Module 3 update

Watching the elections in Sao Paulo will be an experience I will never forget. My classmates both republican and democrat surrounded by Brazilians, and hotel guests from Germany and else where..watching the numbers role in on the Hotel's outside bar TV-was exciting and fun.
Cheers-Clapping-Boos could be heard from each announcement on CNN (the first Chanel we could find broadcasting the results-the rest of the channels broadcasting just regular programming). Everyone was making early predictions, asking each other about the process in early voting for each state-how some classmates couldnt vote -as early voting opened the day some left and the lines were too many hours long for them to make their flights to school...the sacrifices they made.
some people left the night early like around 9pm (which is 3pm PST) while I stayed till 1am with the last troupers. By the time I feel asleep-it was clear Obama won.
The next day, it was strange to be in a foreign country-it seemed only our class was obsessed with our election and outcome. Maybe the silence I experienced from the hotel guest was just lost in the translation and poor eavesdropping skills I have. I lived vicariously through through social media -and US newspapers to feel a bit more of a connection to the event.
~
Class ended on Friday in Sao Paulo and by Friday night we hopped a flight to Buenos Aires, Argentina.
We had class early on Saturday morning. And sometime in the morning I came down withVertigo. The most obnoxious sickness -where the world just starts moving and I just got nauseated and dizzy. I laid down and the school called a doctor. I was given medicine and was told that due to elevation change, the late night traveling and change in altitude that the cause was more environmental than anything else. Which was good--as my body acclimated -the vertigo ceased. It's funny to get a new illness in a foreign country. Never knowing what to do, where to go, the panic for a second steps in. Thankfully, my GEMBA family is exceptional. Within a minute of talking to my friend about what I felt I had a pharmacist (who is pregnant and has a small cabinet of medicines for any miss calculated experience) and a medical doctor -both classmates of mine-diagnosing my symptoms and prescribing me medicine. Talk about the richness of resources on our adventure. But like I said, the school had a local doc come by and do assessment just in case. After a few days though the vertigo was gone.
~
My professor Pedro said there are four types of countries in the world:
-rich
-poor
-Japan
-Argentina

Japan having very limited natural resources yet is quite successful and then Argentina which is a country with ample of resources, and yet not doing so well.

Argentina is Beautiful! The sun, the people, the old architect. Being in Buenos Aires you feel like you are in any European city! I could live here in a heart beat. It feels comfortable. Sao Paulo on the other hand is not a city I would want to live in-too ugly and horrible traffic.

Right now we are doing a business simulation-computer game if you will-where you put in variables like price, factory location, capacity, advertising, etc...and you add in your values for each simulation and see hw your group did in the market place. Kinda fun in a geeky way-but to
totally stressful in another-no one wants to be that group that defaults. But weird though huh-playing simulation "games" in grad school just seems odd-but I much prefer it to writing papers.  Anyway that is hat my last days in class will be-combing the Supply chain operations, Marketing, and Global structures classes into one long "real life" experiment. Wish my team well!


Love you!
Lizzie

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Module 3 begins!!

We are in Sao Paulo and Buenos aires for Module 3- a week in each city.

I arrived in Brazil after traveling for a combined 17 hours.  The temperature is pleasant. Not too hot, nor smug, just sorta perfect 75 with little humidity. I was prepared for the worse-sweat drenched clothes exiting the plane like in Tanzania. But instead-just a little overcasted 75 degrees.

I took a taxi with my classmate and pal Phil. The biggest observation I have about Sao Paulo is the graffiti everywhere. I kept thinking to myself how did they reach that spot or that one? Phil commented that it reminded him of New York in the 80's. The overall architecture is mostly cement buildings-indicative of any hot climate location. I didn't see a lot of trash. The city seems mostly clean. The stories about the traffic congestion is true. It's bad. The people seem very friendly from my limited interactions and overall I like this city. Tomorrow our group will go on a tour of the city. I will take some photos and post later.

The classes:
This module I will be taking:
Global Operations and Supply Chains
Marketing for the Global Executives
Structuring and Managing the Global Firms
The integrated course will be Designing the Global Firm

Well I am going to go back to studying. Have a great night!

Xo
L

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October 2012 Update

In between the modules life is pretty much finishing finals and reading for the next module and of course working.  Now because life is life, there are still about a million other things that happen as well.

