive Strategies.” We talked about differentiation, overall cost leadership, and focus in one of those categories. We then read “Blue Ocean Strategy” by Kim, which I’ve actually read before ever starting my MBA program because I …