I will try to recap them here:

First- This happened:  

I have worked at VLST for over 7 years. I am grateful for the experience that the company has provided me with and also for all the great people I have worked with over the years. I walked in as a lab manager and research associate focusing on molecular biology and leaving as the Sr. Operations Manager. My favorite projects would have to be moving the company, space planning and overall creating operations. With a small company I have loved being able to wear so many hats over the years and being exposed to the different aspects of a company. My company, when appropriate, has tried to be very transparent and candid. I know everyone who has worked here and everyone has given their best. As small biotechs go, they don't get much more fun than VLST. I am excited to see what happens next for VLST and their clinical projects. I truly do believe in what the company does and I believe that their therapeutics can have real benefit for patients. However, due to their limited resources and refocusing, I will no longer be working there past February. So as they saying goes, one door closes and another one opens.. and it seems that over the month of October I have had some great conversations about some potential possibilities, with other small biotechs, some international firms outside of science field, some random odd stuff, and even some ideas about my own projects. All in all, I feel overall positive of my next steps-whatever they will be. :)

Second:

School-so besides just the readings for the next module, we have started our thesis paper (not due till July) and a small group consulting project with a firm in India for our Module 4. My thesis mentor is a fascinating man with the same passion (I think) for interdisciplinary approaches as well as for disrupting the status quo. Needless to say, I think I will very much enjoy his insights! I also have found some of my own mentors in the community around Seattle. It is hard for me not to constantly work on my project.
My team consulting project is also really neat. I have a great group of four other classmates, each bringing a tremendous value to the table. Our topic is to look at innovation and technology solutions for the poor for InfoSys. One of my favorite aspects of this project is just how you have global meetings. First you had to pick a time that would work for everyone's time zone. So for me, it is 9am on Sundays, which is noon on the east coast, and about 4pm in Europe and one of our members travels a lot, so sometimes he is in Peru, sometimes in Madrid, so for him, who knows. ;) One of our team members is an IT guru-her name is Amy and she set us up with a great google group site, and one of our members Clive had a global conference program we could utilize. I find the logistics in the actual meetings so fascinating. How do we move forward on projects with out seeing each other eye to eye. (We do have video chat-but on a sunday at 9am-I usually try to spare my teammates).
Ohh and how can I forget this news: our GEMBA program got ranked as 19th in the world for EMBA programs by the Financial Times. This was the first time the program got ranked-so next year I think we will be #1.

Third:
Heavy on my heart and my mind is this: Washington State is voting on Marriage Equality this November. Our state congress passed marriage equality at the beginning of the year, and our Governor even signed it into law. I even made the front page of the paper with Shena. See us here. However, a small group of people got together, got some signatures and used our governing process to put it up for a vote in the November election. "Now the thing about rights is that you are not suppose to vote on them." Rachel Maddow. However, in WA we do. So this October I volunteered with the pro-marriage equality people-Washington United for Marriage Equality by doing a phone bank one night and by donating money as well. (Not a lot of money-but what I could.) It was eye opening to say the least to talk to the undecided voters on the phone.  There is a lot of misinformation being spread by the opposition that people haven't bothered to check the facts.  The school curriculum won't change, and if you sell a service or a product to the public and you discriminate- you can be sued today for that. This law doesn't change anything with regards to that. And all religious folks get to keep their rights and their own customs, etc etc. The hardest claim to hear is that people just were not comfortable with it. They were married. But were uncomfortable with marriage for all. What?! They just have arguments that are just not logical-based in a fear of the unknown or something else that I can't grasp.  Any Washington voter undecided please check the facts, talk to me, and vote for equality this November. I have heard all the arguments against, and I think this pastor sums it up best.
And a fun insight too, is that most Seattle companies from Starbucks, Amazon, Microsoft, REI, Boeing, Alaska Airlines, Expedia etc etc all support Marriage equality.
Check out this great video from Expedia.
It is really neat to see how these global companies support their employees and support diversity and love. I wonder what impact it had to their global business for standing up for human rights. Of course I can imagine how it helped tremendously in goodwill and in overall respect. Shoot-Expedia is the only company that I buy my tickets through from now on.
Also our capitol hill musicians also showed their support by creating this song, and played on Ellen today: watch the video here.
The fact that we are debating marriage equality is crazy. The world is in so many time zones all at once, from dark ages to enlightenment to the 21st century.  I guess I am just use to living in a progressive, innovative city that I forget that it is not the norm. Hopefully, this November we will be the first state to vote in marriage equality and we can be an example for the rest of the country and to the world.
I won't be around though for this historic day, as I will be in Brazil for module 3, so please celebrate for me!!

Well there it is, a quick recap. Oh and also, I turned 31 in October. I had a great dinner with the family and another small quick dinner with some friends. My best bud Krystal even flew in from Montana. Pretty Special.
Oh and one more thing: Pygmy Survival Alliance is starting to ask for donations for 2013. We have accomplished so much from literacy program, secondary education, deworming, health insurance, creating sustainable businesses, launching a CD of the music, to food security, to social community empowerment, to a youth soccer team. Just incredible. A true testament to the holistic micro-development approach.  For updates check out www.facebook.com/pygmysurvival or www.pymgysurvival.org and www.coffeerwanda.com

Okay now I am done.
XO,
L

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Module 2 Classes Complete!

I just finished with classes for Module 2 of my Global Executive MBA program.  I am currently in my hotel in Madrid and getting ready for dinner. We will be dinning tonight at the Palacio de Linares

Even though this module was just 2 weeks, I feel like we have been gone for over a month. Each day is crammed full of learning, speakers, dinners/cultural events, studying and projects that each day magically turns into 100 hours. And for sleeping, well that is for things like lunch breaks. I was so exhausted one day, that i just pulled over a chair, put my feet up and was knocked out within seconds. This program is not for the faint at heart, as I am learning. But I guess, neither is life, well at least my life.

What can I digest so far over these two weeks?

-Leadership-Success-it means a million things to a million people.
-Staying focused and congruent is darn important to reach a goal, and to continue to reach goals. This is important individually and for corporations.
-Financial analysis and forecasting can be divided into two camps, short term gains and long term profitability. I prefer, when given the chance, to think and focus on long term. (Even if todays market is so uncertain that it doesn't make sense, it feels more comfortable to me. I may need to evaluate this again in the future).
-People really don't have a good model that will guarantee a successful company. There are ways to improve your odds however, such as corporate strategy, management, company structure, knowledge management, etc.  Even if you do all the stuff you are suppose to do in all the MBA books.. you will only have secured a 50% of the success game. there is still an unknown 50% of what makes something work. Yes, magic does exist, and it exists in stuff that economists have never studied before or even know how to quantify.
-And saying I don't know.. is still really hard for some people to say, and even hard for some entire fields of study to say. think about all the stuff in the world we don't know.. I mean even in science, there is a bigillions of stuff not know even about the human body. Our not knowing fuels our curiosity. It allows for our curiosity. And with curiosity comes innovation. Innovation comes from the stance of not knowing. Not from the knowing. it comes from admitting I have NO IDEA! 
-I like working with many different cultures. I love seeing how my classmates approach problems and projects. My classmates come from all industries and are at all levels, so the experience that comes to each table is vast. My last project, the CEO of the group was a very quiet force. He listened to everyone, repeated all the ideas back, the team would discuss the ideas; the good idea would emerge, and the silly ideas would be dismissed. The team was very easy and well managed. The mood between us all was just easy and relaxed. I was on I think two other teams (maybe three other teams?) and each one just shows different approaches, different level of perfectionism, and different levels of discussing the path forward. As school is the best playground for experimentation, I think I will continue to explore different styles for my remainder modules. I am sure each group you work with will automatically have some innate behaviors but knowing the characteristics that smooth groups over is very helpful. My classmates have so much to teach me, that I am excited for more projects.
-I really appreciate the founders of this program. Pedro and Paul are amazing human beings that deeply care about education. I like being able to tell that they care and they are deeply committed to us, to the program.
-Merges, acquisitions and partnerships was a lot of fun to learn about. We heard from one of the top members from Mars candy about their M&A and that was truly insightful. Insightful might be a great word for this entire module.  INSIGHTFUL.



ohh and the biggest thing I am learning:

 -The differences in life is what makes connecting and making commerce with people, fun.


Anyway going to get ready now for dinner.
Love you,
L

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Crash Creative: my masters thesis + my dream

I wanted to share something with you, a speech I gave in September of 2008 to the City of Seattle Council members:

"We live in a world of evermore complicated problems that are integrated over all disciples over all human behavior.  We can no longer afford to create structures that are one sided/meet only one function. We can no longer keep ourselves looking for a solution in one area.  we need to create an infrastructure that blends all lines, to force a mix of ideas.  We need to create a CERN [Particle Accelerator] type of structure a type of city. Where instead of colliding particles we collide people in order to elucidate the ideas from them, to most importantly inspire new ideas.
We can do this by acknowledging that art examines the raw form of the problems in society as well as providing inspiration for ideas and solutions to those problems.

I want to live in a city where when I walk down the street I see the creative class working in all disciplines together. I want to see buildings that are adaptable- allowing multifunctions to cohabitate. I would love to see a building where on one floor is designated to restaurants, one floor could be dance rehearsal and one floor could be lab space/hospital patient care.
We do amazing things in Seattle.. we fight diseases that don't even effect us, we create art that is shown thousand miles away. We don't do stuff on the small scale here. We create global companies, global citizens to solve the global problems.  Let us inspire each other in new ways~ where we force each other to collide with each other in the same space.
The creation out of seattle out of capitol hill is destined to make ripples globally and create a world where we will all want to live in.
A city that is adaptable and welcomed to all."

I was asked to speak on behalf of the Cultural Overlay District Advisory Committee (CODAC),http://www.seattle.gov/council/codac/default.htm. (which  no longer exists due to funding).  They were about how to preserve the arts in cap hill and why Art is important to a community to a city.

I went to the CODAC meeting the summer of 2008, and as you may know, I can't help but to talk during those things, and the committee had a meeting planned with the City Council Members at Seattle City Hall. The City wanted to hear from the public.  And the committee was so impressed with my thoughts and vision for Capitol Hill, they asked me to speak at the "public section" on their behalf.  It was a 2 minute talk.  One of the committee members wrote me an email afterwards and said I was "an articulate speaker and an exciting thinker".

Since then I have played with this idea of creative space and the idea of crashing together all disciples from Science, Engineering, IT, Non Profits, Global Health, and Art in order to collaborate, cross pollinate and discover true solutions for our complex global problems. No longer should we fund superfluous companies, when we have social entrepreneurs ready to tackle the difficult problems in our world. Let's give the social entrepreneurs a place to crash together and create innovation just like the Higgs boson was discovered in CERNE, who knows what is capable from our Crash. 

My experience in science incubators, space management, move management, occupancy management, providing Operations Services and turn key facilities to multiple small start up companies gives me the beginning know how to make my dream of Crash Creative Incubator Facilities into a reality. Therefore, I will start by devoting my Master's thesis to this project by developing a sound business plan and by building partnerships. Let me know if you are interested in my thesis as I would love to chat and gather feedback and information.

Elizabeth Scallon

Elizabeth.scallon@gmail.com

Sent from my iPad

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Module Two-Spain!

Yesterday, I started Module Two of my Global Educational Adventure.

We are currently in Barcelona and then next week will be in Madrid. (Tough life-huh?!)

The courses in Module Two are:
-Corporate Strategy,
-Corporate Financial,
-Industry Economics
-Integrated Course: Competing Globalizing Industries

So far, so GOOD! I am following along much better in Corporate Finance then last quarter's accounting class. My professor Gloria Batllori is an incredibly smart professor that can lasso complex ideas into a practical, simple approach that the students can all understand. She put a graphic on the board today where you saw all three financial statements connected and I could almost hear my brain click with "Aha". Not to say that I didn't understand the interdependence last quarter, but sometimes, being shown in a new way, with a new graphic, drives the concepts to a deeper understanding.  Mix that with the bigger picture of forecasting and I feel like I am starting to really understand the financial field, and where each process fits in to the picture of examining a firms value. We have a project due at the end of the week, where the class is divided into six teams and we all discuss a different firm and evaluate it based on the financial history as well provide an overall evaluation for the future. My team will be analyzing Amazon. (Out of the 6 companies, I think two or three were from Seattle, and as the unofficial, self appointed ambassador for Seattle, you can imagine the delight I feel.)  I tried in Seattle this summer to get in contact with a senior finance person at Amazon to discuss the financial statements and forecasting projections; however, it was to no avail. I may try to pursue again after I return-so if you know anyone, please let me know.  :)

For my Corporate Strategy class, I just turned in my first paper of the module.  It was on the corporate strategy of Harley Davidson. Kinda fun to examine the company's history, it's values, and how it leveraged it's competencies to be a leader in the heavy weight motorcycles. For instance, did you know that it was founded in 1903 (pretty old company), it doesn't have a corporate hierarchy structure (they believe in circle method based on functional groups), and they have an easy customization ability, by having few options in the core components and have multiple variations in the aesthetic options. I must admit, reading about motorcycles and being in Spain where everyone drives scooters, makes me really really want a scooter. If someone could just make Seattle less rainy, I would totally trade my 4 wheels for 2 wheels.  

Okay, back to studying for me.

L

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Module 1 Complete!

Module 1 was completed on Monday when I turned in my last final.The three take home finals varied with expectation.
The first final was due a week after we returned home. It was a 5 page paper identifying a problem with a company and then solving said problem using a non market strategy. The second final was a 4 page paper answering 3 questions regarding a business case study. The third final was a take home, open book exam with a mixture of calculations, essay and analysis.
The five page paper was the most fun to complete as well as the most challenging. Originally the assignment was based on team presentation that we did for class.  The class was broken into 6 teams. Each team identified a problem with Amrut, a whisky company in India, and then made a case for a non-market strategy to solve the problem.  Our individual papers then, could be based on our presentation so that we could apply our research from the presentation directly to our paper. It was a win-win for the class in a way. However, 4 days after we returned from class, I received an email from the teacher grading our presentation. He was not fond of my team's thesis, and suggested we try another strategy for our individual papers. (I found out later, that he did this to a few groups-possibly all of them). I had roughly three days to find another non market strategy. The challenging part for me was working with the time line to not only identify a new strategy, but also write a well written paper.
I did it though. I though long and hard. What is Amrut's problem? How do I solve Amrut's problem. I identified the problem to be: Amrut is not penetrating their domestic market effectively. (I don't have the paper in front of me-so the paper may differ slightly). There is a host of reasons why they are not. Amrut, like I said earlier, is a spirit company. They make whisky and other liquors.  India, like many countries, does not have unified liquor laws. Even the age to drink differs by what kind of liquor you are drinking and what geography you are in. Some counties in India are completely dry and therefore bootleggers and illicit liquor businesses prosper. The standardization for liquors also varies and consequences are sever for health and safety of the population. I have heard the abuse of alcohol is also worse then AIDS/Malaria/TB combined in India. Identifying a problem with Amrut, made me realize that even India has an alcohol problem. My solution then aimed at solving the problem for both.The killing two birds with one stone analogy-even though I never understood why someone would want to throw stones at birds and why they want so many birds to die is beyond me. And hence I used it? Hm something to look at later. Back to my point.

Amrut needs to expand its reach in India, and India needs to solve its myriad of problems.
Alcohol then can be a tool used for good.
Solution: Incorporate women in to the value chain by creating micro-financing loans for women to start their own businesses.  Business would include: small whisky bars, alcohol distribution channels, recycling bottle companies, etc. Each small businesses could expand as well, for instance the whisky bars could expand into restaurants, distribution channels could expand into small markets and recycling bottles could even expand into a larger recycling plant.

By bringing women into business you can teach them financial literacy and business practices. It is shown that when women have economic freedom the domestic abuse goes down as well as AIDS transmission decreases, and family planning increases. This solution thus has potential partnerships built right in with many non profits. 
My paper goes in to great depth proving my case. Well three days worth of depth.
Since this paper was turned in over a week ago, I was given my grade. I received my first A in grad school. The teacher provided me with good follow up questions for me to consider in the future, which I do hope to expand at a later date. 

What I decided through this process is that when given an opportunity in this program (and in life) I will stretch myself to think of solutions that really work. What I mean by that is not some cheesy person's acronym such as the three Ps-People, Profit and Planet. Or some other cliche business book regurgitation of some half thoughtout idea.
What does a solution need. It needs to consider the workers, the executive managers, the shareholders, the environment-locally & globally (and not just by some CO2 emission report but by the impact to the holistic geography such as wildlife, people, water + air quality, etc), human rights, culture, history as well as the future. It is midnight on a Friday night. This list will grow or get restructured in time and is not exhaustive as of yet. My premise is that there can be win-win for everyone by having business solutions that think broader while staying focus on their own impact on all the different levels in this world.

My second final was answering three questions about a case study that compared two companies. I did not enjoy writing this paper at all. I could not find my voice for question one. It was a compare and contrast question with providing history and evolution for context of why the organizations are the way that they are. My mind just went to graphs and timelines. All I could see was visuals-power point slides if you will. But I had to write. I wanted to look into the human aspect more of the company. One of the companies had dualing brothers. But I wanted to know more. Did they get along, did they respect each other, did they spend holidays together? I wanted to know because the company seemed so polarized and dualistic nature, I wanted to explore that. How does a company get created by a family and then leave this dualistic imprinting in the organization. We are not asked those sorts of questions yet. I was asked something that I felt you could answer by just reading the article. Or maybe I just misunderstood the first question. The third question on that final was interesting. It asked something to the effect of,  if you were hired to be a CEO of one of the companies, pick one, what would you do immediately. Again, I don't have the assignment in front of me, but my solution was for the other company-the company that had a fantastic communication infrastructure in the organization-but just lacked innovation. I went and outlined an educational campaign on how to create innovation and then created a competition to exploit said learning so that it could be applied immediately into practice in order to get the company to actually innovate. I am interested to get comments back on that part as the entire educational campaign for education outlined a 7 part process that I just made up on the spot-but came from years of self study on the matter. I will keep you posted, but the overall final grade I expect will be low B.

My last final was on Financing. Calculating financial information for the financial statements is not my passion. I will leave that to the accountants of the world. However, I love financial footprint analysis and overall analyzing company financial information. I am not sure how I did on that final, but I learned a lot. That makes it worth it.

Once I get my first module grades in, I will let you know. When Paul and Pedro started GEMBA they didn't want to assign grades. They thought it more useful if they provided people with evaluations.Georgetown and ESADE insisted on grades and there you go. I agree with Pedro and Paul. I wish I didn't' have grades. Yet, in saying that, I do find the usefulness in knowing where I am today, and knowing where I can improve in. I expect my grades to raise as the year progresses as I have identified areas already for me to improve in. I am excited for this challenge; I am excited to grow.

With Gratitude,
Elizabeth

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Last day of Module 1!

Eeekkkkk...module one is almost over!!! What?! Just five modules left till graduation. ;)

See you soon Seattle!

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Gratitude

Five things I am grateful for today: 1) slide deck in 2) going to the world bank 3) hometown coffee 4) education 5) sleep in any increment


In 2007, back in MySpace days, I started writing my status update with-
Five things I am Grateful for today: and then started filling in the list for each day.

I stopped once I fully converted over to facebook and deleted my MySpace account and then restarted with Facebook again in 2010.

I don't remember the day I began in 2007, but I do remember the mood. I was drained, emotionally exhausted and felt defeated. I don't remember the cause- maybe it was something simple like the weather-too many grey days in a row in Seattle, or maybe it was something fierce like a broken heart. I have no idea. I remember being in this mood, and turning on PBS (when tv traveled through the air and we didnt have to buy cable).

I started watching a pbs program on either how to be successful in life or how to unlock your happiness or something of this up lifting nature- and one of the keys the program touched on was the Neuroscience of gratitude and how being grateful has the highest impact on your well being and how gratitude aligns you with your success (how ever you define success).

I thought -genius- so simple. I can even do this.

So every day I was on MySpace and now facebook I usually will fill my status update on what I am grateful for. Sometimes my friends follow along and post their own grateful list on their status, sometimes they post their list on my status. Sometimes they just comment on my list- sometimes they say nothing for months and then when i see them they say something or dont- either way-its just there for a reminder of gratitude.

Tonight I got an email from a friend asking me if I would mind if she would start posting her own list on her status... And I replied "Please do!!!" I find it sweet and very silly she asked me - I think she was just being overly polite in asking- as if I own or think that a gratitude list is somehow me or mine. [I got the idea from someone really smart on PBS.] There would be nothing more that would make me happy then a world where all our Facebook statuses read a list of things we were grateful for. The power of gratitude is immense - and I would love to see gratitude flowing out of everyone.

Imagine a world that we were all consciously aware of the things were were grateful for- even starting with water-access to clean water. That thought makes me realizing how lucky I am to be in an area that has a system for delivering fresh drinking water to all my taps in my home- so many people in this world are living with out fresh drinkable water. Something happens inside of me and I get that feeling of gratitude and that immediate reaction of how can I help. In DC there is an art exhibit going on of empty school desks to represent the fact that a high volume (I forget the numbers) of kids dropping out of high school each hour. [due to my school schedule I am missing the art show]- imagine if our high schoolers knew how lucky they are to be educated. Education is not a right in many parts of the world. Some areas- women are not allowed to go to school- or maybe less severe -just discouraged.

What if we were grateful for the stuff we had?

Would we take better care of it?

Would we be more inclined to find solutions for people that don't have access/opportunity?

What if you wrote a list every day- how would you change? Would you change?

The tool of writing down three to five things you are grateful for each day has scientific evidence for improving your life! I encourage you, if you don't already - just try it out. It won't make Seattle sunny but it has for me aligned my life with my priorities and reminds me of my privilege, my responibility, my accountability and my dedication of service to make this world a better place.

Gratitude. The most powerful force for good we got. Truly.

Much love and gratitude,
Elizabeth

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MY GEMBA FAMILY

This is my GEMBA family :)
[I am kinda the where's waldo in this picture-but hey that kinda works for my camera shy personality.]

 A few little fun facts:
We are the 5th Cohort of the GEMBA program. The program is the brain child of Paul Almeida and Pedro Parada. You should google them-they are not only impressive-but also on the cutting edge for executive education - knowledge management and strategy-etc.

In only 14 classes I think I might want to get my PhD in policitcal economic theory.

Understanding Game theory is my summer side project- why wasn't this taught in conjunction with Biochem or Philosophy at Seattle U-I will never understand.

Accountants deserve much more respect in a company.  Business/Operations/RD etc.. are important. but I have a new found deep respect for accountants.  Financial Statement Management is not easy.
I think I have found the connection though between ThermoDynamics and Accounting by comparing the two:

Cash = Liabilities - All other asssets + Stockholders Equity

is the same as

   So G = Cash

U = Liabilities

TS = All other Assets

PV = Stockholders Equity

Once I put this association together, I somehow felt better about accounting class-and all was okay with the world again. Phew.


Sometimes when I go to sleep I hear my classmates accents in my head. I like the way different cultures use tone, pitch and frequency.  It is like little melodies.  I think Seattlelites are monotone in comparison.

Georgetown coffee is not very good and they still use styrofoam cups. I like Seattle's ban against styrofoam for restaurants.
 
I have no idea the most efficient way to write notes-in word-in the power point note section or with paper and pen. I hope to figure this one out by next module. 

I like group projects-it makes me feel like I am actually in school again.  One project is on Danone and understanding their financial statements and drawing conclusions from those. And the other project is on Amrut, an Indian Whisky company, and finding a non market strategy to solve one of their problems.

To prepare for the Amrut presentation we had the Scottish Whisky Association come to Georgetown for a whisky tasting.  I am not a whisky drinker normally, but I had a few sips. ;)  And all I can say is that I could taste a difference between the regions in Scotland-and I don't think I had a favorite.


It is hard for me to sleep-I am so energized being here that I am still trying to find a way to unwind and sleep. I feel like one thought builds on another and another.. and before you know it-I have been traveling the world in my mind looking at these issues and trying to apply them to my past and to then create new things in the future.

So maybe I will just quit there for tonight-before I start dancing with more ideas.

Much Love,
Elizabeth



 

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First week of school!

School has officially started!

Instead of climbing on the bus to go to school, I took the midnight flight out of Seattle to DC. I landed in DC after a layover in Boston around noon on Sunday June 10th. Leaving me a few hours before I met my cohort in the lobby for orientation.

I was nervous. The elevator doors open and there was my first classmate Miquel -with the welcome packet held in hand. He has a PhD in Biochem and works for a large Pharma in Spain. I was immediately relieved- Business school contains my science peeps!

We exited the elevators- and my life had been a blur ever since. A blur compromised of constant motion, colors, sounds, accents, little sleep, and many new friends.

The GEMBA 05 cohort is diverse.
My cohort is 39 people-from over 17 countries-11 are females. Ages range from me at 30 to others that are wise. The companies represented here range from big banks, IT, Pharma, government, world organizations, foundations, media and public relations- large multinational firms, to small private companies. Job titles range from CEO, VP, Directors, Managers with concentrations in all different functions-Finance, Operations, HR, IT, Marketing, R&D, Program Management, etc.

The common thread between each person is the desire for knowledge, wanting and understanding the need for the global perspective, and a true respect for others.

The typical day goes from 9:30am to about 6:00pm, then an evening activity to about 9pm or 11pm and then studying/work till late in the night.

In the DC module we are taking four classes: 1) Business, Government, and the Global Economy 2) Financial Statement Management 3) International Business Management 4)Integrated Course and then we have Special Topics throughout the two weeks.

While we are here we had one paper due, and 2 group projects. After I leave I will have 2 more papers and a take home test that will be due roughly two weeks after I return.

Once I am done with that, I will start my reading for module 2 which will be in Spain in September.

I have so much to do-so that is a simplistic recap for now :) Just know that I am loving learning-my teachers are top notch! I love the diversity of my cohort and enjoy everyone's company and their stories of experience.

I am deeply thankful for this opportunity and feel like I won the lottery because the tools I am gaining is sparking fires inside of me ready to create, connect and facilitate. Temperance. Temperance. Temperance.

Love you & goodnight,
Elizabeth

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Month of May Activities

May of 2012 is a month full of excitement and a month full of first time activities for me...

The most exciting event was on May 12th, when I officiated my best friends wedding, Zachary and Shannon Urban.  They met in 7th grade and were each others first kiss and now will be each others last kiss too. This was the first time I have ever ordained a wedding, and got the crowd to both laugh and cry, I fulfilled my duties. ;)

To get ready for the wedding and grad school, I had to go shopping and get some new clothes.  I have two fashion designers that are my personal stylist, Krystal Wolf and Cameron Levin.  Both of them sent me ideas and fashion tips on what styles to look for, possible stores to visit, color schemes, ideas for outfits, etc.  I have anxiety when it comes to shopping so I enlisted two of the brides best friends, Kelly Rozich and Alexis Smith to come with me to the stores. We were in and out of downtown in less than 3 hours-success!

On May 15th, I helped facilitate the World Affairs Council-Seattle event "Gay Rights as Human Rights" that brought together the Seattle community and international  and local gay rights activists to discuss the importance of Gay Rights as being Human Rights.This issue is very dear to my heart, as I think the abuse that marginalized populations have all over the world for simply being who they are, is inexcusable and that the world needs to protect vulnerable populations.  The first step is to be aware of the issues by joining in on the dialogue and then find how you can contribute to the solutions. 

Tomorrow, May 19th, I will lead a group of volunteers for Seattle Works Day. This is a day that over 1,300 people in Seattle volunteer over 4,000 hours around our city, in either public parks or non profits.  I have volunteered for 6 years now and have lead groups for the past 4 years.  This year, my team will be volunteering and cleaning up Golden Gardens park with over 100 volunteers. I am excited to see what we accomplish.

May 22nd will be my next major event as I am moderating a panel discussion on "Sustainable Science" at the WBBA.  I founded Clean Science in 2008, a group that dialogues about solutions to the waste inherent in Biotech-an industry reliant on sterile, one use products. I heard a statistic that Life Sciences is the largest waste generating industry in the nation. Is it possible to find a way to turn around our waste consumption and become an industry that has zero waste?  My personal goal is to try to make Seattle's Life Science Industry to be zero waste by 2020, and with vendors like Mt. Baker Bio, we may be able to accomplish this. I will keep you posted on how that event goes! Needless to say, I expect it to be inspiring and engaging!

May 24th,  I will be an art judge in this years Washington High School Science Fair- Student Bio Expo.  I have been a judge for a few years now.  The students research a disease or science topic and write an in depth 5 page research paper and then make an art project on their subject.  The kids projects are always intriguing and so creative. As a wannabe artist, I love seeing the youths interpretation of art and science combined.



I will keep you updated on the rest of May!

Elizabeth

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I invite you to follow me on my global educational adventure

Hello!

I hope this finds you well. As you may have already heard, I have been accepted into the Global Executive MBA (GEMBA) program through Georgetown University and ESADE University, and I'll be matriculating this June. This is truly an honor, as only 40 people are accepted globally a year, and out of the 40, only 10 are women. I am the youngest participant accepted, and the only Seattlelite (maybe the only west-coaster too!).

When deciding on which graduate program I would apply for, the options spanned the gamut: Public Health, Neurobiology, Whole System Design. During the time that I was weighing these choices, I was working with Pygmy Survival Alliance (a non-profit that I co-founded with Dr. Karl Weyrauch in 2009). I ended up traveling to Rwanda with the organization, and through a series of events that started on that trip, I was encouraged to apply to the GEMBA program. After much thought, I realized that a Global Executive MBA was exactly the degree I needed. I want to be a leader, someone who takes action, makes decisions, and organizes the best team possible for maximum effectiveness for the issue at hand. I want to sit at the table and have a vote and a voice; to espouse my values, looking out for the interests of people, animals, and the environment. I believe that the GEMBA program will give me the credibility, knowledge and connections to do this.

Sounds great, right?! My school is a part time intensive program that will have me traveling the world. The program consists of six 2-week modules, spread out over 13 months. I will travel and study in Washington DC, Spain, India, China, Brazil, and end the program in New York in July 2013. When I am not traveling, I will be in Seattle working, as my job has so  graciously allowed me to take the time off necessary for this program. I am so thankful for this opportunity, and I can't wait to begin!

I would love it if you would stay connected with me as I embark on this global educational adventure:

• Through email: Elizabeth.scallon@gmail.com, 

• By reading and commenting on my blog: elizabethscallon.blogspot.com

• Or keep an eye on my website: www.elizabethscallon.com

I'm always excited to receive travel tips, introductions to friends and colleagues, and feedback and dialogue on the topics I'm learning and writing about. I hope that you'll stay with me as I grow my network to make deeper connections with the global community.

Thank you so much, I look forward to hearing from you!

Elizabeth Scallon

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